Chatham Marketplace

Mary DeMare is Chatham Marketplace’s General Manager and serves on the Board of Directors. Originally from Elba, a small town in Western NY State, Mary is the youngest of 7 siblings. Graduating at the top of her class of 32 people, she went on to receive a BA in Sociology from the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY. After trying out many jobs and many places to live, she found Newark Natural Foods. This thriving, 30 year old cooperative grocery store in Newark, Delaware was where Mary fell in love with the Cooperative business structure and the 7 Cooperative principles. Starting as a cashier, she quickly found her niche and became the Marketing Director/Membership Coordinator, a position she held for over two years. While in that position, Newark Natural Foods was voted “Best Health Food Store” in Delaware by Delaware Today magazine. Also during her tenure at Delaware, Mary was involved with the design and orchestration of a complete reset of the retail and warehouse space. Once the store reset was complete, linear shelf space was increased by 35 percent, a Customer Service Desk was added and store flow was greatly improved. In the fall of 2004 Mary took over as Interim General Manager, and ran the store while the Board did a national search for a new manager. After about 6 months of Interim General Managing, Mary saw the help wanted ad Tami Schwerin and Melissa Frey had written for an exciting new opportunity…starting a Co-op in Pittsboro, NC. Well, heck, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give it a try, and all the stars were aligned such that she was offered the job! Mary started with Chatham Marketplace on June 1, 2005, and has been enjoying the store, the community and the biofueled-ride ever since. Email Mary at mary@chathammarketplace.coop
Cameron Barnett is Chatham Marketplace's Marketing and Owner Service Manager. She grew up in rural northern Florida on a family-run farm, where it turns out she was raised on organic produce (she just knew it was extra-fresh). She has been living in Pittsboro for a year and a half, having moved this way from Carrboro. She attended UNC-Chapel Hill, where she got a degree in English and Anthropology, and she spent her first years as a career-type teaching public high school in Chatham and Wake Counties. Cameron began her time at the Co-op working as a barista/sandwich maker/baker in the kitchen this summer, where she fell in love with this Co-op and with the model for living it represents. She was excited to be given the opportunity to join the management team in late August, 2007. Since then, she's been working to learn more from her coworkers about all things Co-op. Email Cameron at cameron@chathammarketplace.coop
Jeff Barney is Chatham Marketplace's Kitchen/Deli Manager. He is originally from Michigan and is thrilled to be a new Chatham County resident. Initially, Jeff trained as a butcher in the old world style. He has spent his entire work career, some 25 years, in retail food. As he progressed he became more involved in specialty foods, narrowing his focus to gourmet and natural food environments while expanding his culinary skills. He has spent the last ten years in Durham, first with Wellspring (Whole Foods now), then with Fowlers Gourmet. He was the Butcher, Kitchen Manager and Store Manager for seven years with Fowlers, a locally owned gourmet food and wine shop. He left to build his own house here in beautiful Chatham. Chathamite foodies will recognize Jeff as the shorter of the two fellas that opened the Fowler's that lived too briefly at Fearrington Village. Jeff looks forward to working with local farmers and helping provide wholesome, local and excellent choices for cheese, deli meats, coffee, pastries, prepared foods and his greatest love, the almighty sandwich. Email Jeff at jeffb@chathammarketplace.coop
David Dellea is the head of the Produce Department. David says, "I sold my first vegetable, from the family garden at age 10, with my very own roadside stand. That lasted until the mid-teens, when there were reasons to spend that money I had been making. I then took a twenty year hiatus from selling yummy, fresh from the earth, fruits and veggies. This is where i need to thank my mom for her open mindedness and in encouraging me to reach for the stars and to my dad for scaring away all the things that go bump in the night as well as all those recruiters. In that time I managed to see some wonderful parts of Europe, Greece and the US. I received a bachelors degree in American Studies and Theater, from SUNY Brockport. I spent 3 years in Francisco where I worked for Greenpeace, the Food Bank of San Mateo, and on the North Shore fishing docks. After all that I found myself a new home and it was called North Carolina. Now this is where the fun begins, it seemed that I had finally found my roots. In 1991 I started selling fruits and veggies again for a new store in Chapel Hill called Wellspring Grocery. Several years later, I heard the call, a Coop was looking for someone to sell veggies and I had to answer. I spent seven years with Weaver Street Market, in Carrboro. In that time, I learned a lot about life and had the joy of witnessing the birth of both of my beautiful, intelligent, polite, imaginative, (i could just go on and on...), boys, Jesse and Noah. I got married and divorced and now have an amazing joint custody lifestyle that benefits us all wonderfully. They are now 12 and 10 years old. Anyone up for Dungeons and Dragons just let us know. Wait, what's that, the sound of a Co-op in need of someone to sell yummy fruits and veggies, yes its the Durham Food Coop, your friendly neighborhood produce artisan is on the way. I helped out there for about four years (the commute was killing me and my vehicle, a 1963 four-wheel drive Jimmy), when I heard the call... It was Chatham Marketplace, your friendly neighborhood produce artisan is on the way. Now I am here and I am very excited for this opportunity. I look forward to working closely with local producers and providing the best products that we can offer. I am also very happy to join the dedicated staff and board of Chatham Marketplace on our journey to make this the store we have all been waiting for." Email David at davidd@chathammarketplace.coop
