On April 11, 1996, the Dolores Food Market first came into Linnea Peterson’s orbit.
She was working in Durango at the time, and her then-husband, Taz, was studying at Fort Lewis College.
“Taz said if we’re to provide for a family, we need to own our own business and the market was for sale,” Peterson said. “I figured, why not.”
So they bought it.
It was off Central Avenue then, set back from the highway and thus “invisible.” It was “conventional,” too.
“There were Looky Lous, peering in the window,” she laughed. “The younger crowd, our age at the time, was asking for things. Natural, organic stuff.”
“We’ve been evolving ever since,” she said, explaining how they have a natural foods supplier in addition to the more “conventional” one.
Community members requesting products still greatly influences what the Food Market supplies to this day – “if we can get it, we will,” she said.
Admittedly, it’s “not a business of profit.”
“There’s maybe a 1% net profit,” said Peterson with a laugh.
“But it’s a great business to raise a family, and we were able to do that. We raised our girls here,” she said.
Peterson remembered the wood floors in the first store on Central, and how they’d sweep it every night and sprinkle sawdust on them.
She said her sister-in-law at the time made her daughter Sarah a padded suit so she could crawl around on the floor comfortably and stay clean. It was a onesie that covered everything but her head.
“I remember the dust smell in the old store,” said Sarah Vass, the market’s manager now. “A lot of my memories are here, though, like running around the store and getting in trouble for running around the store.”
The Dolores Food Market moved to its more visible location on the highway in 1999.
There, they hosted the town’s first farmers market before it moved to Flander’s Park.
Six to eight vendors would back their trucks up to the overhang and sell their products. At day’s end, Taz would usually go out and buy what they didn’t sell, said Peterson.
“We still buy produce from local farmers,” she said. Eggs and meats, too.
On Oct. 1, 2019, Peterson took over the store on her own. A few years later, Vass moved back from Portland where she had lived for five years, and has been the store manager since.
In Oregon, Vass worked at the popular Zupan’s Markets, where she learned “a newer way of cooking, gourmet ways of chefing it up.”
Her husband, Noah Frasier, who’s the meat manager at the Dolores Food Market, said he “learned more about butchering, sausage, seafood” at Zupan’s, and trends like “how people shop.”
“But we really learned that here,” he said, as far as shopping trends go. “Our customers tell us what to carry. They really make the store run.”
“Our customers love local food, organic food, local eggs,” Vass added. “It’s so important to buy local, and they do.”
“Being able to be here comes back to the customer base,” she added. “We know people’s names and say hi when they come in. It’s really a cool experience.”
Fraisier underscored how “our customers bring the community in here.”
“The community of the store comes from the community bringing it into the store,” he said.
And the community will come in, hang out and visit with one another – “They’re not in any rush,” said Peterson.
For those who have heard about the market from outside the community, it’s become something of a destination.
“If people are remotely in this area, they’ll come out of their way to come here,” said Vass.
Plus, they’ve shipped fruit pies – which Peterson pointed out is made fresh, with no canned filling – to California, Texas.
“Our pies go out into the world,” said Vass.
Fraisier added that someone once bought five pizzas before a flight home to Texas and flew with them as their carry-on.
“Our customer base is incredible, and so is our team,” said Vass.
There’s 23 or 24 on staff, some full-time, some part-time, said Peterson.
“I’m proud of the success, the customers, the team, the community. We wouldn’t be here without them,” said Peterson. “There’s been a lot of businesses that have moved in and out of this place, but we’ve been here 29 years now.”
“And we turn 30 next year,” said Vass. “We’ll throw an anniversary party, we’re already planning now.
“Something summery, with a big tent,” said Frasier.
“I’m just proud of it all,” Peterson said. “Hopefully there will be a lot more years to come.”
