Steve Cahalan: Aldi and Great Big Outlet stores to open in former La Crosse Shopko (2024)

Look for the former Shopko department store building at 4344 Mormon Coulee Road in La Crosse to become the new home of an Aldi supermarket, the Great Big Outlet store and storage space for the outlet store.

Meanwhile, Thrifty Pickins’ and Buckies — the new name of the former RootinCrown thrift store — has moved from La Crosse to West Salem.

And The Meat Shop in Tomah reopened Wednesday in its new building, after being closed since a fire destroyed its original building last summer.

La Crosse Technology founder and CEO Allan McCormick told me last week he plans to move his Great Big Outlet store into part of the former Shopko building on the city’s South Side, and to use part of it for storage. McCormick, who bought the Shopko building last October, said he still has 10,000 to 30,000 square feet of space available for rent.

He also said he has leased part of the building to a tenant that isn’t ready to announce its plans.

I’ve learned that the Aldi grocery store chain is that tenant, but McCormick declined to confirm that. Aldi spokespeople have declined to comment about the possibility of opening a store in the former Shopko building, when I’ve contacted them a few times in the past several months, and have said only that they had no announcements regarding La Crosse. The company has a store in Onalaska.

La Crosse Technology at 2809 S. Losey Blvd. describes itself as an industry leader in atomic clocks, weather stations and monitoring systems. McCormick told me that his Great Big Outlet store at 2815 S. Losey Blvd. — in part of the same building — began as his company’s outlet store. “But it’s evolved into an eclectic collection of useful and interesting items for the home,” besides selling La Crosse Technology products, he said.

McCormick said the former Shopko building is a better retail location for his Great Big Outlet store. The building has been vacant since 2019, when the Shopko chain filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its remaining stores.

McCormick said he hopes remodeling of the former Shopko building will begin by fall and that Great Big Outlet will open there in the first quarter of 2024. For more information about his company, visit www.lacrossetechnology.com or Facebook.

Mary Jo Wilbur has renamed and moved her RootinCrown thrift store from 47 Copeland Ave. in La Crosse to 980 Hwy. 16, next to Morrie’s Chevrolet in West Salem.

Thrifty Pickins’ resale boutique and Buckies (where everything is priced at $1), opened May 15 in Wilbur’s new Thrift Culture Market, which she described as an umbrella business that also has room for about 24 other vendors. “We have about 14 vendors now,” Wilbur told me one week ago, and they’re selling such things as jewelry, primitives, collectibles, artwork and crafts.

Thrift Culture Market soon will have a coffee club cart and a lounge area with space for such things as book signings and live music.

Thrifty Pickins’ and Buckies sell apparel and home goods that people have donated, with up to 60 percent of the proceeds going to registered nonprofit organizations that the donor specifies.

Hours have been 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, but will expand as of June 1 to 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Wilbur plans to hold a grand opening celebration on July 20, during the La Crosse Interstate Fair, which also is in West Salem.

Lee and Ellen Boyles reopened The Meat Shop butcher shop on Wednesday in its new building at 25321 Grain Ave. in Tomah.

The new building has about 3,700 square feet of space, compared with approximately 2,700 square feet in the building that burned last July because of a grease fire that began while preparing for a catering event, Lee Boyles told me last week.

The Boyles purchased The Meat Smyth butcher shop in June 2021 and renamed it The Meat Shop in June 2022. The Meat Shop does meat and wild game butchering and processing, and also offers retail meat sales. It also offers on-the-farm slaughtering.

The butcher shop’s hours are the same as they were before the fire – 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday. An open house with samples will be from noon to 6 p.m. June 13

For more information, call 608-372-6039 or visit The Meat Shop’s Facebook page.

Soula’s Cuisina at 412 Main St. in downtown La Crosse will close at the end of June, according to an announcement Friday on the Greek restaurant’s Facebook page.

Greg Saliaras, who with Robbi Wolff opened the restaurant in April 2020, said in the Facebook post that his daughter Lydia passed away in October and his mother passed away earlier this month.

“With everything that has happened, our priorities have changed and Robbi and I have decided to take a different path,” he said. “Don’t worry, you will still be able to get some of our favorite Greek foods at Christos Taverna,” he added.