Huge new store offers healthy foods, a new local hangout, and photo opps
TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
The new Golden Harvest Market at 2700 E. Main Street in Merrill celebrated their Grand Opening in early June, and the Merrill Chamber of Commerce staff and ambassadors were on hand on Saturday, June 5, for a ribbon cutting to help with that celebration. The new store actually opened a full year ago on June 5, 2020, but the Grand Opening and ribbon cutting were both delayed due to COVID.
Golden Harvest promotes healthy living, supports local farmers
Store owners, Timothy and Nikki Conjurske of Rhinelander, are committed to selling healthful, organic, “real food” that is delicious and also good for you in their store. Their products are hand picked for their ingredients, or the absence of certain ingredients specifically. The store will not carry any products with artificial anything – no artificial colorings or flavorings – and no hydrogenated oils or preservatives.
“Golden Harvest is a family owned natural and organic grocery market that focuses on bringing clean, healthy, and affordable products to our community,” said Store Manager Holly Schuett. “The store features fresh produce, fresh meat, a large grocery selection, fresh bakery, wellness supplements, and an in-house deli.” “At Golden Harvest, we believe in good customer service and providing real food that is not only delicious, but also good for you! The products we carry at Golden Harvest are hand-picked for their ingredients, taste, and quality.”
The store’s motto: “Golden Harvest Market is a family-run business dedicated to the health of all living things.”
Golden Harvest also firmly believes in supporting local farmers, recognizing that many American farmers today are only able to continue farming “because they are subsidized by the government.”
The store carries many Wisconsin products including locally grown produce, wild rice, raw clover honey, naturally raised beef, 100% grass fed beef, chickens, eggs, milk, cheese, and more.
“We do [also] have an awesome in-house cafe included in our deli and a beautiful indoor seating area filled with gorgeous house plants for a rainforest cafe sort of feel,” Schuett added. “It is most certainly becoming a local hangout for people that want a nice environment to spend their time in.”
One of the things that catches the eyes of passerby on E. Main Street are the giant animals around the store’s parking lot: a buffalo, a dinosaur, and a polar bear. “The cool big animals are for sale,” Schuett said. “But they are also a great opportunity for family photos or social media selfies.”
“We get new fun and exciting things delivered to our store every day!” Schuett added.
Schuett follows her heart and passions to manage Golden Harvest
Golden Harvest actually came to Merrill five years ago. “We were in the old monument building on Prospect Street,” Schuett said. “Five years ago the owners bought out the small natural market, ‘To Your Health,’ that was already established in Merrill and opened Merrill’s first ‘Golden Harvest.’
Schuett joined Golden Harvest in February 2017.
“I found Golden Harvest in Rhinelander during my own personal journey to health,” she said. “I was so inspired by the Golden Harvest in Rhinelander that I knew the first time I visited that I wanted Merrill to be as blessed as Rhinelander with this life-changing store. I heard rumors a few months later that the owners were considering purchasing ‘To Your Health Market’ in Merrill. Shortly after, they did, in fact, purchase the store, I stopped into the location and immediately felt in my heart that this is where I wanted to be.”
“I told my husband that day, ‘This is where I should be. I want to manage this.’” Schuett said. “I put in an application and patiently waited for a call back that never came, which made sense as I was overqualified and made more money at my current corporate job than would have been realistic to expect from a small family owned business.” But that didn’t stop Schuett.
“My husband and I took a look at our lives, careers, money, passions, assets, and debts and decided that day to make the appropriate life changes needed to make working for our passions possible,” Schuett said. “It took us a year, but we sold our large house in the city and built a Tiny House in the country, which lowered our debt to the point that I was able to reach back out to the owners at Golden Harvest again.”
“I started with a general part-time position and quickly worked my way up to management after just a few months,” she said. “Since then, it has been a wonderful and rewarding journey managing Golden Harvest in Merrill. Our store’s customer base grew so much in the four years we were at the small location that we quickly had a demand to build our now existing larger location.”
“Golden Harvest is where my heart is,” Schuett said.
Golden Harvest in Merrill is open Monday through Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and is closed on Sundays.