Todd Wood wraps up 45 years at food co-op

In one week and two days Todd Wood is retiring after 45 years at the Skagit Valley Food Co-op. The only general manager the Co-op has ever known turns his keys and office over to Tony White Feb. 14.

Wood started as a volunteer at the Pine Street store in 1975. He was 21 and a recent arrival from Michigan. In 1978 he became one of three part-time staff. His early stipend was $60 weekly, whether he worked four or forty hours.

At the end of International Co-op Month in October, Wood reflected on his co-op’s future with the Weekly News.

“Co-ops’ appeal are highly value based. We have a mission that values so many things besides financial stability,” he noted. Yearly, more people are embracing those values, and businesses, too, demanding less packaging as a small example. Wood wondered if companies will foster the same transparency co-ops offer.

Demand for natural and organic products, the source of the biggest growth in grocery sales for two decades, outruns supply. That is not true in the Skagit Valley during the farming season, Wood said, but investments in cold storage and other infrastructure are needed to create an economy of scale to provide local produce here year round. He sees possible problems with securing local organics in the future.

Continued customer growth, shown in the store’s parking lots being full is a sign of success, but also a warning sign. The co-op bought the county property that became C-Square and the Third Street Café in 2013 to gain parking. Now those lots are sometimes full. “That’s the cost of being successful,” he said.

Wood can look back at four decades of success. It’s increasingly rare to finish a career with one employer. “I feel pretty blessed to fulfill a lot of my dreams here,” he said. “It has been a good synergy. It has worked pretty well.”

His assessment of the C-Square expansion is true for his entire tenure: “We needed to make ourselves relevant in the community and give people continued reasons to shop with us.” He and his team, now some 200 employees, have done exactly that.

The co-op community – board, staff and member-owners – celebrated and congratulated Wood on his retirement with a dinner at Maplehurst Farm Jan. 29.