by Brendon Smith, Marketing & Communications Director
As a consumer cooperative, Willy Street Co-op is owned by the 33,000+ people who shop at our stores. Determining how well we’re meeting the needs of these Co-op Owners requires multiple methods. The Owner Survey we conducted in February of this year—along with customer comment forms, emails, questions and comments on social media, customer experience surveys issued to random customers at our registers, and conversations in the stores—help us measure how well we’re doing and tell us what areas need improvement.
The Co-op’s Owner & Community Engagement workgroup—one of three workgroups that was created through our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work with Step Up: Equity Matters—is analyzing the results specifically to help in improving diversity and inclusion among Owners and between the Co-op and the communities around our stores. The current goals of this workgroup are:
- Our customers reflect the demographics of the communities we serve
- The Co-op is a place where our community participates and is proud to shop;
Now that you have some context for the survey, let’s dive into the results.
WE LOVE YOU TOO!
First I wanted to acknowledge the huge amount of love, support, and appreciation that we saw in the results, both for the Co-op overall and for the Co-op staff. I focus on the constructive criticism in this article because we want to be responsive and to make improvements, but the many kind words in there brought a tear or two to my eye. Thank you.
HOW WE PROVIDE CO-OP INFORMATION
The Co-op Reader and emails are the two most important ways that you want to get info, followed by in-store postings and the Co-op website. A notable portion of Owners (30%) never check Co-op social media, where we post frequent updates (along with the website for more important announcements). Based on this feedback, we will be developing some additional email notifications that Owners can sign up for, including email (and possibly text) notifications when a store needs to close unexpectedly or will have atypical hours of operation. Our new website will also have a section showing recent Facebook and Instagram, providing an easy way to skim what we’re posting about.
The majority of respondents (68%) are satisfied or very satisfied with the frequency and content of our communication. Under 10% are at least somewhat unsatisfied with content and 5% are at least somewhat unsatisfied with frequency. In fiscal year 2023 (roughly July 2022 through June 2023), 96% of customer comments received a response from Co-op staff, management, and/or Board members. If you’d like to get more information about something Co-op-related or would like information in another way, please let us know and we’ll see what we can do!
WHAT WOULD LEAD YOU TO SHOP THE CO-OP MORE?
Owners told us that lower-priced products, improved product selection/variety, and increased selection of local products were the top things that would lead them to shop the Co-op more.
Since February, we’ve added more products to our Co-op Basics program, which is our set of quality staple products at everyday low prices for all shoppers. The Basics program now has around 200 total products. We’ve also been adding lower-priced products in sections where there hadn’t previously been such an option, we’re going to continue to do this wherever we are able. Earlier this year we expanded our Owner Rewards program to include sales in our Deli. Every week we have a sale on a Willy Street Co-op-made juice, sandwich, soup, or packaged salad.
We’ve been able to expand our Deli Grab & Go options as well as offerings in the meat and seafood departments at all three stores over the past few months. At Willy East we added many new products during the remodeling project last year; we are continuing to work on and expand the product selection in the grocery aisles. At Willy West this summer we were able to create new merchandising space and add a few new coolers which has allowed us to grow product selection across many categories.
We’ve always had a focus on locally made, locally grown, and locally harvested products. It's no surprise that Owners are looking for more local products, and sourcing local products remains a priority to us. Shortly before we launched the survey, we updated our new vendor application to make it easier for vendors to use and to have a place where vendors can indicate if they would be a local vendor—naturally being a local vendor provides them extra consideration in our evaluation process! Since the survey we have already brought in 14 new local vendors! One of our new local vendors supplies the bulk aisle with dried beans, and we’ll be able to offer a lower price on these than our current non-local offering!
MISSION & VISION
The majority of respondents (71%) think we live up to our mission/vision qualities well or very well. (You can see our Mission and Vision below above question 4.) The suggestion that came up most frequently was to consider what could be done to make prices more accessible for low-income shoppers. To be candid, we don’t see much that we can do in this area, at least right now, beyond what we’re already doing.
At the risk of mentioning some things many of you may already know, we offer an Access Ownership program, where Owners who qualify for financial assistance can make smaller Ownership payments and receive a 10% discount on everything in the store. We also offer Double Dollars at the register on Tuesdays mid-October through mid-March, which can provide up to $20 in vouchers that can be used for fresh, frozen, or canned fruit and vegetables. You can find links to these and other resources at the end of this article.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
Fifty-six percent of respondents say we prioritize DEI well or very well. Nine percent say we prioritize it somewhat poorly or worse. The primary concern mentioned was that our staff and our customers are not reflective of the neighborhoods of our stores. Our analysis confirms this discrepancy. In the last two years we have been taking deliberate actions to attract and retain more diverse employees and customers, and our analysis also confirms that diversity is increasing, albeit at a rate slower than we find acceptable. We have implemented some major DEI-related improvements in the last six months, including:
- Examining and revising a number of Co-op policies and procedures with a DEI lens (including our Inclusive Environment Policy, the Owner Name at Registers policy, and offering the option of accessibility accommodations for Co-op classes)
- Our Inclusive Trade initiative, which highlights vendors from historically under-represented groups. (See willystreet.coop/inclusive-trade for more information.)
