HANSVILLE — Hansville Grocery and Provisions will be undergoing some slight changes in the next few months as new owners will be implementing fresh ideas and products into the historic store.

Long-time owners Tom and Carolyn Anderson decided earlier this year to step down, retire and pass the torch of meeting Hansville’s grocery needs to another North End native.

Kelly Christopherson-Strobel and her husband Dave Strobel picked up that torch May 1 after moving to the peninsula from Minnesota last month.

Christopherson-Strobel, a North Kitsap High School graduate, owned and ran several coffee shops in Minnesota and Wisconsin for about 12 years before she decided to move back home. She claims she was one of the first to introduce Seattle’s Best Coffee to the Midwest.

However, when she heard the Hansville store was up for sale, she called the Andersons and inquired about purchasing it. In the past, Christopherson-Strobel had expressed an interest in taking it over from them some day.

“I told Carolyn and Tom if they sold it to let me know,” she said.

After finding that the retirement rumors were true, Christopherson-Strobel hopped on a plane in January and took a look at the store and the books.

“More or less, it was meant to be,” she said. “I was ready for a change.”

As for what she’ll do with the store, there will be several cosmetic changes, such as repainting the interior and exterior. Christopherson-Strobel said she wants to paint the store a sage green with cream trim, similar to the way the store looked when it was known as Erickson’s Mercantile.

The entrance will also get a new look, as Christopherson-Strobel plans to remove the stand-alone cola refrigerators and replace them with a hand-dipped ice cream and espresso bar.

She said she would also like to add more gourmet foods to the shelves and keep Tom Anderson’s famous wine cellar stocked with the latest vintages.

Anderson said he would still work as the liaison between Christopherson-Strobel and the distributors to keep the wine selection updated.

While she also plans to shorten the name to Hansville Market, overall, Christopherson-Strobel said she hopes to maintain its familiar small town character.

“Keep the eclectic look and friendly atmosphere,” she said. “Customers are definitely No. 1.”

Christopherson-Strobel said her favorite thing about the store is the fact that it is in her hometown and it’s “funky.”

“It has its little eclectic look to it. It’s on the water,” she explained. “It’s a diamond in the rough, the way I look at it.”

The Andersons said they are confident in the Strobels’ ability to run the store and give it a fresh twist as well.

“We’re old,” Anderson said about why he and his wife are retiring. “We got new grandchildren. The store needs a fresh face and fresh, new ideas.”

With the retirement, the couple is looking forward to having more flexibility in their schedule to do what they want, when they want.

“If we get up in the morning and feel like driving to Ellensburg to see grandkids, we can,” Anderson said.

However, after 13 years of running the store, he said he’ll miss the day-to-day interaction with his customers.

“I’m going to miss the people and I’m going to miss the wine end of the business,” Anderson explained. “I have some very good friends who order wine and we have fun doing it.”