Dennis Moffatt, owner and operator of The Market at Red Deer for 50 years, celebrated his final day at the helm on Saturday morning. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

half a century

Dennis Moffatt says goodbye to The Market at Red Deer after 50 years

Oct 10, 2020 | 4:13 PM

It’s the end of an era for The Market at Red Deer, affectionately known as the Red Deer Farmers’ Market.

Dennis Moffatt has operated the market for 50 years, and on Saturday, it’s final day of 2020, he said goodbye to being at the helm. Kids Patrick and Fiona, who’ve helped with operations over many years, are set to take over full-time in 2021.

From the market, Moffatt told rdnewsNOW he’s very proud to see how important the weekly occurrence has become to Red Deerians.

“I can remember the very first day we operated. We had 12 vendors. Today, even with [COVID-19], we had 99 stalls, which makes the market viable,” he shared. “Attendance is down from a regular of 15,000 to about 6,000, but still we’ve had a good market this year and enabled people to work their produce and make a living.”

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Moffatt says the market makes, on average, vendors sell $6 million worth of product annually.

The Market at Red Deer began in 1970 on the east side of where Servus Arena is now. It moved around downtown a handful of times, including to the Memorial Centre parking lot in 2016 when the old Red Deer Arena was scheduled to be torn down.

“Occasionally, we had the wrong location,” Moffatt admitted. “People weren’t happy when we were more downtown for a while. They felt they were losing out on parking spaces, but their business doubled while we were there. We finally moved back to our original spot because this is a happy place.”

Asked which one thing stands out the most from 50 years running the market, he acknowledged three vendors who’ve attended every step of the way.

“They are Hank Pluister, the McArthurs, and the Pine Hill Colony, and that’s an amazing accomplishment for them. With Pine Hill, I worked with their grandfather. They’ve had three generations come to this market,” told Moffatt. “Plus, this is a good social gathering place. It’s somewhere you can bring someone and show off that something happens here on Saturday mornings besides watching a haircut and the train come in.”

Dawn Detarando, who married into the aforementioned McArthur family, has herself vended at the market for more than 15 years.

Her in-laws, Lorne and Marilyn McArthur, began selling produce at Red Deer’s market before turning to flowers. They still sell flowers and produce to this day with Detarando having added a custom tile art business to the mix.

“Dennis has been really great, and it’s just been a wonderful experience,” she said. “The market is important and I’m glad it’s back at its old space … it’s just a great activity for people to come down, visit, buy art, vegetables, and flowers. It’s a beautiful activity for Red Deer.”

Going forward, Moffatt will still be doing paperwork for the market, while the kids take centre stage. Son Patrick, a self-described “market brat” who began helping there when he was about 17, said he has big shoes to fill.

“I’m very proud. It’s incredible what my dad has done for the community, what he’s done thinking about others and the farmers, and his idea of bringing a farmers’ market back to an agricultural community like Red Deer,” he said. “Bringing this back was a boon for Red Deer, all of Alberta, and even western Canada. Markets morphed from this one, and it’s something I want to carry on.”

With fee collecting to complete, and many goodbyes to make, Dennis concluded, saying his kids won’t be able to get rid of him too easily.

“[Next year], I’m going to come down here every Saturday morning, stand around and look unimportant, and kind of enjoy it. I’m going to be a shopper,” he quipped. “Keep this in your heart. This is your market; you made it what it is. If you keep responding to this market, it’s something you too can be proud of.”