09/22/2026
🤩🥳 EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT 🙌😎
Lake Grocery is pleased to announce a partnership with natural foods company, Azure Standard. Below is posted the entire article, as run in the Clark County Courier. Please take a few minutes to read! If you want the quick version, here are the bullet points:
🍎 Lake Grocery is now the first grocery store in the entire Midwestern United States to carry products from Azure Standard.
🥦Azure Standard is a trusted name in natural, whole-food groceries. They carry nearly 14,000 products! Everything from fresh produce, to pantry staples, to healthy cleaning products.
🍇All Azure products are free of artificial colors & artificial preservatives. Packaging is BPA-free, and many products are organic. They carry a wide selection of gluten-free products as well!
🧀You can shop the Lake Grocery aisles for a selection of Azure Standard products, or you can place a special order on a truck that will arrive once a month right to Lake Grocery in Willow Lake. Special orders will be boxed & ready for you to pick up anytime within a 3-day window, making it convenient for you!
❤️ Because Lake Grocery is owned & operated by Willow Lake Area Advancement (a 501c3 registered non-profit organization), Azure Standard was willing to partner with L.G. as a wholesale account. Whether you shop in-store or place a special order to arrive on the Azure truck, Lake Grocery will capture a fair retail margin -- helping to keep this small-town store going & our small-town main street alive & well!
Thank you for reading..... and thank you for supporting your local, hometown businesses!
"LAKE GROCERY FINDS NICHE WITH NATURAL FOODS"
Some outside-the-box thinking is helping Willow Lake’s community-owned grocery store find a new recipe for success.
Lake Grocery, which has been owned and operated by Willow Lake Area Advancement (WLAA) since 2010, has announced a partnership with natural foods company Azure Standard. Lake Grocery is now the only retail store anywhere in the central United States to carry goods from this West Coast-based supplier of healthy, natural, whole-foods grocery items. Azure was willing to work with Lake Grocery because of the store’s unique situation of being owned and operated by a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
“The store will continue to stock groceries from our regular wholesale supplier, but we are excited to also have products from Azure Standard now on our shelves,” said Darcy Pommer, president of the Willow Lake Area Advancement board of directors. The products are very good quality and we are impressed with the competitive prices we’re seeing as well.”
The move to add this new line of products comes as Lake Grocery, and many other small businesses like it, find it harder and harder to compete with Big Box retailers – especially in the face of free delivery services from places like Walmart. Hometown, single-location stores simply cannot compete with the economics of scale and buying-power that these large chains have.
In its 16 years as a community-owned store, Lake Grocery has generally broken even or come out slightly ahead at the end of each fiscal year. The last few, however, have been more difficult financially as people’s shopping habits and preferences have changed. More local customer traffic is going to be needed to keep this – and other retailers like it – open on our small-town main streets. Lake Grocery leadership hopes that carving out a niche in this natural-foods arena will be one of the tickets to success.
Local foods, local connections
In addition to the dedicated Lake Grocery employees and WLAA board members, some community members are also helping with the grocery store’s pursuit of innovation. One of these community members is Colin Beveridge, who serves as Pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Willow Lake and Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Vienna.
Colin and his wife, Britta, live northwest of Bryant on Plain View Farm, which goes back several generations in Britta’s family. They operate Plain View Foods, a commercial garden business, and are active in the “local foods” movement across the state and region. They currently supply the Huron School District with locally-grown garden produce through the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables grant program.
“We grow a lot of what we eat in our large garden. We process all our own meat. For things we can’t produce or source locally, we rely on Azure Standard,” Beveridge commented.
The family has been an Azure customer for about five years, drawn to the company because of its strict standards for clean ingredients. They like the transparency of knowing what’s in – or what’s not in – each of the products they’re buying to feed their family.
“Britta and I have always been label readers, and we’re very careful about what we buy. When Azure endorses a product, I don’t have to question it. They take all the guesswork out of grocery shopping,” Beveridge added. “The prices are great as well, the best you’ll find anywhere for this type of product.”
A look at Azure Standard’s catalog or website (www.azurestandard.com) will show nearly 14,000 different products, from pantry staples to fresh produce, frozen items, health and wellness products, and natural cleaning supplies. Azure is unique because they require all products to be free of artificial colors and artificial preservatives. Packaging is BPA-free, and many products are organic. Azure Standard carries many gluten-free items as well.
Lake Grocery now stocks a small selection of Azure-branded products on its retail shelves, to give customers a sampling of what’s available. Leaders plan to increase the Azure offerings locally as interest continues to grow. Examples of Azure items currently available in Willow Lake include whole-grain cereals, organic flour and sugar, olive oil and vinegar, dry pasta (including gluten-free options), low-sodium beans in BPA-free cans, condiments like ketchup and mustard, organic onions, probiotic yogurt and sour cream, and more.
