07/17/2026
🍎🍞🍉Would you please take a couple minutes to read this article? It contains a very important update about Lake Grocery! Thanks, Kristin, for sharing these words with us!🍏🍪🍓
"The Story of a Little Town and its Grocery Store"
Has this ever happened to you? Just the other day, I was in my kitchen stirring up a batch of cookies (molasses crinkle cookies, a family favorite). My dry ingredients were neatly whisked in one bowl, and my butter and sugar were beautifully creamed together in another. Next comes the eggs, then gently combining the dry into the wet, then shaping the cookies and sampling a bit of dough (all in the name of “quality control,” of course).
As I walked over to the refrigerator to grab the two eggs I’d need, I saw something that made me stop. There it was: the *empty* egg carton laying on the countertop, over by the garbage can. (Why do some family members lay things by the garbage, but not put them in the garbage? That’s another blog post entirely – but, now, back to my story.)
So, here we are, anticipating these comfort-food cookies, but my kitchen is fresh out of eggs. What’s a baker to do?
Well, this baker makes a quick trip to Willow Lake and pops into Lake Grocery. I pressed the “pause” button on my recipe, popped the bowl back in the fridge, zipped to town, and grabbed a couple dozen eggs and a few other things on my ever-present grocery list. Lake Grocery had exactly what I needed, plus I was in and out in five minutes or less.
Local friends, how seriously fortunate are we to have a fantastic little grocery store right here in Willow Lake?
Out of milk? No potatoes? Missing an ingredient for a recipe? Did you fire up the grill and prepare the burger patties, just to realize you don’t have any buns? Kids need a snack after swimming lessons? Did we mention a huge selection of ice cream? Lake Grocery comes in clutch, time and time again.
Not many towns of our size (just under 300 people) can say they still have a grocery store. In fact, in my previous career of working with rural economic development, I was actually asked to speak at a couple of conferences about Willow Lake’s “success story” of having a community-owned grocery store. If you didn’t know, Lake Grocery has been owned and operated by Willow Lake Area Advancement, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, since 2010. The grocery store was closed for a year (the only year in the history of the town that it hasn’t had a grocery store on main street), until WLAA took it under its wing and revitalized it.
During most of these years of being a community-owned store, its annual income has been enough to cover its operating expenses, and everything comes out more-or-less even at the end of the year. Some years, it even came out a little ahead. Community donations have only been needed when there’s a major capital expense, like a new piece of refrigeration equipment. A group of volunteers come in each week on “truck day” to help unload the wholesale truck and stock the shelves. The store employees are fantastic, and the Willow Lake Area Advancement board members are very dedicated to making things stay vibrant in our community. (Join me in a round of applause for all these folks!)
As you know, the world around us is changing. We are all getting very accustomed to ordering whatever we want online and having it show up right at our doorstep. (I recently ordered something from Walmart online, and it showed up to my house *the same day* even though I selected “shipping” not “delivery.” Please note that I live 45 miles away from my nearest Walmart.) Convenience is great, but what is the cost going to be to our local, hometown businesses?
Here's the difficult part:
Things at Lake Grocery are changing, too. Financially speaking, things are getting very challenging. Traffic in the store has slowed pretty considerably, and income is no longer keeping up with expenses. This is not a sustainable situation. I am not currently serving on the Willow Lake Area Advancement board, but I’ve been at their recent meetings, and they are supportive of me sharing this message with you: Bottom line, without increased support from the community, Lake Grocery will likely not be able to stay open.
Someone the other day said she feels that “hometown support” is fading. I don’t believe this to be true. I believe that if community members know about the situation, many will step up and rethink how they buy groceries. If we all bought what we could locally before we go out of town to larger stores, it would make a huge difference.
Lake Grocery can never be Walmart, and it can never compete with Walmart’s volume and prices. But Lake Grocery can be the friendly store on main street that has what you need close to home. It can be the hometown store that provides jobs and tax revenue for your community, sponsors activities at your kids’ school, and carries your groceries out to your car when your hands are full. If you appreciate having a grocery store on our main street, stop in and buy a few things. Let’s keep these doors open!
There’s a “Part Two” of this essay coming soon, but for now I will leave you with a little teaser…. The Willow Lake Area Advancement board and Lake Grocery staff are exploring options for bringing new items into the store. We have made connections with a company that can supply us with natural groceries, whole-foods items, and staples available in bulk quantities. There may be a way to make some beautiful “local foods” connections as well. Stay tuned for more exciting details, coming soon!
Thank you for reading, considering, sharing, and shopping local ❤️💖❤️
