Beatrice Super Market is under new ownership.

Richard Hasley, who owned the grocery store for eight years and owned Beatrice Super Foods for 12 years before that, has decided

to retire.

“It’s gone by too fast,” Hasley said. “It’s been good to us. I’m really going to miss my employees and also my customers. We’ve had a lot of regular customers over the years.”

Hasley said one of the perks to running a grocery store is interaction with people, which he enjoys. But Hasley said he won’t miss the long hours and working  seven-day weeks. 

Hasley said Beatrice Super Market managed to compete with larger stores because of good service and good meat.

“We couldn’t compete with their prices, but we could beat their service,” Hasley said. “We have complete carry-out service and carry-out orders and a meat department that is superior.”

Hasley credits much of the store’s success to Danny Moslander, who runs the meat department.

Three businessmen from Wamego, Kan., will be the new owners of Beatrice Super Foods, one of which is John Dyer, a fourth generation grocer who has been in the grocery business his entire life.

His two partners are Mark Watkins and Paul Barnes.

“If you’re going to be in the grocery business, you have to like the work you do,” Dyer said. “It just gets in your blood.”

Dyer and his partners own four other stores in Kansas and heard earlier this year that Hasley was looking to sell his store.

They decided to buy it because “it was a fine store in a fine community.”

“It appears to be a successful store with a real good sales base,” Dyer said. “It has good management and a good staff, the facilities and fixtures are all in good shape and up to standard and Beatrice is a good market because it’s growing.”

Because of the store’s success, Dyer doesn’t intend to make many changes, which includes retaining the current employees.

“We don’t plan on re-inventing the wheel,” Dyer said. “It’s been a good operating store for several years.”

The three owners will be in town most of this week to oversee the transition, but will eventually hire a full-time manager.

Dyer said his other four stores in Kansas also compete against Wal-Mart stores and his approach will be very similar to Hasley’s when it comes to competing.

“We’re going to make sure we run a good, well supplied store with good prices,” Dyer said. “If you do that, and supply a good service then you can be successful.”