Write Us!
We welcome your comments and give each one attention and serious consideration. Send them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or fill out a Customer Comment form in the Owner Resources area. Each month a small selection is printed in the Reader; publication does not necessarily indicate an endorsement of views stated in a customer’s original comment. Many more comments can be found in the commons or in the binder near Customer Service. Thank you!
STAYING ACTIVE
Q: I live out of town and haven’t made it to Madison in awhile. I think I have seen that if someone doesn’t shop at the store often enough , the the coop terminates their membership. What can I do to keep my membership active - or what is the timeline that I need to shop to remain a member? Thanks.
A: Thank you for reaching out about your Owner account! It looks like the last time you shopped on your account was February of 2023. After 3 years of inactivity the account goes into abandonment. At that time we attempt to reach the Owner of the account at the last address we have on file to alert them. Your account has only been inactive for 1 year at this point so it will not go into abandonment for a couple more years. In order to keep your Ownership active all you need to do is make a purchase on your account.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions. Have a great day! -Rosalyn Murphy, Owner Records Administrator
BULK DATE PIECES
Q: Willy East doesn’t carry date pieces in bulk anymore. Can I get them at North or West? Is there a chance they’ll come back? If not, do you know where I can get them?
A: I hope your week is going well! Thanks for your questions! Our Kitchen is not packing these anymore for our stores, so the small bags of them are going away. I am sorry they are not available for you. We are looking for some packaged substitutes, but unfortunately the smallest I have found through our distributors is this 5 lb package from Country Life (www.countrylifefoods.com).
Thank you for reaching out and letting us know what you are booking for in our stores! -Dean Kallas Grocery Category Manager
IN PRAISE OF CO-OP CASHIERS
Q: I love Willy St Co-op cashiers whether they say thank you or not. They treat me good, Kind, calm, and patient. Thank you.
A: Thanks for letting us know your positive feedback—we really appreciate it! It is so wonderful to hear when Owners enjoy our kind, calm, and patient cashiers! Thanks for taking the time to write in to express your positivity.
Thanks for being a loyal Owner with us! Cheers,
Kristina Kuhaupt, Customer Experience Manager
INGREDIENT LISTS, PART I
Q: Hi there! We have multiple members in our family with severe food allergies and we would love to be able to take advantage of your premade food to-go options. However, although ingredients are listed it takes too much time to read through a long list of small-printed ingredients (especially with two toddlers running about). We need to be incredibly careful with double checking ingredients, and it would help immensely if the top 9 common allergens were listed at the very bottom of the ingredient list. Thank you so much for considering a change to how you label premade food, from all of us with food restrictions :)
A: Thanks for writing and expressing your thoughts on the matter. I know the struggles of shopping with a toddler as well haha!
Our current practice is to use ALL CAPS for the nine major allergens when they’re included in a recipe. A reason for not including them at the bottom is that our labels are small and we would essentially be duplicating the number of characters. It can be tough to add everything we want on such a small label and still stay compliant with the health department and Weights & Measures.
That said, I am working on a project that includes auditing how our labels are laid out. I will explore your suggestion as a possibility and see what we can do to make this happen. Best regards, Nicholas OConnor, Prepared Foods & Cheese Category Manager
WELLNESS COUPON
Q: Bring back the 10% wellness coupon to be used 1x month (happened during COVID) as opposed to the 1st Wed of the month. I cannot get to the Co-op on Wednesdays so I cannot utilize this benefit. Thanks.
A: Thanks for taking the time to write to us! The 10% off coupon was intended to be a short term solution for us during some of the heavier days of the pandemic and is not a sustainable way for us to offer this owner benefit. We’ll be sticking with the first Wednesday of the month option for now but will certainly keep this feedback for the future! Thanks, -Liz Muñoz, Director of Purchasing
PLASTIC BAG RECYCLING
Q: Hello! I am wondering if the co-op can add a plastic bag recycling location like many of the other grocery stores around Madison. It seems like a great win/win to support the co-ops values and get more business (we sometimes go to other stores just because they offer plastic bag recycling and Willy St. doesn’t). Thanks in advance!
A: Unfortunately we do not have the labor resources or space to collect and recycle plastic bags from our customers. None of our current waste handlers will accept these materials in the quantities we would end up with and we don’t have an alternate handler that will take them.
Several years ago our East store was a collection site for the City of Madison’s plastic bag recycling program but we discontinued collecting plastic bags when the City discontinued that program.
