COOK — When Jenn and Jeremy Scofield signed the papers that made them the new owners of Northwoods Auto Parts in Cook, it wasn’t a sudden leap or a surprise pivot. It was the final step in a plan that began more than a decade ago, when the store first opened with a very specific long game in mind.
The store was founded by Jenn’s parents, Bill and Laurie Nieters, who opened Northwoods Auto Parts in 2012 with the intention of eventually turning it over to their daughter and son-in-law.
“They opened the store primarily with the long-term goal of one day selling it to us,” Jenn said. “They opened it for Jeremy to run and now here we are, our long-term goal has come to fruition.”
From the outside, the ownership change is invisible. Inside, it feels much the same as well, with customers still walking up to the counter and finding Jeremy in his familiar place, helping them track down the parts they need.
“He’s run the store since day one. He just about lives here,” Jenn said.
Jeremy’s career in the auto parts business stretches back decades before the Cook store opened.
“I started in the mid-90s up at Wally’s Parts and Service up there in Orr. I left there in 2007,” Jeremy said.
He later worked at Waschke Family Chevrolet in Cook and then moved to Northwoods Auto Parts when it opened, and he’s been there ever since. While customers sometimes assume he’s a mechanic, his expertise comes from years of working the parts counter and dealing with vehicles on a daily basis.
“With Jeremy having almost 40 years of knowledge in the industry, he’s going to be able to say, hey, instead of this, you need to try this,” Jenn said.
That depth of experience is increasingly rare in the industry, Jeremy said.
“You don’t find that anymore. The stores that have the big turnover are the ones that don’t know anything,” he said.
While Jeremy anchors the technical side of the business, Jenn has taken on responsibility for the operational side.
“Right now, I’m doing social media, the payroll, and paying the bills and making the deposits, all that kind of stuff,” she said.
Northwoods Auto Parts offers more than just shelves of filters and fluids.
In addition to automotive parts, the store fabricates hydraulic hoses to custom lengths and stocks snowmobile parts. The small engine shop that Bill Nieters used to run out the back of the store is gone, but Northwoods Auto Parts still carries parts for those types of engines, too.
Northwoods Auto Parts is affiliated with the Auto Value Parts Stores network, a Midwest-based chain with an established regional presence, and that connection gives the Cook store access to an Auto Value warehouse in St. Cloud, allowing parts to be sourced quickly even when they are not stocked locally.
“If it’s in the warehouse, it’ll be here on our doorstep by 7:30 or eight the next morning,” Jenn said.
That speed can make a difference for customers who depend on their vehicles and equipment.
“It’s nice for people to be able to not have to have their vehicle tied up for more than 24 hours,” she said.
Like much of the automotive industry, the store experienced supply disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jeremy said that situation has improved significantly and has not been affected by the automotive trade disruptions in 2025.
“I used to get a backorder report once a week that would be like six to ten pages long. Now it’s down to like two pages,” he said.
The store also has diagnostic scan tools, which have become increasingly important as vehicles rely more heavily on electronic systems.
Rather than viewing the business in isolation, Jenn said she and Jeremy are now looking ahead to becoming more actively connected with Cook’s broader small-business community. As owners, she said, they see value in working alongside other local businesses to help ensure the town remains as full-service as possible, recognizing that in a small community, each business plays a role in supporting the others.
From groceries and gas stations to bait shops, furniture stores, and service businesses, each plays a role in making Cook a full-service town, Jenn said. The auto parts store is part of that basic infrastructure, especially as people keep vehicles longer and rely on local access to keep them on the road.