North Platte Post
North Platte, Neb. - Gary’s Super Foods has been a staple of the North Platte area for a long time, but the two North Platte locations have been recently sold and will be rebranded as Fresh Foods. Kerri and Ben Dishman, both with North Platte ties, are the proud owners of Fresh Foods and are excited to own two locations in North Platte. The McCook Gary's Super Foods location will also rebrand as Fresh Foods.
Ben Dishman has been working in the grocery industry for most of his life. The North Platte native worked his way up the chain to different leadership positions beginning as a bagger, manager, to eventually owning his own grocery stores. He landed his first gig working for Sixth Street Food at the Westfield Shopping Plaza.
Dishman has experience working in grocery stores in North Platte, Ogallala and Gering. Ben and his wife Kerri opened up their first grocery store in 2012 in Gering. Since 2018, the husband-and-wife duo has bought and operates 10 locations including both North Platte stores and in McCook. The Dishmans are excited to operate two locations back in North Platte.
“I'm excited. I was just telling, I don't remember who I was talking to, but I went into the back room when I first started touring the store and I still have my name still written on the ceiling back there. It was kind of a rite of passage for anybody who worked here to take a marker, put your name up on the rafter. And so it was kind of fun going through all those names, just seeing some of the same people that I hired are still here,” said Ben Dishman, owner of Fresh Foods.
Ben and Kerri Dishman met in 1995 in North Platte after Kerri returned home from college and wanted to look for a group to play basketball with. She eventually met Ben but stated he was a shy person. Kerri also learned that he worked for Sixth Street Food.
“After that, I found out he had worked at the Sixth Street here in Westfield and I would always have to somehow go pick things up there and stock 'em all. He was stocking the shelves. So that was kind of how we met,” said Kerri Dishman, owner of Fresh Foods.
North Platte means a lot to the Dishman family as they met here, were married in 1997 here and also their children were born at Great Plains Health. Kerri and Ben both still have family living in town.
For the Dishmans, the acquisition of the locations may have been quick but has been in the works for quite some time.
“It was fast. So from the time we started getting serious about this until we closed was about five or six weeks. So it was fast, but there was a lot of conversations in the background, a lot of things that had to be done to get to that point,” said Ben Dishman. “So we probably started talking about this for years, three, four or five years.”
The Dishmans have had a strong relationship with Gary Suhr, owner of Gary’s Super Foods for a long time as Ben also worked for Gary. Suhr has been very supportive of the Dishmans over the years and even helped train the Dishmans to prepare them for owning their own store.
“Gary let me sit with his bookkeepers and learn some processes back there. And I know Ben did some training with Gary also before we opened up our store in Gering. So he definitely has a huge place in our heart: him, Chris and April,” said Kerri Dishman. “They really did a great job and we appreciate the path that they set before us and that we can continue to run down and put our flair on it with Fresh Foods, but definitely give honor to the Suhr family and what they've done for the community here.”
The big question that has been asked is about the current point system and the Dishman family has confirmed that the current point system will stay in place.
“We got the point not to change the points. So yes [the current point system will stay],” said Ben Dishman with a smile.
The Dishmans plan is to rebrand Gary's Super Foods stores as "Fresh Foods" and make some adjustments to the product selection and in-store offerings, while maintaining the existing customer loyalty programs. The store reset is set for May 12th to add more variety and remove underperforming items.