Holiday Hours – Memorial Day

The Co-op’s Curbside service will be closed on Monday, May 25, 2020 – orders will not be filled and there will be no pickups.

Online ordering will be available on our normal schedule – Sunday 6pm through Friday 6pm – and will not be affected by the holiday.

Thanks, and have a fun and safe holiday weekend!

Hello! We are pleased to announce that the Co-op will be reopening on Thursday June 11, 2020 at 10 am. We are excited to have all the life that our members and shoppers bring back inside our store once again. We appreciate your patience as we figured out the best and safest way to meet the needs of our very diverse community and provide you with the food that sustains us all.

Open 10am-6pm Every Day
Masks Required
Limited Number of Shoppers
Social Distancing at All Times
Curbside Available for a $5 Fee
(Fee effective June 11, automatically waived for SNAP shoppers)

As much as I would like to say everything will be like it was before, that just isn’t possible. We are looking at this reopening as our ‘next normal’. What will be the same is our staff – the majority of us are here and we have missed you! A few have chosen not to return to work because of Coronavirus. The food and other products you are accustomed to seeing on our shelves are here. You may not find your favorite Grab and Go or Bakery items, but we are hoping to restock our full selection soon. A few things have been hard to come by, but for the most part, we are fully stocked. Local produce is just beginning to come in, and you will find vegetables from many familiar farms in our produce department.

The Bulk Department is very important to our members and a big part of what makes the Co-op the Co-op! It is also where you will see the biggest change as we reopen our store. We have chosen to have our staff fill your bulk food needs and not allow shoppers into that aisle. There is no realistic way that we could keep up with the recommended sanitizing protocol for all of those bins, jars and scoops. We also will not be allowing you to refill your own containers – it is just too easy to unwittingly spread the virus this way. We realize that this is sad, given the huge amount of work we all had been doing to reduce plastic and other waste in our shopping routine. It breaks my heart when I see the signs telling us how many 5 cent rebates we gave for the containers we reused. We worked really hard. My hope is that one day we can continue that work, but right now is not the time.

The Wellness department is also a challenge, particularly the middle aisle that is filled with a zillion small bottles! We have decided to close that aisle to shoppers – it is just too narrow to have more than one person in it at a time. We will have it fully staffed at all times to be sure that these products are available to you, and that a Wellness staff person will be there to answer any questions.

We ask that when you come to do your shopping you keep in mind and respect the safety of our other shoppers as well as the staff by following the guidelines that we have put in place.

To achieve this, masks are required by everyone, always. Six-foot social distancing is required. Handle as few things as possible, particularly in the produce department. We will be limiting the number of people in the store at any one time, so we ask that you come by yourself and with a list. Our store is small, which is one of the things that we love about it, but that also makes keeping our distance difficult.

We have instituted a regular cleaning and sanitizing routine throughout the day and hand sanitizer will be available in many locations.

The café area will be closed – instead it will be used for our Curbside order holding area. We will continue to offer the Curbside Co-op option to people who need it. Because of the additional labor, we will now charge a $5 fee. The way we have been doing Curbside was clearly the right thing to do once we closed the Coop to shoppers, but it is not sustainable financially.

We are prepared to change how we do things as our reopening plays out. Please let us know what works for you and what doesn’t.

Know that we are working hard to meet your needs for food and safety!

Alice Rubin, General Manager

Dear Willimantic Food Co-operators,

Beginning on Friday, March 20, at 9am, the Co-op will be limiting the number of shoppers in the store to 10 at a time.

We will ask shoppers to form a line outside the store, remaining six feet apart, until it is your turn to go in.

Seating will be provided.

If you are unable to wait in line, please designate a friend to hold your spot.

Preferably, use our curbside pick-up service.

We hope that this measure will help keep our staff and patrons safe and healthy.

Thank you for your patience, understanding, and most of all, your co-operation!

