TORRINGTON – After decades serving the Torrington area, Dave and Sharon Kelly of Kelly’s Super grocery have retired, and a Nebraska grocer is stepping in to make sure the store still offers the same service and small-town feel Goshen County residents have come to know.
Kerri Dishman, co-owner of Fresh Foods with her husband, Ben, said Torrington seemed like a good fit for their store’s philosophy. The Torrington store will be Dishman’s third location, along with stores in Gering, Neb. and Brush, Colo.
“We’re always looking for opportunities,’ Dishman said. “We had heard that the Kellys were ready to retire and our warehouse had gotten a hold of us. It fit in our idea of location, and we really enjoy the small town community. Torrington has that to offer, too.”
While some aspects of the Torrington store will mirror the Fresh Foods in Gering, Dishman said it is important to Fresh Foods that it maintains the characteristics that made Kelly’s Super a part of the community for generations.
“It will definitely have a lot of similarities to Gering, but we also want Torrington to be its own unique store, too, so we can meet the needs of eastern Wyoming,’ she said. “There will be similarities, but there will also be a few differences.”
Right now, Dishman said Fresh Foods is preparing to replace the flooring as well as expand the produce section. That said, Torrington Fresh Foods customers will still have the same goods they’ve come to expect from Kelly’s.
“Next week, we’re going to lay down a new floor,” she said. “As we do these processes and some changes, we’re going to still continue our regular hours so we have that same look. It has the Fresh Foods feel whether you’re in the Nebraska store, the Colorado store or our Wyoming store.
“We pull from the same warehouse, so we will still carry a lot of familiar things the customer is used to.”
Dishman said the store’s loyal lunch crowd won’t have to find another source for chicken and the other hot items Kelly’s offered, either. Fresh Foods is actually going to expand the section to include rotisserie chicken.
“We will still have the deli, and we’re excited to add a rotisserie machine, so we’ll have rotisserie chicken,” she said. “We’re not going to get rid of the favorites of Torrington because that is what makes that store special.”
