The man largely responsible for that success [of SCAN] was Bob Gowell...who came to GCS [Greenbelt Cooperative] from the Rochdale Cooperative at the time of its merger. Ashelman [who would later be hired by GCS] had brought him to Washington in 1942 to work in the small co-op stores there. Gowell next managed the Fairlington store and then the Falls Church supermarket when it opened in 1954.
So, Gowell was experienced in converting co-ops into supermarkets and this explains why Ashelman refered the Danish companies to Gowell.