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Grocery to open in Fairplay

Linda Balough
Special to the Daily/Linda BaloughJames Dean, a native of Colorado, is starting a grocery store in Fairplay. He grew up in the grocery business and passed the empty building frequently on his daily trip from his home in Fairplay to his job in Summit County.
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FAIRPLAY – The building at the intersection of highways 9 and 285 in Fairplay will finally house a grocery by the end of October. Developer Sam Mick built the structure designed to be a food market under the theory that, “If you build it they will come,” over a year ago, and after several false starts with a number of chain operations, the building will soon be a family-owned food market.

James Dean, a native of Colorado, grew up in the grocery business and passed the empty building frequently on his daily trip from his home in Fairplay to his job in Summit County. “Every time I went by and it was still empty, I kept thinking, ‘I’m going to hate it when I have to go in and pay my grocery money to someone else when I knew I am perfectly capable of running the store myself,'” Dean said.Dean said the store will be a typical neighborhood food store, with a self-service deli, frozen food, fresh produce and bakery as well as shelf goods. He welcomes the highly visible location that may attract the travelers, fishermen or hunters, but expects most of his business will come from the local South Park area.

Eventually, Dean expects to employ up to 10 to 12 people at the store. After several months of deliberation, Dean and his wife Crystal, who works for the Breckenridge Police Department, decided to take the plunge and open the business as Prather’s Market, after a long-time family name.



The 35-year-old Dean and family know the business will make a big demand on their time. “I know that whenever I need to find him, he’ll be over at the store,” said Crystal with a laugh. Even 3-year-old James (he’s the fifth generation to carry the name of James Prather Dean) is eager to get started. “He keeps talking about ‘Daddy’s grocery,'” Crystal said.The exact date of opening has not been set, pending the completion of the refrigeration units, but the couple has targeted somewhere around the 20th of October.


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