{"id":133783,"date":"2026-06-17T21:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T03:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-a-record-and-tinned-fish-store-has-survived-for-three-years-in-del-norte\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T21:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T03:15:22","slug":"how-a-record-and-tinned-fish-store-has-survived-for-three-years-in-del-norte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-a-record-and-tinned-fish-store-has-survived-for-three-years-in-del-norte\/","title":{"rendered":"How a record and tinned-fish store has survived for three years in Del Norte"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Paul
Paul Fennell in his business, Trade & Post, in Del Norte on March 12. (Dan Boyce\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For the first couple of years living in the rustic, homestead cabin Paul Fennell had purchased in Rio Grande County, it was basically camping indoors. Yet, in that time he had slowly grown a new skill set. He installed new in-floor heating, plumbing and electrical. He changed the floorplan and installed insulation. All of it he did himself, with the help of what he called \u201cYouTube University.\u201d<\/p>\n

By early 2023, the small cabin was feeling much more like home. It was time to move his life back in, from the shipping container outside he\u2019d had shipped out from Silicon Valley, California.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started bringing my furniture. I started bringing in the things I felt that I would need. The coffee maker and the record player,\u201d Fennell said. \u201cThen I looked at my records and I realized (the cabin) isn\u2019t really going to afford the space of a record collection of a few thousand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I had to do something with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A group unloads equipment for a \u201cPirate's Prom\u201d anniversary party at Trade & Post in Del Norte on March 14. (Dan Boyce\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Trade & Post<\/div>\n

On a Saturday evening in mid-March this year, Fennell held a three-year anniversary party for the record shop he opened on Main Street in Del Norte. The party\u2019s theme was \u201cPirate\u2019s Prom\u201d and locals from around the San Luis Valley took note. They dressed as pirates. They dressed for prom. Some tried to combine the two. They sang sea shanties and drank craft beer.<\/p>\n

Trade & Post has evolved a lot since it opened. What started as little more than a place to sell his own vast collection of vinyl has expanded to encompass two spacious rooms. One is a live event space featuring a packed calendar of touring musicians. The retail space next to it sells the records, but also a selection of random curiosities ranging from tinned fish to shaving supplies to obscure potato chip flavors only found in international markets.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cPirate's
\u201cPirate's Prom\u201d attendees sing sea shanties at Trade & Post in Del Norte on March 14. (Dan Boyce\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

More than anything, Trade & Post feels like a comfortable lounge and tap room. Customers might shoot a free game of pool, play chess or relax in leather couches near a wood-burning stove. Fennell calls it an extension of his living room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I have folks that have known me through the years come and visit me here in Rio Grande County, they walk in and they say, \u2018Oh, I get it. This is just like your living room. Only you hold public hours,\u2019\u201d Fennell told Colorado Matters.<\/p>\n

\"Trade
Trade & Post owner Paul Fennell dressed as a sea captain for \u201cPirate\u2019s Prom\u201d on March 14. (Dan Boyce\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Digital to analog<\/div>\n

Running a record and tinned fish store represents a dramatic left turn on Fennell\u2019s resume. Prior to the COVID pandemic, the now 44-year-old worked in the world of software startups in and around San Francisco. He bounced around among fledgling companies trying to make it big, working typically in customer relations roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving in the Bay Area and working in the tech world, a fast-paced world, really prepared me with the skills I needed to be an entrepreneur,\u201d Fennell said. \u201cBut it really didn\u2019t provide me the lifestyle that I was looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early 2020 brought the opportunity for Fennell to work from an office in Boulder. He moved to the Front Range just in time for the COVID pandemic to shut the world down. Now, working as a remote employee, he realized he wanted to be even farther from civilization and deeper into the mountains.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t have any grand plans. He just drove. Over the course of a few trips to northern New Mexico, he discovered the San Luis Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is funny. I find, oftentimes, when you stop looking for something is when you find it,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t looking to put roots down here. I was looking to do some camping and lay my head down on a camper\u2019s mat.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, in the San Luis Valley he said he was able to find space for himself. That first night, camping at 9,000 feet, he was surrounded by cows grazing in the high alpine ranges. The only other person he saw was on horseback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recall that next morning when I broke camp and I was heading back to the Front Range \u2026 I saw myself in the rear-view mirror and I was smiling,\u201d he said. \u201cI found this moment of joy that I think was escaping me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Records
Records organized for sale at Trade & Post in Del Norte on March 14. (Dan Boyce\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A few days later, he was under contract for that rustic old cabin he would go on to rehabilitate. Working on that cabin and learning how to build things in the real world, he found himself drifting away from his digital career.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I was developing a new language and living here and working with my hands, I was kind of losing the old language of what it means to work in a corporate enterprise environment,\u201d Fennell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat change really solidified a feeling that I was having at the time, which was \u2018There\u2019s something real that\u2019s happening here that you need to lean into.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Fennell took a job helping new friends run a farmer\u2019s market one day a week. He set up tents. He booked musicians. He made new connections and built a sense of community.<\/p>\n

And as he moved his life from his storage unit into his remodeled cabin, he knew he wouldn\u2019t have room for his record collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met my partner within a few months of moving here, and we welcomed our first daughter the month that I signed that lease,\u201d Fennell said.<\/p>\n

So, both Trade & Post and his daughter Harlan recently celebrated their third birthdays.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hint: it\u2019s not through record or fish sales<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6401],"tags":[431,1820,28,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-133783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-news","tag-business-general","tag-dh-trueanthem","tag-headlines","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133783","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=133783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133783"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=133783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}