DC Farmers Co-Op Building New 16,000 Square Foot Location in Winston

DC Famers Co-Op is Celebrating 100 years in Douglas County on April 1. To kick off the 100th year, they are expanding into a new 16,000 square foot building in Winston. “It’s quite a milestone 100 years in business. We sit on 8 acres here (in Roseburg), we built the new store and moved in October 2003,” DC Farmers Co-Op General Manager Melvin Burke said. “We operated a convenience store and Texaco gas station since 1997 at our current site and we rebranded to Shell about 17 years ago. Shell has been a good relationship for the Co-op, we own and operate the Shell and C-store. We’ve celebrated with customer giveaways and were at the home show with the site layout for the new Winston store detail.” DC Farmers expanded to Winston in 2013 when they bought a True Value store that they remodeled and added inventory like pet and farm supply to better serve the area. “We’ve looked back on what we’ve done and where we're headed,” Burke said. “We’re relative to today’s environment and we provide solutions to the needs of customers to live their daily lives, feeding animals, planting gardens, fueling their vehicles. The animals still need to be cared for and we fill that need. People want to grow their own food and raise their own backyard chickens.” The Co-Op bought 4.9 acres on the corner of Abraham and Highway 42 in Winston in 2018. A year after the pandemic the Co-Op is pushing to construct a 16,000 square foot building on the property that will be similar to the Roseburg location by the end of 2021. It will include a 5,600 square foot convenience store on the front side of the property, along with an eight pump Shell gas station, along with a flagship farm store on the rear of the property. They plan to employ 30-40 employees at the new location which is double the amount currently employed in Winston. “We’re in the construction plan stage, working on permitting and the civil construction plans,” Burke said “We got held up with the pandemic and that pushed us back. We didn’t know what the future was going to hold, so we were cautious. But we’re trying to get it completed by year-end, the entire project.” DC Farmers Co-Op employs 104 people with a $2.9 million local payroll that goes back into the local economy. “The Winston community has been very receptive to our store and growth, and they want more product assortment if we had the room, so we're pushing for a new store with more products,” Burke said. “We’re really excited about our new store. The building is going to be a first-class building, it’s going to be nice. We believe it’s going to do very well there. We have been working with the city of Winston leaders there, and they’ve been easy to work with.” Burke has been the GM with DC Farmers Co-Op for 19 years when the store moved to its Stephen’s location in Roseburg. “I have really enjoyed working with the Co-Op, working with the staff, Board, and customers,” Burke said. “I’m accountable to the members, customers, Board and they're accountable to the members.” DC Farmer's old Roseburg store was at 522 SE Washington Avenue Roseburg, Oregon 97470. Before that, the previous store was completely destroyed in the 1959 blast but was then rebuilt and eventually sold to the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. DC Farmers Co-Op created a website to tell the community about their timeline and history: https://www.wearedouglascounty.com/