Just Local Food Cooperative

Very refreshing to see a local grocery store with such a diverse selection! SUPER impressed! Keep up the good work!

I couldn’t find it in my heart to give this place anything less than a perfect. The employees are really what drive this rating home, go just a couple of times and you’re on a name to name basis and they are giving you recipe ideas and asking about your life– what a great experience, one you definitely do not get at any large grocery store.
They hands down have some of the best meat in town from Dutch Family Farms– I’m a big soup maker so the owner went out of his way to request more odd bones and parts of animals for me much to my surprise and appreciation. He would even give me a call when they got my favorite products back in stock! Excellent selection of fresh cheese and produce & they also carry local beer as well. I have since moved out of town and I really, really miss this little place. It was so convenient and everyone’s heart is in the right place.

A local food co-​op definitely worth a stop. The produce was fresh. The freezer cases contained a great selection of Wisconsin frozen meats — bacon, lamb, bison, organic chicken. We picked up four different types of bacon for the family bacon-​off at the next get-​together. The cheeses were tempting but we only had so much space in our cooler. I was not unhappy to find individually-​packaged dark chocolate truffles.

Just Local is a gem, with a real local focus. The prices are higher than your average grocery store, but you get what you pay for!
I love the broad selection of local beers, meat and dairy products, and various other things. For a fairly small place they have a great selection. There’s a small produce area, bulk foods area, packaged foods, and of course the various refrigerated goods.
On several occasions I’ve found the very people who make the products in the stores doing taste-​tests. Cool beans.

I’m glad that Eau Claire has a place for people to buy local and more natural food, but the prices were a bit too high to really make it accessible to the whole community, and a lot of the food there really isn’t that natural. I found so many products with artificial preservatives, coloring and flavors. They had a fairly good little café, produce section and bulk section but lost some points for the totally stupid layout of the enterance– you walk in the door and have to squeeze through a tiny space in between the express lane and the order queue for the coffee bar. Why?

They are kind of pricey, but if you can’t find something anywhere else in town then Just Local Foods will probably be your best bet.
Most of my stops here however were to take advantage of their amazing beer selection, which I didn’t expect them to have, but I’m thankful that they do!

Just Local has a good selection of natural and — you guessed it– local foods. Their prices are a little higher than the average grocery store, but that’s to be expected. The best part, I think, is how committed they are to their vision and how involved they are in the downtown community. And, when I do go in with questions, I have only ever been met with friendly, genuinely helpful staff. No, I am not a vegan, I eat more processed foods than I
should, and I’m so far from natural/​organic that I’m surprised the building doesn’t burst into flames when I walk in — but I’ve never been chastised or pressured or had anyone look down their nose at me (which happens sometimes at similar stores). The people involved with Just Local are truly passionate about healthy, whole foods and just want to share what they’ve learned with everyone. I thoroughly enjoy this store.

This is a small, quaint little local goods shop. The produce section is all in wicker baskets which I thought was pretty cool. They also have bulk items such as brown rice and nuts, flour, etc. The prices seemed pretty high on bulk goods, but a lot of these items are hard to come by in Eau Claire.
There’s a lot of meat in the freezer section which was a huge turn-​off.
Also, there’s very little by way of dedicated vegan products. They have one type of vegan cookie from some baker in Duluth, but that’s about it. Come here if you want spices, produce or bulk goods, but don’t bother coming here for staples like soy/​rice milk or tofu/​tempeh/​seitan.

Its great to see that places like this are popping up in EC, especially in light of the effort to stop the jail expansion. Im all for more local businesses and less jails! While I was in EC I few months back I had to scour the town looking for chicken or turkey sausage and after hitting all the area stores I found none that carried them. Well JustLocal has both! Locally made turkey and chicken sausage – I think its free range too, it was about $ 7 a pound so its a bit pricey but this is the only place you can get it!
When I was growing up in EC there was a little co-​op downtown and it went out of business in the early 1990s, well this place is a great modern attempt at a coop right on the river.
The have a good selection of local meats, though most of it is not organic or free range. They also have some rare meats like Buffalo, and Lamb.
The produce selection is pretty good for this little spot, but again its pricey and unfortunately most of it is not local (its pretty hard to find any locally grown grapefruits in Wisconsin, let alone in the winter or springtime) –I can forgive them not being local.
They’ve got a great local and organic/​natural cheese selection, as they should! As well as other dairy and eggs.
There is also a small selection of frozen natural/​organic foods and boxed stuff like Amy’s Organic. There’s some locally made breads and for the gluten allergies they have a great selection of gluten free/​rice based products as well.
They’ve got seeds, compost and dirt and tons of literature on living a greener, localer lifestyle.
Bring your own bags – Im not sure if they have them.
SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS!