Write us!
We welcome your comments and give each one attention and serious consideration. Send them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or fill out a Customer Comment form in the Owner Resources area. Each month a small selection is printed in the Reader; publication does not necessarily indicate an endorsement of views stated in a customer’s original comment. Many more comments can be found in the commons or in the binder near Customer Service. Thank you!
PLASTIC-FREE BODYCARE
Q: Refill station for shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap, dish soap. I am trying to shop w/o plastic. it is impossible I am forced by the market to be complicit in general please start to pressuring businesses to not use plastic.
A: I received your request for shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap, and dish soap refill stations at our stores. Unfortunately, due to low sales volume and low demand, combined with spatial constraints, we do not offer refill shampoo or conditioner at any of our locations. I am not sure which store you regularly shop at, but our East site does currently offer refill laundry soap and dish soap in the bulk aisle.
Although we won’t be able to offer any additional liquid refill stations I can provide suggestions of some other great products that we do carry that are plastic free.
We have a number of shampoo bars: HiBAR, Moon Valley Organics, LuSa Organics, Four Elements, J.R. Liggetts, and Acure.
A few options for conditioner bars: HiBAR and SunLeaf Naturals.
For Dish Soap: Lusa Dish Soap Bar.
Laundry: There is a boxed powdered option by BioKleen available at all stores. We have an option at both East and West for laundry strips which are liquidless detergent. And at North and West we also have Ecos Laundry pods!
I hope some of these options will be helpful to you! Thanks for reaching out to us! -Liz Muñoz, Director of Product
PURITY OF CO-OP SUPPLEMENTS
Q: I wanted to ask with the supplements that the Co-op bottles and sells, is there 3rd party testing or any verification of purity? I’d love to get everything local but try to shop with supplements that have such testing. Thanks!
A: Yes, the manufacturer that produces our private label supplements partners with a leading third party for testing and inspection to ensure the highest quality dietary supplements. Thanks for reaching out with your question! Be well. -Sara Berg, General Merchandise Category Manager
THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING CARTS
Q: Carts are disappearing. I see them all around the northeast side of Madison. Go to the Aldi’s model of carts. Please have more sales on bulk items.
A: Thanks for writing in and giving us your feedback! You’re right—our carts do disappear! However, we do our best to collect them on a weekly basis from the surrounding area. If you happen to spot a cart left in one place for an extended period, don’t hesitate to contact the store. We’ll be glad to retrieve it during our next collection
Our Bulk department offers competitive pricing, which limits our ability to have reguar or substantial sales in this department. Keep an eye out for our week-long bulk sales that occur a few times a year. -Danelle Mankowski Assistant Store Director
REFRIGERATED NUTS
Q: Putting nuts in a refrigerated space. I bought Brazil nuts and they were rancid. Nuts often go rancid and need to be stored in the refrigerated space to last longer. Is there a way to have at least some nuts stored in a refrigerated space? (Almonds, cashews, walnuts, Brazil nuts).
A: I am sorry for such a terrible experience! I hope you’ve had a chance to get credited for your product. If not, let me know and I can reach out to our Customer Service to get that set up.
Historically, it looks like Brazil nuts have been turning at a pace we have not had such an issue reported to us. We typically carry only one case in backstock at a time to keep rotation as fresh as possible. It does appear sales have slowed but not too drastically. We no longer have the case the Brazil nuts (in the gravity bin) came in. So we are unable to investigate that.
At the current time we are not able to sell them in a refrigerated state. But we have moved our one case of backstock to our backstage cooler area to help preserve freshness moving forward.
Again, I am so sorry. Thank you very much for reaching out to us so we can investigate and make changes. Please if you have any further questions or comments, feel free to email me back at this address. -Jason Zabinski, Willy East Grocery Manager
SALAD BAR & CINNAMON
Q: My hope is that you’ll bring back the salad bar @ Willy North and cinnamon at the coffee stand. Thank you.
A: Unfortunately, sales on the salad bar at north never really took off or made it feasible to run it there. Sales for this service were not able to cover the cost of food we put on there. We decided about two years ago that North would not offer the salad bar anymore. In lieu of a salad bar, we expanded our packaged salad options and now offer: red chili tofu (vegan), spinach (vegan), Caesar (vegetarian), Greek (vegetarian), Ranchero (vegetarian), sweet kale with chicken, and Cobb salads. If there’s another salad you think might be nice as a packaged salad offering, please let me know, and we can consider a new salad option! As for the cinnamon on the coffee station, I have asked our North team to please add that back. Thanks for writing in. -Nicholas OConnor, Prepared Foods & Cheese Category Manager
NA BEER & WINE PLACEMENT
Q: Please consider placing the n/a beer & wine outside where the tonic water is. For people trying to avoid alcohol...it’s difficult to walk past all the alcohol to get to your n/a stock. Thanks.
A: Last spring we decided to expand our n/a offerings as the current size of the set was not adequate to support growing sales. There just wasn’t enough room anywhere else in the store though to fit what we were looking to do and keep it near alcohol where it is merchandised at other retail locations. We also couldn’t incorporate tonic and mixers into the area as it would limit our ability to expand offerings. I understnd why it is hard for some people to shop its current locations and that was considered in our planning. We do keep a selection of Lagunitas Hop Water, HOP WTR, Siren Shrub Sparkling Shrubs, and Fair State Hop Water brands in aisle 2 at the moment. You can also call the store before a shopping trip and ask that we hold another item you may be looking for so that you don’t have to enter the alcohol department. -Nate Groth, Willy North Grocery Manager
BRUSSELS SPROUTS & LEMONADE
Q: The brussel sprout au gratin is DELICIOUS! Thanks. Also is the [Willy East] lemonade dispenser done for the season?
A: We are so happy that you enjoyed the au gratin Brussels sprouts, I shared your comment with our staff. It is always great to get feedback on the new dishes that we make. As for the lemonade from the dispenser in the Willy East Deli, it is done for the season. But it should be back for next summer. I really enjoyed it too!! Thanks again, Amanda Ikens, Owner Resources Coordinator
MILK MYSTERY
Q: The Sassy Cow organic milk doesn’t have the green USDA certified organic mark, why is that? Also, I happened to have a chance to compare the one gallon milk bottle between the Sassy Cow Organic milk and Organic Valley one gallon milk. I found that Sassy cow one gallon milk bottle holds about 1/2 cup less milk than the Organic Valley one. Could you please find out why that is?
A: I hope you are having a great week. Thank you for your questions and comments!! I reached out to the owner of Sassy Cow to find out the answer to your organic seal question.
Here is his response to the question about the USDA organic certified seal:
“There is one company that makes 90% of all the caps in the country for milk containers. Last year they stopped doing the labeled caps with stickers and would only do printed label caps. The USDA printed label is the same but their print quality has not been the strongest. We are trying to get them to get that printing improved so it looks more pronounced. The USDA organic seal is on the cap. On our front label it does state who our certifier is which is M.O.S.A.”
As far as the amount in the container goes, many national companies tend to put a little more of a product in the container or package then what is printed on the label weight-wise. They do this to make sure they are in compliance with the rules set by weights and measures. They are required to have the amount correct, in this case one gallon. I think Organic Valley has set a slightly larger volume of milk per container in their production line just to be safe and Sassy Cow is closer to what has been disclosed on the label.
Have a wonderful week! -Dean Kallas, Grocery Category Manager