On Monday, Nov. 11, Northwestern Mutual opens a more than 4,000-square-foot convenience store in the lobby of its Tower and Commons, 805 E. Mason St.
The Mutual Market will be open – including to the public – weekdays from 6:30 a.m. until 6 p.m.
Inside, you’ll find the expected and the perhaps less expected.
There is a sandwich station with a selection of deli meats, cheeses and breads, along with some vegetable salads.
Alongside classics like a caprese panino and a muffuletta, there are signature options, too, like a Kalamata olive and red pepper melt and a chicken artichoke sub.
You can also have the charcuterie sliced to take home.
The shelves and racks of the market area are full of snacks like Clif and Kind bars, chips, popcorn, dried fruits, beef sticks, candy and more.
Coolers have soft drinks and a surprisingly good selection of cheese, plus items you can grab and take home to whip up a quick dinner without having to hit the grocery store: fresh vegetables, pasta, jarred sauces, dried soup mixes, olive oil, fruit preserves, jarred jalapenos and more.
Fresh fruit is in the cooler, too, for healthy snacking.
There are also canvas totes, bottle openers and more in case you’re heading over to Jazz in the Park on a summer evening.
Nearby are racks and shelves with Northwestern Mutual and Milwaukee swag like clothing, hats and baseball caps.
Other items include notebooks, water bottles, stress balls, hand sanitizer, personal care items like toothpaste, gifts and more.
Some of the stock is supplied via a partnership with Apron Exchange, which works to help small, local businesses, especially women- and minority-owned to sell their handcrafted items.
Among the local vendors with merchandise in the shop are Aly Miller Designs, Blu Mountain Co., Buckley's Restaurant & Bar, Emmanuel’s Mix, Milwaukee Pretzel Company, The Nutman Co., Olympia Granola, ORO di Oliva and Tapped Maple Syrup.
There are a couple seating areas, too, with the largest one facing the coffee bar, which offers coffee, espresso drinks, smoothies and a selection of baked goods.
The coffee will come from a variety of Midwest roasters, including Colectivo and Rags of Honor’s Veteran Roasters.
Interestingly, the full-service coffee bar is located just steps from a full-service Starbucks.
But Cal Schattschneider, vice president of campus and event experiences at Northwestern Mutual, says there’s plenty of demand to go around.
“Ever since we opened,” he says, “they’ve been doing very well. The people that come and grab something from the from Starbucks sit in our fireplace area, it's the public, it's neighbors, it's employees.
“It's an abundance mentality. It's more, and responsive to what our employees and the community's looking for. So, yeah, it's an ‘and,’ not an ‘or’.”
On a Thursday at mid-morning, Schattschneider certainly appeared to be correct. The large seating area was full, a nearby meeting space was being used and the Starbucks was doing steady business.
The Mutual Market, which was announced last spring, will have its own entrance on Mason Street but can also be accessed from the building’s Wisconsin Avenue and Mason Street lobby entrances.
“We're looking forward to having this be a vibrant space,” says Schattschneider.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
