The essential concept to grasp is that the Skagit Valley Food Co-op is more than a grocery store. Owned by their members, co-ops are businesses that serve and reflect their members’ values. Tony White, who took over from retired General Manager Todd Wood last Friday not only understands that dynamic, he freely confesses that long ago he “really drank the Kool Aid for co-ops. I realized the emphasis for communications with members. From that time on I was a true believer.” That lesson was learned in a 1990s master program in co-op management at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The...