Nov. 30—WILLMAR
— Goodness Coffee Company has been an early morning stop in downtown Willmar since it first opened in 2013.
Now 10 years later, the current owners of
Goodness Coffee Company
are planning a move to a new location. The new shop will open up next year at 812 First St. S. in Willmar at the former site of Little Caesars Pizza.
"The decision to move to the new location was really just a matter of accessibility for current customers and future customers. We love downtown, the views and the people. The new spot is just more accessible to most people," Nick Aaker of Goodness Coffee said.
He and his wife have owned the business since 2020. Goodness Coffee remains open at its downtown location at Fourth Street and Litchfield Avenue Southwest.
The move to the new location will take place over the winter, according to Aaker. He said that he hopes to have the doors ready to open early in 2024.
"The timeline is still a little up in the air. Our contractor is defining our project as a winter project. Our hope if everything goes well would be to open later in the first quarter of 2024," Aaker said.
Little Caesars ceased operating this summer. A notice was posted in August that the Willmar store was temporarily closing.
No one from the company responded
to the West Central Tribune at the time.
The new location for Goodness Coffee will come with a few changes to what the business offers. Most notably, the company will focus more on offering an expanded lunch menu with more bagel and lunch sandwiches.
"We will also be adding whey and vegan protein shakes to better serve our neighbors at Snap Fitness," Aaker said, referencing the gym located in another commercial space in the same First Street building.
The move to the new location will not impact current workers, according to Aaker. Instead, the company will be looking to hire an additional group of four or five people to help keep the new space fully staffed with a projected increase in store traffic.
At this time, Aaker is unsure what will become of the downtown space.
The Goodness was not the first coffee shop in that spot.
Northern Grounds coffee and sandwich shop operated there from 2006 to 2009, according to West Central Tribune archives.
Then in early 2013 the Chris and Vicki Davis family
in a West Central Tribune story
unveiled their plans to open a coffee shop they called The Goodness.
Goodness Coffee's new location places it squarely in the First Street business corridor. The new location is expected to bring in additional traffic and help support the business further so that it can last at least another 10 years.