POCATELLO — Nel’s Bi-Lo Market, Pocatello’s only locally owned and operated grocery store, has new ownership after a sale that officially closed June 26.

The store has been a fixture on 15th Avenue for nearly a century. A small store called the Little Chief once occupied the building before the Colaianni family ran it for roughly 40 to 45 years. Barry Dutton’s father-in-law, Todd Nelson, bought the store from the Colaiannis in 1991, and Dutton took over as owner in 2009.

“This store is totally built on relationships,” Dutton said.

The store’s meat department and catering operation became key draws for customers, Dutton said. The business expanded into wedding and corporate catering in recent years, including events for up to 850 people, and now supplies milk, dairy and produce to sCenter Street hotels and area restaurants.

Dutton said the store adapted through past setbacks, including a 2016 hospital relocation that cut into foot traffic on 15th Avenue. In response, the store launched a home meal delivery service called Meals in a Box, which ran for several years before ending earlier this year amid growing competition from similar services.

Dutton had been trying to sell the business for about five years, with four previous deals falling through before a buyer who fit the store’s legacy came along.

“I’ve been doing this now almost 40 years, and so it’s just looking for a change in my life,” Dutton said.

That buyer, Joshua Lassen, grew up in the grocery business. His grandparents immigrated from Denmark in the early 1950s and settled in California, where his grandmother opened a small natural food store that grew into a small chain under his father.

The family’s business has since expanded to 10 stores in Southern California and one in Kauai, and it purchased two similar stores in Washington state two years ago. Lassen described the format as similar to Whole Foods, but on a smaller scale.

Nel’s Bi-Lo will keep its name, Lassen said, with no plans for a rebrand.

“We’re not going to rebrand — it’s going to continue to be Nel’s Bi-Lo for the foreseeable future, if not forever,” Lassen said.

Lassen plans to retain the store’s existing team and build on its established catering and meat departments while expanding local product offerings. He’s also pricing out a possible remodel, though he said the timeline depends on the store’s finances in the coming months.

“I’d love to do it here shortly, but I gotta be a little bit conservative in terms of what we can spend on a refresh,” Lassen said.

For now, he wants customers to know the essentials won’t change.

“My goal is that there will be no change initially, and that customers will still continue to have their source for great meat, great deli and good prices,” Lassen said.

Dutton’s last day at the store was Friday. After stepping away, he plans to focus on growing his real estate career, which he began pursuing during an earlier attempt to sell the store in 2021, along with a small Airbnb cabin business he and his family are building up.

Dutton said he’s leaving the store in good hands and thanked the community that kept it running for 35 years under his family.

“We just cannot thank them enough,” Dutton said. “If not for them, this place wouldn’t be here.”