Woodward’s Country Store Story
In 2010, we had the crazy idea of buying Bill’s Weston Market in Weston, Idaho. Bill
Burtson wanted to retire and as there were no buyers on the horizon, he was going to be
forced to close the store. Van was driving a propane truck for Grain Growers and Greta was a night stocker at
Stokes at the time and … Van was one of Bill’s best customers. So, officially
on June
21, 2010 (the first day of summer), the planets aligned and we were able to buy the
building from the Cornia Family (who with their dad, Jerry had owned, built, and managed
Jerry’s Market for a lot of years), purchase the inventory from Bill Burtson (who operated Bill’s
Weston Market for 19 years), and acquire the adjoining land (where the gas station is now
located), from Pete Phillips. You might wonder why us? Did we have any experience running a convenience store? The answer is no, but we knew we were getting older and figured we only had one failure left in
us … so, why not? When the decision was made (with the help of our children), we were all in! It really has been a family affair, thus the name … Woodward’s Country Store. We both quit our jobs and went to work planning, cleaning, building, major remodeling
(by Hobson Homes), furnishing, stocking, etc. Many hours and sleepless nights went into it with
the hopes and prayers it would all work out. Some of our family, friends, and many community
members thought we were crazy. They were probably right. It’s been an amazing and fulfilling journey with lots of mostly good memories along the
way … A single old gas pump that you had to double the price because it was unequipped to go
over $2.99 a gallon, cement pours with grandchildren’s handprints forever imprinted,
overwhelming support and help from the community, a wide variety of customers, wonderful
employees, Easter Egg Hunts, Fishing Derby’s, Burn-outs, Shoot-outs, several contributors of
mounts, hides, and other paraphernalia to decorate our store, Angela’s All Stars, Allstar
Tumbling, Chick-a-Dee Dance, and The Improv Class That Must Not be Named just to name a
few. Although a gas station was in the plan from the beginning, it wasn’t until 2013 that with
the help of Scott and Chris White, finally came to fruition. Sinclair liked our plan and opted to
brand the gas station. It still wasn’t complete until we got our dinosaur, Woody on 11.19.19. We also added High Volume Diesel and Red Diesel on September 15, 2020. We love where we live. We love Woodward’s Country Store. We love all of you. As we
celebrated our 10th Anniversary in June of 2020, we look forward to many more adventures in
the years to come.
