Corey Woods joined Urbane Development in 2011 as a Retail Consultant. As a veteran of the supermarket and food retail industry for over 20 years, Mr. Woods marries retail store management, operations, and workforce training expertise in high-volume urban retail environments. Corey provides strategic support for Urbane in its grocery and retail development services, including direct technical assistance in product sourcing, handling, and quality control; equipment and machinery training; visual and promotional merchandising, and customer service.

Corey has worked with Urbane on its grocery advisory services in Minneapolis and Detroit, facilitating hands-on curriculum. Mr. Woods also worked extensively with a local, family-owned Portuguese chouriço maker in Fall River, MA on their journey to make healthier sausages for the community that still respected cultural traditions and expectations.

In 2021, Corey completed ShopRite/Brown’s Superstores’ prestigious Meat Apprenticeship program, where managers receive specialized training on a variety of butchery techniques, including carcass quartering and the processing of primal and sub primal cuts. The apprenticeship program targets managers preparing to manage high-volume store departments.

Prior to the apprenticeship, Corey was a Seafood Department Manager at ShopRite/Brown’s Superstores from 2006-14. In his time as manager, Mr. Woods managed departments of up to 40 employees and with annual sales of over $1.5M. With typical department margins of 36%, Corey departments consistently achieved over 45% profit margins in extremely high-volume departments throughout urban and suburban Philadelphia.

Corey has developed seafood departments from the ground-up at new ShopRite stores, but specialized in department repositioning of existing stores. Servicing up to 2000 unique customers daily, Corey managed department budgets of over $500k annually while responsible for employee training and reviews, inventory management, pricing integrity, product merchandising, and all other operational processes. 

Corey received his AA from the Community College of Philadelphia in 2003 and is a SafeServ Certified Food Handler.