Arcadia’s shoe store to close, Valley View gets new tenants

Bawek’s Shoe Store in Arcadia will close no later than June 28 after 50 years, although owners Craig and Lynnelle Bawek hope someone will buy the business and building and continue it as a shoe store.

Craig, who plans to retire after 55 years of selling shoes, said the store could close even sooner, depending on how quickly its inventory sells. It’s been very busy since the store’s retirement sale began March 13.

“We have a great following of customers that cover a 60-mile radius,” Craig said. “We would love to see it remain a shoe store for current and new customers.” Bawek’s Shoe Store has lasted a half-century by offering high-quality footwear and service, he said.

Craig’s father, Glen Bawek, who died in February 2023, moved his family from Stacyville, Iowa, in 1974 to buy and operate what had been Abts Shoe Store from two brothers who decided to retire.

Craig, who said he is “a few months short of 64,” has been selling shoes since the days when his father owned a shoe and clothing store in Stacyville. “It was so much of a blessing to be able to have all three of my kids work with me at times throughout their school years,” Craig said.

“The other blessing was having my wife have her own career (elsewhere) but still be part of the decision-making at the shoe shows for the new brands and styles that we would constantly be bringing in to keep our store appeal fresh,” he said.

“We also are very appreciative to our customers and the community for supporting us all these years,” Craig said. “We feel great about helping so many customers throughout the years with their foot problems.”

Store hours are 10 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and closed Sunday through Tuesday. For more information, call 608-323-7236 or visit the store’s Facebook page.

Valley View Mall in La Crosse soon will have four new businesses, including two new eateries in its food court area.

As I mentioned in February, Poke World will open sometime this spring in the former Black Forest Bistro space and will offer poke bowls, ramen, mochi doughnuts and bubble tea. For more information about that small chain, visit https://pokeworlds.com.

Aimee Awonohopay, the mall’s general manager, told me that a lease was signed Tuesday for Smokehouse Eats to open in the food court space next to Poke World. It will serve barbecue meats, sandwiches, burgers and more, and is expected to open in late spring or early summer, she said.

Meanwhile, a DaaBin discount store is expected to open in May in the former Prestige Furniture storefront, near the J.C. Penney department store, Awonohopay said. For more information on that chain, visit https://daabinstore.com.

And WK Alterations, which will offer custom clothing alterations, will open this spring next to Francesca’s.

“We are excited,” Awonohopay said of the new mall tenants. “We’re doing our best to revitalize the shopping center.”

Logan Eldred and his fiancee, Whitney Thooft, opened the Fifth World Dispensary in February at 1022 La Crosse St., in part of the same building that houses Little Caesars Pizza.

They also continue to operate their Fifth World CBD & Massage shop, which opened in November 2022 at 120 Hale Drive in Holmen.

Both stores sell CBD and Delta products that Thooft makes in Viroqua from organically grown hemp that she and Eldred grow in Westby. Like the Holmen store, the new La Crosse location also sells original artwork by Twin Cities-area artist Dustin Wayne, hemp jewelry and other kinds of jewelry. And it sells what Eldred calls smoke shop items such as papers, grinders and glass pieces.

“We were doing really well in Holmen and thought we could do well here, too,” Eldred said of the couple’s decision to open a La Crosse store. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

For more information about the La Crosse store, call 608-519-0830 or visit www.fifthworldfarm.com or the Fifth World CBD & Massage Facebook page.

The Aldi grocery chain plans to build and open a store just south of Walmart on North Main Street in Viroqua this year.

“Based on my conversations with them, I absolutely believe the store will be built,” Viroqua Mayor Justin Running said Monday. “Our city staff has worked with them from a site layout perspective for a number of months.”

Running said he thinks construction work will begin this spring. “They intend to have the store open by the end of 2024” but have not specified a month for its opening, he said.

“We are excited to confirm that the Viroqua store is expected to open by the end of the year and will begin construction as early as this spring,” Shane Williams, Aldi Oak Creek Division vice president, said Thursday.

“I could not be more excited to have them coming to town, especially with the recent loss of Quillin’s grocery store,” Running said of Aldi. The new store will fill a niche between grocery shopping at Walmart and at the Viroqua Food Co-op, he said.

The Aldi chain opened a new store at 1650 W. Wisconsin St., near the Walmart store in Sparta, on Feb. 22. And it will open another new store in part of the former Shopko department store at 4344 Mormon Coulee Road in La Crosse. “The new La Crosse store is slated to open up this summer,” Matt Lilla, Aldi Faribault Division vice president, said Thursday.