Following more than a year of negotiations, the Stein's Family Foods grocery chain has been sold and is now under new ownership.

Larry Stein, previous owner of Stein's, said the sale to Dale and Corey Watson, owners of Riverside CenterPlace Market in Spokane, was originally intended to take only six months. He said the complicated nature of the transaction doubled the time, but paperwork was finalized this morning.

"I just had conversations with Dale Watson when he had knee surgery," Larry said. "He was bored to death, so he gave me a call and we got the conversation started that way. He was actually inquiring about a meat cutter in one of our stores, and then Dale and Corey looked at one of the stores. They liked that and took me to lunch and said 'how about all five?'"

Stein's Idaho locations are in Osburn, Kellogg and Rathdrum, and in Montana there are stores in Eureka and Troy.

Corey said there are no plans to change anything about the stores, minus the fact that the owners will no longer have the last name Stein.

"It was a big undertaking," Corey said. "We are really excited to get in here and be a part of the Stein's legacy that they have built over the past 86 years."

Larry joked that many people have said they are sad to see him go, but really happy to see his brother, Jim, go. On a more serious note, Larry said reception to the change in ownership has been positive and supportive. He said the employees understand Larry and Jim can't run the business forever.

Larry said this is his official step into retirement. He said he has no concrete plans for retirement, but hopes to spend more time with his many grandchildren. Jim said he still has about 10 years until retirement and plans on finding something to occupy his time, but is not sure what that will be.

Dale said he's native to the Rathdrum/Coeur d'Alene area and even used to play football against Larry in high school.

"We are just excited to follow these guys, who have a great reputation," Dale said. "There are a lot of really great people in the stores and we are just very fortunate to have the opportunity to purchase these stores."