Phil Lyons is Chatham Marketplace's Front End Manager. After 30 years of moving and travel, Phil Lyons has finally found his home at Chatham Marketplace. Born under the smoggy brown skies of New Jersey, this loathsome wayfarer has lived in Maryland, Illinois, Connecticut, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and abroad in Liberia and Ireland. More Great than Alexander he has conquered four continents and intends to take what's left of the other three; global climate change be damned. Barely surviving two years of harsh discipline and suffocating torment, Captain Lyons graduated from Military School with honors and went on to attend UNC-Greensboro, where he chose to throw his life away and study Art. Five-and-a-half years later he emerged with BFA in hand, drained of life and doomed never again to produce another piece of "art". "I've got to get the #%@$ outta Greensboro!", said Phil as he finally saw his chance, and he ended up in the miniature city of Providence RI. Forever a lover of music, he had an opportunity to tour and play drums for the legendary rock failure Gull- too bad the bass player just couldn't remember four simple songs.. Phil has since returned to North Carolina, where he spends his days at Chatham Marketplace and his nights in Azeroth. He has acquired two very handsome and adoring felines, and provides foster care for another. A strict Vegan in his personal life, Phil feels at home at Chatham Marketplace, the only place he's worked at which he can actually eat the food. Comforted in knowing that all products that pass through CM's hallowed sliding glass doors are promised to be cruelty-free, he feels not a pang of untruth when saying, "that chicken looks delicious!" He has had his last corporate hair-cut. He is home. Email Phil at phil@chathammarketplace.coop
Miki Schrider is Chatham Marketplace's BookKeeper and Office Manager. Miki states: "I've been a bean counter most of my working life, whether in an official capacity or not! That's my confession. My work life has evolved from graphic design and advertising to project estimation and client service to production management to marketing to annual fundraising to capital fundraising and then to accounting. I've managed big budgets and small. The skills needed in all these areas are basically the same: attention to detail, focusing on the bottom line, customer service, facility with numbers and computers. When not counting beans I'm counting sheep and chickens on the small farm in western Chatham County I share with my husband. We raise rare and tasty breeds of sheep and chickens for our own table and those of friends. We're dedicated to increasing the availability and popularity of these disappearing American foods, and raise them humanely of course! I'm delighted to have returned to this area in 2004 after being away since 1988. Orange and Chatham counties have changed a lot since I left, but they're more the same than different. We became CM owners just a few weeks after moving to NC. Little did I know I would find employment as well as healthy food at the market. Being a part of the start-up staff for Chatham Marketplace has been so enjoyable and personally fulfilling. The store is a solid success not only because of all the years of planning, blood, sweat and tears of the founder and original Board, but because of the amazing staff who give superior customer service daily, the product mix, the location, and that happy feeling you get when walking in the door or your hometown grocery store." Email Miki at miki@chathammarketplace.coop
Marian Wall is Chatham Marketplace's Main Buyer. After 30 years as an “independent” business owner, Marian was ready for a new direction. Her challenge was to integrate her passion for an organic, sustainable, environmentally responsible lifestyle with more shared responsibilities than she had with a sole ownership. Chatham Marketplace was the answer to her dreams. Marian says that reading the seven principles of a cooperative business was an unbelievable inspiration. Marian actively pursued a place on the founding management team of Chatham Marketplace as soon as she heard about the store from some close friends who had become some of the initial owners. Although the opening date was postponed a number of times, she persisted in seeking a position on the “ground floor” of this exciting new cooperative business. In the process she discovered that ancestors of her father were some of the founders of one of the first sustainable communities in our country. This community still exists and is preserved in the state of Iowa (the Amana community just outside of Cedar Rapids). The summer before she started working at Chatham Marketplace, she was fortunate enough to visit many Wall Family farms in the beautiful Iowa countryside. Marian is deeply grateful for the opportunity to be a member of the founding management team at Chatham Marketplace and a member of the Board of Directors. She believes that she will bring an element of long term experience in organics and a passionate commitment to the concepts of organics and sustainability. Marian also has an interest in bridging the connection between management and the extended staff of incredible employees at the Marketplace. Email Marian at marian@chathammarketplace.coop