How one cult grocery chain is navigating the great boomer business handover

Roy de la Cruz for BI Stew Leonard Jr. is greeted like a celebrity as he makes his way through his family's business.

Known as Connecticut's " Disneyland of grocery stores ," Leonard's locations come complete with animatronics, petting zoos, and costumed mascots.

Every few feet, a customer does a double-take and rushes over.

Mostly, they want to say hello or ask for a selfie.

A few have constructive criticism to share.

Over by the Stew Leonard's Farm Fresh Five, a band of singing milk cartons, a mom with two young kids approaches him.

She has an idea to make the restrooms more family-friendly, showing a picture of a rest stop bathroom with child-sized toilets and superior design.

Stew Jr. tells her to forward the picture to his team.

Roy de la Cruz for BI Stew Jr. has been president of the small-but-mighty grocery empire since 1982, for 44 of the company's 57 years.

He moves with the ease of a graduating senior walking their high school halls: He knows where everyone and everything is, and they know him.

But Stew Jr. won't be the face of Stew's for much longer.

Walking with Stew Jr., but going mostly unrecognized, are his successors.

His daughter, Blake Leonard, 41, will step in as president, and his nephew, Jake Tavello, 38, will take over as CEO.

Blake is more likely to hop into photos with her father, while Jake — outfitted in a store uniform — more quietly hovers behind the lens.