Just Ice Tea
I just tried Just Ice Tea in the can (from Willy North) and loved it! The real is made with cane sugar unlike their tea in glass bottles, which is made with honey. I cannot digest honey or agave syrup, so mane of the sweetened beverages you carry are off limits for me. Glad to see it in the grocery aisle and would love to see it in the refrigerator case as well. (I go to all 3 co-op locations)
Thank you for reaching out with your comments about Just Ice Tea. I will mention the different sweeteners they use to our Grocery Managers. We tend to carry their products in glass, but I bet there are quite a few people who would prefer the cane sugar. I appreciate you mentioning it! -Dean Kallas, Grocery Category Manager
Medium Sized Eggs
Not sure if this is available anywhere – I know the previous vendor discontinued their product but if anyone sells medium sized eggs- I appreciated that being available. Thank you.
Thank you for reaching out with your request! I will speak with the Grocery Manager at Willy East and see if we can get some medium eggs in for you. The mediums are usually slower sellers or only seasonally available through some of our local vendors. -Dean Kallas, Grocery Category Manager
Metal Utensils
No to metal utensils. Please bring back the disposal “to go” esp for the on the road. Ok give us the choice – multiple locations for getting etc, Thank you.
Thanks for writing in with your feedback, we are going to bring them back and offer both disposable and metal options! -Nicholas Oconnor, Director of Prepared Foods
Plates & Silverware
Thanks for bringing back plates and silverware!!
You bet! It was long overdue. -Nicholas Oconnor, Director of Prepared Foods
Salad Bar at West
Please bring back greens to salad bar (at West)! I hate having to go to Whole Foods to get a fresh and raw salad. Before Covid, the lunch room was full!
Thank you for the feedback! While we don’t currently have plans to bring it back to our West store at this time. I will keep this in mind as we look at future plans. -Nicholas Oconnor, Director of Prepared Foods
Gluten Free Bread
Fresh GF Breads, buns, and rolls. Willy has only GF bread products. Would love some fresh ones. I love this place.
Thank you for your comment! I do not know of any gluten-free bakeries in the area that are making fresh bread, buns, or rolls. Gluten-free breads can be fairly expensive, and selling them fresh can be costly if you have products going stale. I will speak with the Grocery Manager at Willy North about expanding our gluten-free selection. -Dean Kallas, Grocery Category Manager
NA Beer
Hi, I am so disappointed that you no longer seem to carry the Untitled Art Mango Dragonfruit Sour! It is their only gold medal product, and the only NA beer that I have found to taste good. Please return this product to your lineup, as it is so difficult to find anywhere! Thank you!
Thanks for inquiring about the Untitled Art item you are no longer finding at our stores. Unfortunately, the company who purchased Octopi Brewing, where this product is produced, made the decision to stop producing all Untitled Art NA beers. I share your frustrations, as I think these are some of the best NA beers on the market and they are (were) produced locally. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I hope you have a great week! -Nick Heitman, Meat/Seafood & Specialty Category Manager
Tipi
This message is for Megan Minnick. Thank you for the feature on Tipi Produce! It was my second growing season as Willy Street’s produce buyer when Tipi was born on a ridge above Gays Mills. We grew up together. Organic certification didn’t exist yet. Farmers submitted signed affidavits attesting to their growing practices and agreed to surprise inspections to verify. Since riding my bike in the Driftless Area was (and is) a favorite pastime, I rode out to TIpi to inspect the fields, sheds, barns, and walk-in cooler one day. They passed with flying colors! We’ll miss them and hope one of the kids will see the light and come home to farm.
