Phil Deering and his market—alive and well!
By Linda Alice Dewey
Sun contributor
Let’s dispel the rumor right away. Deering’s Market in Empire is not closing.
It’s 11 a.m. on a Wednesday in July, and Deering’s Market owner Phil Deering is taking chicken out of the fryer, getting things ready for the lunch crowd. The man is working hard. “It’s the way it is,” he comments. “Ya gotta make it in 90 days.” He dumps the chicken into a large metal bin lined with red and white checked paper.
So how is business? “Things are going good,” he responds. “It’s good this year. It’s up.” It might be a little harder to get help, he admits, but “not too bad. I get what I need.” He places the bin of chicken into a heated window.
A rumor has been flying around that Deering’s market is closing in December. When he hears it, he laughs. “News to me,” he says, but he thinks he knows how the rumor got started. “I do have the place for sale. It’s not listed or anything. It’s out to my wholesalers. I‘m looking for a buyer. If I get one, fine; if I don’t get one, fine.”
Does that mean he’s ready to retire? “I do a little farming on the side,” he answers. He and his wife, Sue, raise sheep, goats, donkeys, chickens, rabbits, animals. The two have been married for 10 years. “Between the two of us, we have six grandchildren. I have a son and a daughter, and she has a son and a daughter.”
So, back to the subject. If Deering’s isn’t closing, is anything else changing in the Empire? “Yeah,” he replies, “Empire’s changing. It is. It’s getting a little more modernized, because new people leave the city and come to a small community and think that they need all the accessories that they left. So it’s changing.”
How does he feel about that? “It’s fine. I’m old enough now to appreciate what I had, and it’s time to move on.” He does admit that he liked it the old way.
He pulls out the cole slaw, opens three bags and throws them into another large metal bin, gets out a huge jar of slaw dressing, pours it on, mixes it up.
What does the village need to do to ‘move on?’ “They’re doing it already,” he answers. “They really are. The village is doing a really good job of keeping up with everything,” he says as he works. “They’re improving the village amenities, the parks, the roads. And we have a good chamber of commerce that does a lot of promotions with festivals, like the hops festivals. So that helps the community out a lot.”
Deering is a member of the chamber. “I’m a board member now on the township,” he adds, “and I’m also on the village planning commission.”
What about the problem the village has with not having the land for sewers? “Well, that’s not really true,” he replies. “A business can build there in town anywhere they would like. They would just have to acquire more property that they would need for their new septic system. Like, the new hotel is going in. So what they did, they acquired more property to take care of it. The same thing with any new business that’s coming in … but there’s no problem. There’s no sewage problem, there’s no lake problem, there’s no pollution problem or anything else.”
As to whether the village someday should put in a sewage system, Deering speaks only for himself. “If they can go ahead and make arrangements, if they can find the finances to do it, then yeah, that’s always an improvement.”
He mentioned a new hotel. Peter and Megan Schous, who currently own the Lakeshore Inn, have submitted plans to build a hotel near the Sleeping Bear Dunes Visitors Center, behind the gas station.
Wow. What else might be coming to Empire? “We’re gonna get a drugstore in town.” When? “It all depends on when Munson wants to do it.” The drugstore will be located in the same building used by Dr. Fliss on M-22, north of town. “It’s coming 360 degrees around,” he exclaims, referring to the time three decades ago when Doc Houghton’s office was in Empire with a drugstore in the same building.
Empire and Glen Arbor are the two major towns in the Sun’s coverage area. How does he feel they differ from one another? “Empire is a little more laid back,” he responds, “and Glen Arbor is a little more touristy. You’ve got all those tourist shops and everything. Empire is a little more residential.”
Phil is still working hard. How does he feel, physically? “Nothing wrong with me,” he says.
In regard to that rumor about the market closing at the end of the year, Deering lays out an invitation. “Come here in December. I’m still going to be here.”
