Welcome to Willy East!

We moved into this building in 1999 with 5,700 Owners and 9,500 square feet of retail space. After a remodel in 2014, we gained an additional 500 square feet of retail.

Let's begin our tour!

Click on the Youtube link for an audio tour or read through the captions to learn more about the store.

Let’s begin our tour at the Customer Service desk. If you want to know more about our grocery co-op, there’s no better place to look than the Customer Service desk. Here we have staff who can answer questions for you and help you sign up for co-op ownership.

Before you enter the Produce section, take a look inside the door across from the Customer Service desk to find the Community Room.

This space serves many purposes—you can regularly find a bustling kitchen where kids and adults alike learn from our professional chef instructors.

This room also serves as an art gallery where we feature the work of local artists, as well as community space for rent.

As you leave the Community Room and head into Produce, pause a moment to look up to your left. Here you’ll see a chart that changes weekly to indicate the percentages of local and organic produce.

Take note of the shelf tags as you walk through the Produce section. We use purple tags to highlight local products, green tags represent organic, and orange denotes conventional produce.

We define local as within 150 miles of the State Capitol building or anywhere in Wisconsin.

Our three levels of local include:

100% local—these products are completely and truly local.
Essentially local means at least 50% of the ingredients are grown or raised in Wisconsin or within 150 miles of the Capitol building in Madison.
Locally prepared means there may be ingredients grown elsewhere, but this food was processed or assembled by a company in Wisconsin or within 150 miles of the Capitol building.

If you look under the banana display and the potato display you’ll notice our discount bins, where ripe, ready, and blemished produce is sold at a bargain.

Last fiscal year, the Willy East Produce department made $4.1 million in sales, or 21% of total store sales.

If a whole cabbage is too much for you or you only need one stalk of celery, it's important to know that most of our produce that’s sold by the pound can be split or cut in half. Feel free to purchase just one banana or one bunch of grapes. If you only need half of a head of cabbage or cauliflower, ask a Produce staff member to cut one for you.

From Produce, we’ll move on to the Cheese department. About 80% of our cheese comes from Wisconsin and almost all the cheese we sell is free of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Deli staff are available to sample anything you would like to try—just ask!

From Cheese, let’s head over to Aisle 3—the Bulk Aisle, arguably the most iconic area of a grocery co-op. You can find spices, beans, grains, seeds, nuts, pastas, snacks, syrups, and oils in this aisle.

Most products in the bulk aisle are lower-priced than pre-packaged food, and you can purchase as much as you want or as little as you need. The label on each product includes the price per pound, and the PLU or price look-up code that you should write on each bulk item you purchase.

Paper and plastic bags are available for dry goods, and round plastic containers are available for liquids. These containers cost 20¢ if you fill them with dry goods.

Reused jars should be cleaned and sanitized before refilling them. The empty container should be weighed and recorded so you won’t be charged for it.

There are also funnels available to help pour bulk items into small containers without spilling.

At the end of the Bulk Aisle at the back of the store, you will find our full-service meat department, meaning that meat can be processed and sliced on site. We can also prepare cuts of meat to any portion by customer request.

We partner with local and regional family farmers to find the highest quality, most ethical, and environmentally sustainable meat we can find. If you’re curious about animal welfare practices, check out the ‘Know Your Farmer’ page on our website. There you’ll find information from our farmers about animal treatment, living conditions, and antibiotic use.

Last fiscal year, the Willy East Meat department made $1.3 million in sales or 6% of total store sales.

From the Meat department, head over to our Deli where you’ll find a great place to pick up lunch or dinner. We have gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, grain-free, and meat options both in the service case and at the hot bar and salad bar.

We have more local and organic ingredients in our Deli selections than anywhere else in the city. The dishes that you see in the Deli are made by staff at our off-site production kitchen and on-site Deli staff.

Owners who are interested may request our deli recipes too!

Last fiscal year, the Willy East Deli department, including the hot and salad bars, grab and go prepared foods, bakery, and juice bar and coffee made $2.4 million in sales or 12% of total store sales.

Next let’s head up to Aisles 6 & 7 where you’ll find our Wellness section. Our Willy Street Co-op-branded supplements are provided by Vitamer, a company out of California, a state which has very informative labeling laws. Using our label as a generic allows us to pass the cost savings to our customers. The Wellness desk has a reference guide for the product line, which can be used to find out where ingredients are derived.

The General Merchandise department also offers a whole variety of products you can find throughout the store, including housewares, sundries, books, magazines, newspapers, plants, flowers, supplements, and health and beauty products.

Last fiscal year, the General Merchandise department made $2.1 million in sales or 11% of total store sales.

We like to remind our customers to shop on Wellness Wednesday when our Owners receive 10% off Health & Wellness products on the first Wednesday of every month.

Moving along past the registers, you’ll find our mission and the Seven Cooperative Principles posted on the wall. In the Owner Resources Area, customers can learn about the Board of Directors, write to us with their customer comments and product requests, and check out our upcoming classes.

Just below we have donation shelves, where customers may leave non-perishable food and personal care items for our two neighborhood partner food pantries—Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center and Goodman Fritz Food Pantry.

When you’re ready to head out the door, check out the Community Posting Board where there is space for community members and groups to post flyers and posters to advertise upcoming events, items for sale or trade, or offer services. Our staff monitors the postings and reserves the right to remove any posting for any reason.

Thanks for stopping by—we hope you enjoyed your visit!

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