I reached out to Megan with your comment, and here was her response: “Thanks so much for writing in! What a wonderful memory from the very beginning of our long history with Tipi. Steve and Beth’s produce will indeed be missed on our shelves.” I echo Megan’s sentiment—thanks for sharing your story! We loved reading it and passing it along to the Willy Street Co-op community. -Caitlyn Tompkins, Marketing Manager
New Sales Flyers
The new monthly sale flyers look very nice and I appreciate being able to access all the pages for current sale items on the website. Thank you. But I really miss being able to look at the Reader and see the highlights of specials for the whole month. These used to be items I suspect were common or regular purchases for many shoppers. For me, and perhaps other owners on a budget that look-ahead was integral to my purchase planning for the month—if I saw that there was a substantially better price coming at the end of the month, I’d postpone a purchase, rearrange my menus or conversely, I’d buy ahead. Now that lookahead space appears to be themed: BOGO, Eat Local Month, etc. Will we go back to getting a view of a month’s upcoming specials in the future? Or could the specials for the whole month be made accessible on the website or shopping site? Thanks!
The current system we use won’t allow us to show the next sales cycle’s flyer online, unfortunately. We are going to test out adding both months’ flyers (instead of just the first half of the month) to the print newsletter. If you’re looking at the newsletter online, which it seems like you are, I know that isn’t very helpful. We do have two cycles worth of sales flyers in the stores at all times, but I know that doesn’t help based on how frequently you shop and where your shopping day falls in the cycles—if it’s at the end of one cycle, the next flyer only gets you 2-3 weeks rather than a full month. We’ll continue to work on other options! -Brendon Smith, Marketing & Communications Director
Plastic Produce Bags
Very surprised to find the plastic produce bags inconveniently moved so high I can’t reach them and could be unsafe for elderly customers.
Thank you for reaching out about the height of our bag dispensers. This was a concern that was brought to my attention when we installed the new perimeter coolers back in August of 2025. When we installed the new coolers, there were a few requirements of installation that had to be met in terms of height accessibility, type of dispenser and how they were attached to our new fixtures. Thus, a few bags were hung on the coolers, with more dispensers focused throughout the rest of the department. I have slightly altered the layout of these over time, but we still offer 6 bag dispensers at a lower height. If you are shopping from the large fruit cooler or vegetable cooler and are looking for easy access bags, you can utilize the bag dispenser at the end of the banana table, in between our promo coolers, in between the two large perimeter coolers or the two at our tomato display. I hope this was helpful! -Demeter Brock-Montgomery, Willy East Produce Manager
Jojoba Oil
Hi folks! I was recently recommended jojoba oil for my hair type, but I would prefer to support a business that produces with some degree of ethics.I have no issue paying a little extra, especially since I spend relatively little on hair products to begin with, but since it would likely be used daily, it couldn’t be astronomical. That’s all! Thanks very much in advance for any insight the kindhearted folks at the Co-op may be able to provide.
Thanks for reaching out! I would recommend the Desert Essence 100% Pure Jojoba Oil. Desert Essence is a Certified B Corporation and the jojoba oil is Non-GMO Project verified. The jojoba plants are grown in ‘the golden sand dunes of the Peruvian desert’, but the jojoba oil is manufactured here in the United States. The Desert Essence 100% Pure Jojoba Oil is available in both a 2 fl oz and 4 fl oz bottle, at all three of our stores. It can be found near the essential oils, by the carrier oils. If you give it a try, I hope you like it! -Sara Berg, General Merchandise Category Manager
Compostable Coffee Cup Lids
Lids for coffee are compostable though there is no place to put them in the store. Don’t see why paper cups could not join them in another container. Perhaps others see this problem. Perhaps others see the need for a conservation club locally.
Thank you for bringing this up. Yes, this is something that has been on my radar and I’m currently trying to find a solution for. We don’t have any way to compost things in this area, making it quite a problem for us when we’re trying to do a good thing. I’ve sent this issue to our Sustainability committee already and am waiting to hear back. -Nicholas Oconnor, Director of Prepared Foods
Hot Water
Could we get tea bags and hot chocolate packets please with a hot water pot. I’m not a coffee drinker. I love coming in and sitting after my walk and would like some tea & hot chocolate. Thank you, I LOVE my COOP!
What a fun suggestion! One issue we’re always running into with this area is space. There’s never enough space in this area for all the things we want to offer. That said, I will look into this and see if we can make room.-Nicholas Oconnor, Director of Prepared Foods
