Grocery

Customer Question: Please start carrying Glutino crackers again. They are the best GF crackers around.
Co-op Answer: Thank you for your input! Unfortunately, space in our store is limited and we decided to drop this product to make more room for our better sellers. We can still special order these items for you, by the case. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: This is a request to stock the vanilla flavor of Green Mountain Creamery Skyrr.
A: Thank you for your input! Unfortunately this item has been pulled from our distributor by the Green Mountain Creamery, as it was not selling well for them. I am sorry for the inconvenience. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: You guys should try Garden of Eatin Yellow Chips. They are at least as good as, and cheaper than, Late July. They are way better than Que Pasa. I get them at City Market but I’d rather get them here.
A: Thank you for your input! I will certainly look into this item. It is a very tight set, but we may be able to make some room for this item, as Garden of Eatin is a very strong brand for us. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: I love the new Tortilla Strips with flax, quinoa, etc. Please keep them.
A: Thank you for your input! I love these new chips as well and it is my plan to get them on our shelf full time. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: Can you get canned pumpkin for the next case sale?
A: Thank you for your input! This is such a great idea! Canned pumpkin is a major seller for us during November (which is our next case sale). I will definitely try to get a deal on this product for the case sale. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: Please resume bulk tofu. For those trying to reduce plastic use, it’s hard to find veg. protein alternative without plastic.
A: Thank you for your input! Unfortunately, when we last tried this, we found it was not possible to keep it hygienic and safe. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: Please bring back Glutino wafers – lemon and chocolate!
A: Thank you for your input! We do still carry Glutino lemon wafers, but they did move in a recent reset. They should be in our cookie section – please let any staff know if you would like assistance finding them. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: Please bring back Seventh Generation black 30/33 gallon garbage bags in green and yellow box.
A: Thank you for your input! Unfortunately, both of these items were dropped from distribution in 2016/201 and have not been brought back. I am not seeing any other brand with a garbage bag of that size from any of our distributors. I apologize for the inconvenience. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: I would love to see you carry chemex coffee filters. Thank you.
A: Thank you for your input! I have been on the hunt for these for a little while now. Unfortunately, I don’t believe any of our current distributors sell this product or any imitation style product. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: Bearitos, white corn chips? The best!
A: Thank you for your input! Unfortunately, because Garden of Eatin and Bearitos are the same company, they made the decision not to compete with themselves and pulled Bearitos corn chips from our distributor. They are very missed in our store! -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: You are always out of fat free milk and your milk is not fresh Found FF milk that is a week past its sell by date on shelf. Always out of half gallons of FF milk forcing you to buy quarts which are twice as expensive. Not fair!
A: Thank you for your input! I will certainly pass along your concerns around the levels of fat free milk available in our store to the buyer. If you ever find milk that is past sell by date, please let us know. We do systematic checks of product as we stock, but as fat free milk is one of our slowest selling dairy items, it does not get stocked as often. We are also happy to check if there is a fresher date in the back. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Q: Ice cream is usually freezer-burned.
A: Thank you for your input! I will check in with our grocery managers to see if there are any handling practices we could improve upon to help prevent this. If you have specific brands experiencing this issue, please let me know. -Olivia, Grocery Buyer

Food Services

Q: Veggie sausage breakfast sandwich?
A: Interesting idea – we did test this by offering it as a special but it was not particularly popular. -Doug, Prepared Foods Manager

Q: Vegan cheese in the deli, please!
A: We do sell this in the cheese department. -Doug, Prepared Foods Manager

Q: I missed your delicious seaweed salad at the salad bar!
A: It has been 4+ years since this was offered and one of the few items we received complaints about – we are developing one for the grab and go though! -Doug, Prepared Foods Manager

Q: Buy more forks for deli, or wash more often, run out too often.
A: Done! -Doug, Prepared Foods Manager

Q: You should provide bowls/cubs for soup when you are eating it here and not taking it to go. Just creating more waste having to use containers for eating soup here. –
A: Great idea – I would welcome that though the challenge currently is storage for the dishes we have – just about out of room. A coffee cup is a good choice! -Doug, Prepared Foods Manager

Wellness

Q: Why are your Amazing Grass Green Superfood products $34.99 a container when you get the same product with free shipping from Amazon for $19.54? That’s quite a difference.
A: Thank you for your comment. We will review the pricing for this product. We also offer 20% off Vitamins and Supplements on Wednesdays. We are a small, local, Vermont based coop that operates on a different scale than Amazon. -Laura, Wellness Manager

Q: Reduce plastics, please. Tongue scrapers are easily spurred as all-metal items. Can we start carrying those instead of the plastic ones. Which are also less durable.
A: Thank you for your suggestion. We are working on bringing in a metal tongue scraper to our dental section. -Laura, Wellness Manager

General

Q: Paint a mural on the gray wall on the deck!
A: Thank you for this suggestion! We are going to first explore whether to enclose the deck in this coming year and then decide what changes to make for the wall. If we don’t enclose, a living wall has also been suggested. -Kari General Manager

Q: Please offer a “household” membership option. It seems very old fashioned to assume the same person from a given household will always be doing the grocery shopping. I do not wish to pay twice because my husband and I share household chores equitably. I understand that you do not want people to vote more than once, but it seems pretty simple to just add on “approved shoppers” with no voting rights so that all groceries can use member only coupons, etc.
A: Thank you for the comment. This is a frequent request. The Co-op took up this issue in 2008 with member meetings and surveys. At that time, the prevailing view was to maintain the individual membership model. This is a good time to consider it again as there is a committee reviewing Co-op bylaws. I will forward this comment to the committee and full council. -Kari, General Manager

Q: I shop here frequently and find it inconvenient that I have to go to the bulk dept. for bio bags for the produce I’m purchasing. I’ve asked if they could be provided in produce and was told the produce manager has an issue with them but shouldn’t I have the choice as a consumer? Thank you.
A: I recognize the inconvenience. Our practice reflects the organizational ambivalence we have about the BioBags. While they are not petroleum based, we don’t know if they actually use less petroleum in their production. While they are “compostable”, we know they are not accepted by our local composters and we know very little about their ultimate impact on the environment. Our produce manger would prefer not to offer them in the department and given our lack of confidence in the bags, I have to respect that. The preferred practice is still to reuse bags. -Kari, General Manager

Q: I’m thinking your bathrooms could use a super clean; corners, etc.
A: Thanks for letting us know! I will pass this along to our facilities team. -Mary, Facilities Manager

Q: Today June 30 most of the tables in the cafe were sticky and ad bits of food on them. Recently I noticed this more often. Please keep them wiped. Thanks.
A: Thanks for the feedback. The finish on the tables unfortunately became tacky, causing the sticky feeling. For a temporary solution, we have put covers on them, while we look for permanent replacements. -Mary, Facilities Manager

Q: Although you wipe down cafe tables, they feel so sticky and dirty. Maybe a glass top or refinish.
A: Thanks for your feedback. Yes, the finish on the cafe tables became tacky. For a temporary solution, we have put covers on them wile we look for permanent replacements. -Mary, Facilities Manager