- Creating a calendar of “recognition occasions” such as Black Business Month, Disability Pride Month, and Women’s Equity Day so that we can share information, events, and resources about them on our website and social media but also on our staff intranet.
- A store accessibility audit from Access to Independence and work to address identified problems.
- Establishing DEI-related metrics and benchmarks for employees, Owners/customers, and vendors on our DEI Dashboard.
SOCIAL ISSUES TO PRIORITIZE
Local/sustainable agriculture and sustainable food/product packaging/recycling were by far the top two social issues that Owners wanted us to prioritize, and addressing local hunger problems was third. Thanks to this feedback, we will prioritize sponsorship and donation requests that fundraise or advocate for these activities. We will continue to bring in products from local farms using sustainable agriculture as we are able, and we will continue to be a major supporter of FairShare CSA Coalition. Your Co-op contacted our governmental representatives to advocate for sustainable and equitable practices for the Farm Bill, including the Local Farms and Food Act, the Justice for Black Farmers Act, and the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act.
The pandemic was a temporary setback for sustainable packaging—consumers around the country preferred packaged product to hot bars or salad bars (and sometimes those self-serve options weren’t even allowed), and packaging costs increased. As we’ve reported in previous newsletters, interest in our bulk products has been steadily declining over the last five years—shopping the bulk aisle is a great way for customers to support less packaging. We are required to offer a free container option for our bulk products, and are exploring sustainable yet affordable alternatives to the single-use plastic bags.
To help address local hunger problems, we will continue to collect food for, donate to, and sponsor events for our five food pantry partners, and donate unsold Grab & Go items to the Social Justice Center. Recently we’ve sponsored Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center’s Fete de Marquette, the WayForward Resources Chip In to End Hunger, and River Food Pantry’s Sips & Slices event, all of which raise funds to help their food pantry programs. Customer donations via our food donation shelves and direct donations from the Co-op have resulted in over 33,395 pounds of food going from our stores to those food pantry partners. The Double Dollars distribution season is starting again, and we’ll continue to work on ways to grow and expand the Double Dollars program in conjunction with community partners.
Donation and sponsorship requests that help one or more of the three social causes mentioned above will now get priority consideration.
ENGAGING WITH THE BOARD
Board articles in the Reader are the #1 way Owners want to hear from the Board, and the Board will continue to provide updates on their work in their newsletter report. If you’re interested, you can also attend most Board meetings or read Board minutes if you’d like. If you’d like to get more involved in your Co-op, you can apply to serve on a committee or run for a seat on the Board of Directors.
WHY YOU’RE AN OWNER
The two primary reasons that Owner Survey respondents said that they are Owners of Willy Street Co-op are to support local food growers and to support a local grocer—even above Owner benefits like Owner-only sales and discounts.
Supporting local food growers and makers is a key focus of your Co-op, so it’s gratifying to hear that’s why so many Owners joined and support the Co-op. We’ll continue to add more local vendors and do more to support them as we’re able.
Walmart owns just over 25% of the grocery market share in the U.S. per a 2023 study by consumer research firm Numerator. Grocery mergers and acquisitions continue, with a Kroger-Albertsons merger likely to result in a U.S. market share percentage in the high teens. That means that well over a third of all grocery store purchases will be at a Walmart- or Kroger-owned store. National and multinational chains are not responsive or accountable to the towns their stores are in like independent grocers are, particularly grocery cooperatives. Willy Street Co-op is owned and governed by those who join and use its services. We are here to serve you; profits don’t go to a private owner or shareholders or a CEO—they get shared with staff, returned to Owners, reinvested in the business, and/or donated to charitable causes.
Shopping at a local store that sells local products also keeps more money in our community. Civic Economics studied the local economic return from independent businesses and found that on average 48% of revenue from independent businesses like ours is recirculated locally. This is compared to chain retailers, who recirculate only 13.6% of their revenues in the localities where they do business. When you shop local products at your local Co-op, even more of your money is recirculated locally. The nonprofit New Economics Foundation says, “A higher proportion of money re-spent in the local economy means a higher multiplier effect because more income is generated for local people. More income retained locally, or nationally, means more jobs, higher pay and more tax revenue for government needs, all of which may lead to better living standards.” So when you spend locally, you’re recirculating that money locally, and then the local people you paid recirculate that money locally, and the impact of that money within the local community multiplies.
THANK YOU!
Thank you to all who filled out our survey. One of the primary ways in which cooperatives are different from other businesses is that we exist to serve our Owners, not shareholders or private business owners. To better serve our Owners, we need to know how we’re doing, and this survey is one tool we use to know where we need to make improvements.
