New Eco-Friendly Store Planned at Former Glass Pantry

A Madison-based low-waste business would replace The Glass Pantry at 1039 S. 5th St. in Walker’s Point. The pantry announced its impending closure in August.

Like the Glass Pantry, Green Life Trading Co. offers a range of pantry staples, skin and body-care products and household items — sans plastic packaging.

Owner Sasha Stone launched Green Life in 2018, operating online for a year and a half before opening a storefront on Williamson Street in Madison.

The new store will also run a composting program in partnership with Sun Prairie company, Green Box Compost. Through the program, customers will be able to return compostable products that were purchased at Green Life, to be sent to Green Box’s high-temperature composting facility.

Stone, who studied sociology and environmental science at UW-Milwaukee, said a conversation with her classmates sparked her interest in opening a sustainability-focused store.

“We were just talking about all the ways that we don’t live sustainably,” Stone said. In a classroom full of aspiring environmental scientists, nobody felt like they had the time, access or ability to consume less single-use plastic, she explained.

“And so seeing all these people who really are passionate and really cared, not being able to make sustainable choices, it was very clear that like we have a gap here,” Stone said. “It should be easier to do than that.”

The Glass Pantry owner Jenna Meier and Stone originally connected in 2018 and have been “business buds” for the past several years, Stone said.

When Meier shared that she was planning to close Glass Pantry, Stone reached out to talk about the decision, and inquire about purchasing some of Meier’s bulk bins for her own shop.

“And then that conversation just snowballed into like, Milwaukee doesn’t want to lose a low-waste presence. If we can do this, we can make this make sense, let’s just step right in,” Stone said. “The stars aligned.”

The goal is to open sometime in November, Stone said. The former manager of Glass Pantry plans to continue as manager at Green Life once the new shop opens.

Stone subleases a warehouse space in Madison, where she stores drums for liquid products and other backstock. She said the space will prove especially useful for opening the second location.

“We’ve already kind of learned how to manage moving inventory from one location to another,” she said. In Madison, inventory is transported via bike courier. For the Milwaukee location, Stone plans to make the trip in her Prius every few weeks to deliver products and check up on the store.

In expanding to Milwaukee, Green Life will move into a historic building on 5th Street. Initially constructed in 1878, the building was rebuilt in 1887 in the bold Queen Anne architectural style favored by shopkeepers at the time. The building originally housed a first-floor grocery store and blacksmith and second-floor apartments. It is now owned by Elan Peltz.

Glass Pantry opened in June 2020, offering pantry staples, skincare, hygiene products and household goods in a plastic-free format. Due to the pandemic, it initially opened for curbside pickup and delivery only. As restrictions loosened, customers were able to enter the store, reusable containers in hand, to fill up on goods.

In August, Meier announced in a social media post that she would be closing the store in order to spend more time with her two kids.

“All of us here have loved serving you for the past few years but it’s time for me to move on to the next chapter,” said Meier as part of a Facebook post.

The last day for in-person shopping at the store was Sept. 18. As of Friday, the online store was still open.