Grocery Delivery
I just received my 2nd grocery delivery from you and I want to tell you what a pleasure it all is. When I’ve ordered from non-co-op stores I generally get too many plastic bags, etc. Your packers are the best!! And cardboard boxes-I-could cry for joy. So much thought goes into this. While I miss being in the store myself, I still get the great vibes.
Thank you so much for your feedback! Our team does work hard to ensure that customers have a great experience shopping with us, regardless of if they’re physically in the store, or not! I’m glad you noticed, I will pass your feedback along to the team. Have a great rest of your day! Laura Shorey Montgomery, North Front End Assistant Manager–E-Commerce
Erythritol
Erythritol : this ingredient is in the stevia packet. Can you consider changing to a different product that doesn’t have this ingredient?
Thank you so much for taking the time to point this out to us. We have made the change to using SweetLeaf brand stevia packets instead of what we were using. Erythritol is not an ingredient in the SweetLeaf stevia packets. Gratefully, Bob Smith, East Deli Manager
Bird-friendly Coffee
I’m writing to see if you would consider adding some “bird friendly” coffee. Smithsonian has a certification process for growers that produce coffee with bird-friendly practices, primarily shade grown coffee that allows birds to exist in the plantation and doesn’t use pesticides. I haven’t seen any certified beans for sale at the coop (perhaps I’ve missed it), but I would would love it if you would consider carrying some. There’s a list of producers at the Smithsonian website: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/migratory-birds/buy-bird-friendly-coffee-online. Please give this some consideration. Thank you
I am sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you, but I was checking in with a couple of the coffee companies we work with.. Apologies for the delay. Thank you for your comments about us carrying bird friendly coffee!! The question of shade-grown coffees came up in the recent past and I checked in with a few of the coffee companies we work with about it. I think Equal Exchange had the most thorough response and it was insightful for me, so I am going to share it with you: “The Shade Grown movement was born out of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and, as the name implies, the goal is to incentivize the protection of shade cover for coffee and the preservation of habitat for migratory birds. In coffee-growing regions, shade trees and various types of crops and plant-life are an important part of the ecosystem for birds and pollinators.
“Equal Exchange’s coffee is not certified Shade Grown or Bird Friendly. That said, we work with many producers whose coffee farms have partial or full shade. In fact, some of our partners grow their crops in biosphere reserves or cloud forests! While the Shade Grown and Bird Friendly certifications are appropriate for some growers, they come with costs. We don’t believe it provides sufficient additional benefits to ask our producer partners to go through this process on top of the fair trade and organic standards they are already meeting. It’s important to note that both organic and fair trade standards have environmental components that cover much of what shade-grown certification requires. It is also a core belief at Equal Exchange that focusing on certifications alone belies the important, transformational work that can be done in direct partnerships with farmers in a truly alternative, cooperative supply chain outside of traditional commercial avenues. For example, many of the projects funded through our Donor Advised Fund and Cooperative Development Project grants are aimed to assist farmer cooperatives in their efforts to renovate (replant) farms and increase crop diversity, all of which also increase local biodiversity.”
I hope this helps illustrate the complexity of the different coffee certifications that are available and how they can overlap. Many plantation-style coffee growers grow their coffee without shade. We try our best to source coffee that is not plantation-grown, but it is hard to tell where some brands source their beans.
I appreciate you reaching out and letting us know what you are looking to buy at our stores!! Have a wonderful week!! Dean Kallas, Grocery Category Manager
A Lovely Lunch
Today I tried the potato pancakes from the hot bar and I was very happy! I love a good potato pancake and yours ranks right up there. The cakes are well seasoned (I could even taste a hint of pepper), have onions, and the potatoes still have texture. The best part is they aren’t greasy! Sometimes they really can soak up oil. The seasoning matched well with my applesauce. First time I tried them and I hope to find them again.Thank you Willy Street West for a lovely lunch.
Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to give us such thoughtful feedback on the Potato Pancakes! We also feel that they are a fantastic addition to our hot bar, and are actively looking at ideas for making them available more often. We really appreciate having you as a loyal customer here at the Willy Street West Co-op, and look forward to bringing you more new and delicious items in our Deli! I hope you have a great day! -Pete Silver, West Deli Manager
Less Plastic
More herbs/ salads/ fruit that are not in plastic clamshells.
Thanks for sharing your concern regarding plastic use in the Produce department. It’s a concern shared by many of our Owners, and something we are continually working on!
Plastic use is a hot topic in the produce industry as a whole. The packaging industry is continually working on developing new, eco-friendly packaging for growers and packers. We sometimes see figs, berries, and cherry type tomatoes packaged in ReadyCycle containers, a waxed paper “clamshell” that replaces the typical plastic clamshell. Additionally, many of the plastic clamshells you’ll find in the produce department are PLA plastics, made from renewable energy sources such as corn, cassava, or sugar cane. In addition to paper bags, we offer customers bags made from recycled ocean plastic and compostable PLA bags for their produce purchases. We also do our best to offer a bulk option for most of the packaged items we offer. We offer bulk and bagged apples, citrus, potatoes, salad mix, spinach, crimini mushrooms, carrots, and onions so that our Owners can choose the option that is right for them. If you’re interested in knowing more about our efforts to reduce plastic use you can see them on our website: https://www.willystreet.coop/pages/plastic-use-at-the-co-op. Thanks again! Andy Johnston, Produce Category Manager
Native Plants at East
Just want to say a big loud THANK YOU for the native plantings in the East side parking area! I look forward to seeing them when I come to the Co-op, the indigo, milkweed, purple coneflower, sedge and switch grass (not sure if the grass species – could be drop seed) They are like friends to me, connecting me to the land and this place, Thank you again.
Thank you for writing about the native planting in our East parking lot. I too am very fond of the native choices that our Facilities team has chosen for the islands and the gardens. I find myself walking by them to enjoy them and see what bugs, insects, and bees are feasting on the beautiful bounty. I think you are correct, the grasses are prairie dropseed. Enjoy the rest of the growing season! -Amanda Ikens, Owner Resources Coordinator
Emailed Receipts
I always have my receipts emailed to me instead of printing them out. I shopped yesterday at West and didn’t receive a receipt through email. In fact, the last receipt I received was from 9/11, and I know I was at Willy West on 9/12. Did something change with the system you use to send emails? Thanks!
Thank you for your question! This is unfortunately an issue with email providers, not our system. Gmail especially has increased/updated their security, and it is causing our emails to be sent to Trash or Spam. Here is the guide that our IT department has developed to hopefully help resolve this for folks. Unfortunately outside of this we don’t have a solution for the issue since it’s not coming from us. If it helps, I have Gmail and my receipts were being sent straight to Trash which made it impossible to search for them. I just had to teach my account to accept emails from @willystreet.coop. I hope this is helpful, but don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.-Rosalyn Murphy, Board Executive Assistant/Owner Records Administrator
Long Articles
I really appreciated the 3 long articles, this issue 9, on pages 17, 19, and 22. They were very interesting, well researched article on current issues. I prefer these kinds of articles to the recipes as the recipes were taking up valuable space. Eat Local education at it’s finest. Thanks for making the change. Many of us hope there are fewer recipes in the future and more current topics.
Thank you for sharing your feedback! We are working on more consistently publishing articles about current issues, although we still get requests for us to include recipes, so we’ll occasionally include those as well—let’s do both! I will pass along your feedback to the article writers and the newsletter editor, which I’m sure will encourage them all to keep producing timely articles in the future! -Brendon Smith, Marketing & Communications Director
