<\/p>\n
When Pete Loyd was handed an award last week for earning Mancos Citizen of the year, along with co-owner Rob Kirks, Loyd thanked someone unusual.<\/p>\n
He thanked the Family Dollar Store.<\/p>\n
Just a year ago, Mancos residents crowded into the Mancos Town Board meeting room carrying protest signs after word spread that the store was planning a location in Mancos. Some said the store would harm the local economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to send Family Dollar a thank-you note for kicking us in the butt and getting us to do some changes,\u201d Loyd said shortly after receiving the award.<\/p>\n
Loyd and Kirks have been busy making changes inside the 39-year-old P&D store, most of which, Loyd said, were inspired by the incoming Family Dollar store.<\/p>\n
Kirks said the biggest change they made was changing out the lights from compact florescent lights to LED lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge energy savings,\u201d Kirks said.<\/p>\n
The lights will likely save the store owners $1,000 a month on their electricity bill.<\/p>\n
In addition, the produce section of the store has been remodeled, which has helped produce sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy produce sales have tripled,\u201d Kirks said.<\/p>\n
The market has also been painted, and the front has been remodeled, as well as the bathrooms.<\/p>\n
The store has also added a baker. Niles Blegen has been busy preparing cakes, cinnamon rolls and breads. He also makes pastries.<\/p>\n
Blegen has been baking for nearly 40 years. He said his specialty is homemade cakes and Danishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a background in pastry work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Blegen\u2019s been on the job just about two weeks, so he is still trying to get a feel for what will sell in Mancos.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been baking pies, biscuits and oat bars too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am just trying things out right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Blegan was influenced by his German training in baking and his Norwegian parents, and he makes a mean Rye bread, he said.<\/p>\n
With the produce case more prominent and the addition of a baker, Loyd hopes it will make the perishable goods in the store more prominent. They added a flower case, and the produce appears brighter under new LED lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamily Dollar doesn\u2019t offer produce or perishable goods,\u201d Loyd said.<\/p>\n
As far as an update on Family Dollar\u2019s upcoming arrival in Mancos, Town Administrator Andrea Phillips said the company still has quite a few hurdles to jump before they break ground on a new store. Family Dollar must still get a development plan approved by the Town Board and has to get an access permit with the Colorado Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Incoming chain store prompts grocers’ push to innovate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-114656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114656"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=114656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}