Here are a couple local household recycling information resources:
- www.cityofmadison.com/streets/recycling/plasticbag.cfm
- From the City of Middleton recycling guide: “Plastic bags can be recycled at the Middleton Recycling Center (4330 Parmenter St. Middleton, WI 53562).” Also accepted as part of their WRAP Recycling Program: Plastic retail bags, food storage bags, produce bags, dry cleaning bags, case wrap, bread bags, air pillow packaging, paper products wrap. See cityofmiddleton.us/420/RecyclingCenter.
-Jim Jirous, Facilities Director
BERRY EXPENSIVE MULBERRIES
Q: Why are dried mulberries so expensive? They grown wild in people’s yards around here!
A: Hope your week is going well, and thank you for your comment and question! I am not familiar with any local companies selling dried Wisconsin mulberries, although mulberry trees are for sale. Do you have any sources? The organic ones we sell come from far away unfortunately. They are a bit pricey for sure. I appreciate your feedback! Have an excellent day! -Dean Kallas, Grocery Category Manager
INGREDIENT LISTS, PART II
Q: 1.) Listing of ingredients while helpful would be improved by capitalizing the primary ingredients. For example CORNED BEEF, beef, water, sea salt BABY SWISS (pasteurized)
2.) The corned beef reuben sandwich is delicious and temperature hot when I eat it. The chipolte mayo obscures the flavors of the corned beef, sauerkraut, the baby swiss, the flavor of the filling in the sandwich. At least offer it with and without.
A: My name is Nicholas, I am the Prepared Foods & Cheese Category Manager for Willy Street Co-op. I received your customer comment about ingredients on our labels and the corned beef reubens at Willy East.
Our current convention for how our ingredients appear on the label is to capitalize the major allergens in the product so that with a quick scan a customer that is not able to consume something safely is able to identify it immediately. I will take this feedback and consider it for the future when I revisit our rules for ingredient listing in the future.
As for our Corned Beef Reubens Sandwich, I have put in a request with my Communications team to create a new sign that notes that this sandwich is spicy so people won’t be surprised by the presence of the chipotle. That said, we have not changed our recipe from how we’ve been preparing it for years, I’ve confirmed that with both our managers at our East store, so if you’re a repeat buyer of this sandwich I apologize that what you received was different than normal. We had two or three other comments recently mentioning the spicy quality of this and one other sandwich we serve that uses the same chipotle peppers as an ingredient.
Our best guess about this uptick in comments is that our peppers came to us spicier than before, this can happen from time to time when peppers are grown and harvested sometimes batches are hotter than usual. For that reason I will be checking in with our managers about possibly reducing the chipotle in the recipe for our chipotle mayo and see if it needs to be temporarily reduced. It may be that we’ve already worked through the stock that is already hot, but it’ll be good to check just to be sure.
Thanks for writing and letting us know about your experience! Best, Nicholas OConnor, Prepared Foods & Cheese Category Manager
SOGGY SALAD BAR BEETS
Q: I love your salad bar, however not loving the “soggy, wet” shredded beets. I have been told that many of the cut veggies do need to be kept in ice (for freshness sake) which then melts- leaving celery, radishes, etc “swimming”. Until recently the beets had not been wet, but on my most recent trip to the Co-op, even the beets have been treated this way, Not as appealing or appetizing - not to mention the loss of nutrients when they are “wet”. Thanks for taking the time to consider possibly changing your methods on the salad bar, for the cut veggies... especially the beets.
A: Thank you so much for taking the time to write in with a customer comment as well as for your concern with the quality of the veggies on our salad bar. It is true that we do keep the radish and celery in water on the salad bar to keep them fresh and to stop them from getting discolored. We don’t actually keep them on ice, they are just stored in cold water. It is not, however, our practice to keep any of the other veggies in water. I’m very sorry that you came in to find the beets submerged. I’m not really certain just why that happened, but I do want to assure you that this isn’t our regular practice.
Thank you so much for the feedback. I’ll be sure and remind everybody that only the radish and celery need to be submerged in cold water while on the salad bar. Gratefully, Bob Smith, Willy East Deli Manager
RECIPE REQUEST
Q: I thoroughly enjoyed the maple roasted root vegetables and roast red onion sweet potato spinach at the hot bar this afternoon. Delicious! I just learned of the cooking classes, which, I want to sign up for. Is it possible to request a recipe or two for a cooking class? I always find something to enjoy at your food bar. That’s not easy due to my restricted diet. Thank you for making healthy and delicious food available!
A: Thanks for writing in with your comments! The prepared foods team is thrilled to hear you enjoyed the maple roasted root vegetables and red onion sweet potato dish!
I’m happy to hear you’ve discovered our classes! We provide the recipes for each class you register for, and you’ll leave the class with a printed copy to bring home. If there are any particular topics or themes you’d like to see, please let me know, and we’ll work with our instructors to develop these classes. Best, Liz Hawley, Education and Outreach Coordinator