Main Menu

Everyone Welcome - Click to see Locations and Hours

Shop Online

We Know We Must Do Better and Be Better

UPDATED ON 9/24/21
 
We’d like to provide an update to the statement we issued yesterday.
 
We feel that we are close to having sufficient information to conclude our investigation, but we anticipate that we will need to continue efforts into next week. It continues to be of utmost importance to us and our primary focus. We are diligently reviewing all video camera footage from the store and interviewing staff and potential witnesses.
We can and would terminate the employment of a staff member for just cause due to gross misconduct, and the discriminatory comments the customer recounted certainly do meet those criteria. In order to take that action, we must complete a careful and thorough investigation following proper procedures. We do not intend to respond to this incident simply by providing training for the individual(s) involved and for all other Co-op staff. The training we mention was already planned for all staff as a Co-op-wide initiative and, as one of several steps we will take in response to this incident, we are now expediting it for East staff.
 
We will continue to provide updates, and appreciate your patience as we do this work.
 

 

POSTED ON 9/23/21
Dear Owners,

On Monday September 20, a customer reported being the subject of verbal aggressions on the basis of race and socioeconomic status while she was getting food from the Deli at our store located in the Williamson Street neighborhood. To learn more about the details about the incident as reported by the customer, refer to the Madison365 article about it. We took immediate action to investigate this customer experience while simultaneously expressing our regret and apology to the customer. 

We are continuing to investigate this incident and will work with the appropriate parties internally including union leadership to address the inappropriate behavior. That kind of behavior from a staff member is unacceptable and will not be tolerated at any of our sites.

Our leadership team has been hard at work to ensure our work environment is welcoming to everyone, and this incident reaffirms our commitment to the work we began a year ago with Step Up: Equity Matters. We have initiated discussions with the Step Up team to accelerate the uprooting bias and microaggressions training at the store where the incident took place. Simultaneously we will review our employee policies, onboarding process, and union contract to ensure our behaviors at all levels reflect the values and principles we have established as an organization, which includes firmly standing against discrimination and profiling of any type. Further, we will be evaluating whether we need to enhance the mechanisms in place to hold people accountable for their behavior.

Additionally, we assert our commitment to create a welcoming culture for all our Owners, customers, and staff. We recognize the incident our customer experienced on Monday is not isolated and these experiences are far too frequent and unacceptable in our community as a whole. We hope our Owners, customers, and employees can enjoy the fruit of the work we have been doing and will continue to do until these experiences are eradicated from our stores and our community. 

We know we must do better and be better. 

Anya Firszt, General Manager