In addition to browsing in-store, customers are also invited to place a special order for Azure Standard products once a month. Products will be delivered directly to Lake Grocery, for pick-up at the customer’s convenience.
Special orders, delivered locally
Azure Standard already has several “drop” locations in South Dakota, but the new arrangement with Lake Grocery is unique for the company.
In addition to the Beveridges, several other families in the Willow Lake area have been ordering groceries through Azure Standard. Up until now, these customers had to meet the monthly Azure delivery truck at a “drop” location. Watertown or Brookings have been the closest locations, up until a Clark drop location was added recently, which is another nice local connection.
Now, Azure Standard will deliver right to Lake Grocery. Unlike at other drop locations where the customers are required to meet the truck on the exact day and hour that it arrives, regardless of whether that time is convenient for them, buyers through Lake Grocery will have a window of up to three business days to pick up their Azure order. Local volunteers will unload the Azure truck in Willow Lake, sort the orders, and have them boxed and ready at the back of the store.
“Having a longer and more flexible window of time makes the whole process much more convenient for the customers,” Beveridge added.
Pastor Colin worked closely with Azure Standard to reach an agreement for Lake Grocery to become a wholesale customer. Because of this arrangement, Lake Grocery is able to capture a fair retail margin on all sales – both the in-store retail sales, and the special orders. Customers won’t pay more by ordering through Lake Grocery then they do at any other Azure “drop” location; they will pay the same retail prices they see on the Azure website or in the catalog.
“People can get the high-quality food they’re looking for at a reasonable price, and they can now get it in a convenient way,” Beveridge added. “Better food, better prices, and helping a small, local business in our community. This partnership with Lake Grocery and Azure Standard checks off a lot of very positive boxes.”
Current customers’ comments
Willow Lake-area resident Ashley Konechne has been ordering groceries through Azure Standard for some time. One aspect of the arrangement she likes is the ability to buy in bulk quantities. When she stocks up, it lessens her need to run to town so often for grocery supplies.
“I love the fact that I can buy in bulk from Azure Standard,” Konechne commented. “I have a lot of baking staples around at all times, which is so handy. It is nice that they offer natural options, as well as organic, if that is something you are interested in.”
Bulk orders are indeed welcome through Lake Grocery and Azure Standard. If you are interested in the cost savings of ordering in larger quantities but don’t feel like you have the storage space, patrons could consider ordering with a group of neighbors. For example, a 25-pound bag of flour or a 5-pound bag of pecans could be purchased and divided up among friends for the holiday baking season.
Tayler Morvant is another local Azure customer who sources much of her family’s food through this company. Tayler and her husband, Travis, live west of Bryant and have five children. Tayler is dedicated to making every meal from scratch, and she shares her recipes and techniques on Instagram at her account “Recipes of a Homemaker’s Heart” ().
“I order pretty much everything from Azure,” Morvant commented. “I love that it’s an easy, one-stop-shop.”
She reports that her orders consistently include basics like raw cheddar, butter, raw sugar cane, beans, onions, carrots, garlic, seasonings, and condiments like soy sauce and ketchup. Morvant also orders organic wheat berries for grinding her own flour, an old-fashioned process that has become “new” again as people rediscover traditional methods and seek out the health benefits of ingredients that are less commercially-processed.
“I love that Azure has high-quality food and cleaning supplies in bulk for reasonable prices,” Morvant stated. “I can trust everything I get from Azure to be healthy ingredients for our family.”
A new trend?
Beveridge is hopeful that what Lake Grocery is testing out will be a great success.
“People at Azure Standard are excited to see how this goes for us,” he commented. “They have not worked with grocery stores before, and they think what Lake Grocery is trying here is quite innovative.”
He encourages local community members not to assume they have to drive to a larger town to find what they need.
“Don’t fall into the habit of thinking there’s nothing for you in these small communities. This ‘commuter mentality’ of believing we have to drive everywhere to save money? I think we are poorer for it,” Beveridge stated. “Look around. What do you need? If it isn’t available here, how can we work together to change that?”
Lake Grocery is open on Willow Lake’s main street Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and on Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If you’re interested in placing a special order through Azure Standard, inquire at the store or speak with Pastor Colin or any Willow Lake Area Advancement board member: Darcy Pommer, Julayne Thoreson, Matt Vandersnick, Jamie Forbes, Marjean Waldow, Bob Syring, and Carolyn Nichols.
