by Megan Minnick, Purchasing Director
This month marks the end of an era. For the last 22 years, the seafood counters at Willy East and Willy West have been run by the Seafood Center, a local fish purveyor with a retail storefront on Whitney Way on Madison’s West Side.
We’ve worked with the Seafood Center so closely for so long that you may not have even realized that they were a separate entity. They truly have become part of the Willy Street Co-op family. However, in January of this year, our two businesses came to the mutual agreement that it is time to part ways. Willy Street Co-op staff have been operating the seafood counter at Willy North ever since that store opened five years ago, and so starting early this month we will say goodbye to the Seafood Center and expand our seafood oversight to Willy West and Willy East.
What does this mean for you?
Consistency
In many ways, there won't be a noticeable change in our seafood offerings. The Seafood Center has done an excellent job of providing high-quality seafood, and we don’t want to mess with that success! We will be working with many of the same vendors, and will make a point to keep stocking as many of our customers’ favorite products as possible.
We’re confident that the variety and freshness of our fish offerings will be on par with what the Seafood Center has provided over the years. However, it’s entirely possible that we’ll miss something. If you notice that your favorite product isn’t available anymore, please let us know and we’ll do what we can to bring it in for you!
With our new oversight over all seafood products at all three stores, for the first time ever we’ll be able to run Co-op-wide Owner Rewards sales on seafood items. We’ll also be able to be more responsive to customer requests for new products, and the hours for the seafood counters will be extended to 8:00am-8:00pm at all three of our stores
Sustainability
We are taking this opportunity to bring the same sustainable seafood standards that we use at Willy North to our other two stores.
Sustainability is important to us in all parts of our business, but nowhere is it more important than in our seafood selection. No part of the food system is as fragile or threatened as our aquatic ecosystems and fisheries. If we are to continue enjoying seafood into the future, it’s imperative that we make sure that the seafood we sell now is farmed and harvested using methods that represent sustainable solutions rather than contributing to the problems of overfishing and environmental degradation.
To this end, we use the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch standards to guide our seafood selection. This is the gold standard for sustainable seafood, using guidelines developed by a Multi-Stakeholder Group that includes members from all areas of the seafood industry as well as academics, scientists, and policy experts.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium program defines sustainable seafood as “....seafood from sources that can maintain or increase production without jeopardizing the structure and function of affected ecosystems.” The standards divide seafood into three different categories: Green (Best Choice), Yellow (Good Alternative), and Red (Avoid). Of these three, we are committed to only selling seafood items that fall into the Green and Yellow categories, which are defined as:
• Green: Best Choice. Seafood rated a Best Choice comes from sources that operate in a manner that's consistent with our guiding principles. The seafood is caught or farmed in ways that cause little or no harm to other wildlife or the environment, and they're managed well.
• Yellow: Seafood rated a Good Alternative comes from sources that align with most of our guiding principles. However, there may be issues that require improvement or significant uncertainty about the impacts on wildlife or the environment.
For more information about the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Standards, visit www.seafoodwatch.org.
We look forward to seeing you at the new Willy Street Co-op seafood counters soon!