Construction on our Barstow Street location in downtown Eau Claire continues to move along with the majority of the work now happening indoors. As we inch toward our opening day, we’ll be giving you sneak peeks at some of the cool features throughout the building. Here’s what you can expect to see:

1. WIDER PRODUCT SELECTION: When we move from Farwell Street to North Barstow, our retail space will be ten times bigger, so our selection of products will be similar in size to our Menomonie store’s. There may be some variation in what’s available at both locations because each city is different, but they’ll be pretty close.

2. FULL-SERVICE DELI: Our most-requested feature will be a reality very soon! Our new building will have a full-service deli with lots of delicious, ready-to-eat options, and there will be both indoor and outdoor seating so you can meet up with friends or stay and work.

3. MORE PARKING: Another important part of our construction plan was leaving room for more parking spaces. Our side of the lot will have close to fifty stalls, and in addition to street parking around the store, there will be a huge parking ramp next door.

4. FASTER CHECKOUT: Because we’ll be so close to all of the events in and around Phoenix Park, we anticipate that many of you will be stopping in for smaller shopping trips. To shorten wait times, we’ll have four self-checkout lanes installed in addition to two belted lanes, and all will be staffed with our friendly cashiers so they can help you get in and out as quickly as needed.

5. CURBSIDE PICKUP: For those of you who want to skip the line altogether, we’ll be adding the option to place a curbside pickup order from our Eau Claire location to our current online store at shop.mmfc.coop. This service may not be live on the first day because we’ll have our hands full getting the doors open, but our hope is to have it up and running by the end of the year.

6. EVENT SPACE: Brand new for our co-op, the second floor of the Barstow Street store will be home to a large community space that will be three times bigger than our classroom in Menomonie. This sunny, expansive room will accommodate all types of events for groups of up to 100 people! It will also feature a cafeteria-style food service area where our catering team will make everything from coffee and pastries to scratch-made meals. And sixteen-foot garage door will connect this indoor space with a lovely walk-out rooftop decorated with colorful tiles and string lights, making it the perfect spot for rehearsal dinners, baby showers, small banquets, and other parties. We anticipate that this space will begin accepting reservations in spring 2024.

There will be something for everyone to enjoy in the new store, and we can’t wait to show you around this fall. Sign up for emails or follow our social media so you don’t miss announcements about our grand opening!

This article was originally published in the July/August 2023 issue of our bi-monthly newsletter, The Morsel. If you’d like to read more stories like this one and stay up to date on the latest co-op news and events, pick up a print copy in-store on your next grocery run or find more news on our website here.