It is often the case, in difficult times, that our Coop is an important resource for our community. The potential presence of coronavirus (COVID-19) in our area is proving that this continues to be true.
You have come to us in recent days to stock your pantry, replenish cleaning supplies, and prepare alongside others in the community. As a grocery store, our co-op is in the unique position of offering essential services for our community while also doing all we can to minimize risk to our staff, members, and shoppers.
In light of the situation our community finds itself in, I want to share the things our co-op is doing to best serve you, care for our staff, and be a responsible member of our community:

• While we have had no reported COVID-19 infections in our co-op, we have asked any staff exhibiting symptoms of respiratory illness or fever to stay home and notify their physician. Our co-op has a generous sick and vacation policy, and we are working with employees on a case-by-case basis to ensure they have the support they need.
• We are making hand sanitizer and wipes available at the entrance, exit and near the carts. Staff are also frequently cleaning all high-touch areas throughout the day – cart and shopping basket handles, cooler doors etc
• Our co-op prides itself on its cleanliness and food safety standards. This includes frequently sanitizing high-touch locations like credit card machines, scales, bathroom areas and, as mentioned above, carts and handbaskets. We have heavily invested in training our store’s management teams on food safety, with the majority of store and department leaders having their Serv-Safe certificates.
• We have temporarily ceased all sampling.
• All repacking of Bulk Foods is always done while wearing gloves.
• We are doing all that we can to be sure that our shelves are well stocked. This is very challenging – supplies are running low in all of our supplier’s warehouses. Sometimes there is a delay in deliveries and sometimes the product is truly not to be had. We will continue to work closely with our suppliers to ensure we have the essentials that you are seeking, like pantry staples, cleaning supplies, and health and body care items.

Throughout all of this, we are making additional efforts to demonstrate our gratitude to our staff who continue to work each day with commitment, compassion, and kindness to ensure our store is stocked, clean, and ready to serve you.
We will continue to monitor closely and be nimble in adjusting our operations to prioritize the health and safety of you and our staff.

Sincerely,
Alice Rubin
General Manager

  

  

Job Opening – Part-time Cashier

NOW HIRING: Cashier/Wellness Clerk. Part time, 24 hours. Click here for full job posting.

NOW HIRING: Produce Department Team Member. Part time. Click here for full job posting. 

NOW HIRING: Assistant Front End Manager. Full time. Click here for job posting.
Click here for full job description.

NOW HIRING: Part-time Cashier. Click here for job posting. 

AHORA CONTRATANDO: Cajero a tiempo parcial. Haga clic aquí para la publicación de empleo. 

After submitting your application, please wait to be contacted by a hiring manager. We consider all applications, keep them on file for a year, and review all previous applications each time we have an opening. We are not able to call or interview every applicant. If you are not contacted, please feel free to call or come in and update your application when there is a new job post. 

We accept unsolicited applications, download one here:

Interested in Proposition 138 which has been introduced in the CT legislature to enhance the existing CT Co-operative statutes and encourage more co-ops to incorporate in our state? The bill was initiated by the Willimantic Food Co-op, Fiddleheads Co-op in New London and developed with the support of the Neighboring Food Co-op Association. It was passed by the CT House and Senate and signed into law by the Governor on June 26, 2019.

Effective Saturday March 21, the Co-op will continue with curbside pickup but we are closing the store temporarily to all shoppers. We do not know when we will reopen. We are doing this out of concern for the safety of our shoppers and our staff. We wish we could have given more notice for this drastic step, but we are in unprecedented times.

We are committed to getting food to everyone who needs it and feel that we can best do this with curbside pickup for the time being. We believe we can do this more safely and effectively if the store is closed to the public. Even so, it might take 24-72 hours to fill orders. We will pre-arrange pickup times.

Curbside Co-op – Order ahead and pick up

Gift Cards – Purchase here

We are doing the best that we can to get food to the Co-op, but there are still supply problems. We ask for your patience, understanding and flexibility during this very challenging time. We love and appreciate you!