GUILDERLAND — The Westmere Stewart’s, at the corner of Gipp Road and Western Avenue, will close its doors on Sunday.

The store dates from about 1950, according to the assessor’s office at Guilderland Town Hall. By the 1960s, it was a Stewart’s. Unlike most of the new Stewart’s convenience stores, it does not have gas pumps.

Stewart’s representative Chuck Marshall told The Enterprise that the layout — in particular the lack of parking — was a problem that the company could no longer overlook.

“It’s not a lack of desire to be in the area,” he said, but that the challenges of the layout and the small parking lot in particular had become unworkable.

He noted that, in order to pull away from the store, customers needed to back out onto Gipp Road or Western Avenue. This was a safety issue, he said, and kept the store from thriving.

“Because people couldn’t get in and out of it, no one stopped there,” Marshall said.

He pointed to the lack of parking and the lack of what he called “circulation” in the lot, and said, “Under current standards, the store would not be designed or built that way.”

In response to a suggestion that the lot always looked full, he said, “Well, a small parking lot always looks full.”

Many of the customers who stopped into the store Tuesday night had not realized that the store was closing, although there was a pile of small printed announcements to that effect on the counter.

Casey Smith works nearby with Albany ARC, caring for people with cognitive disabilities. She said that she comes to the store “maybe four nights a week,” with a client who likes to stop in to buy a Lotto ticket. “It’s going to be sad,” she said, “because they’re so friendly in here.”

Joe Graffunder was manning one of the registers. He normally works at a different Stewart’s shop but has been helping out at the Gipp Road store for the last month and a half.Graffunder was manning one of the registers. He normally works at a different Stewart’s shop but has been helping out at the Gipp Road store for the last month and a half.

“Without the gas pumps,” he said of the Gipp Road store, “we don’t get a lot of people traveling through. All the people in the store here are regulars who live right in the community.”

Christine Govin, who lives across Western Avenue on Maynes Avenue, told The Enterprise Tuesday by phone that she relies on the shop for being able to get basics in a hurry. It’s nice, in a pinch, she said, to be able to walk there to buy milk for a child’s cereal, before school.

It was the first place she allowed her daughter to walk to alone, she said. It has also been where the family goes to celebrate with ice cream cones after school concerts.

Marshall noted that all employees from the Westmere store have been relocated to other shops, and that no jobs will be lost.

Asked whether Stewart’s might open another shop in the same area, Marshall said, “We’re always looking, particularly in instances where we have to close stores, but we don’t have anything under contract or lined up.”

Stewart’s plans to sell or lease the property, but Marshall said that process has not yet begun, and that no one has approached the company to express interest.

Westmere Stewart’s, at the corner of Gipp Road and Western Avenue, will close its doors on Sunday.

The store dates from about 1950, according to the assessor’s office at Guilderland Town Hall. By the 1960s, it was a Stewart’s. Unlike most of the new Stewart’s convenience stores, it does not have gas pumps.

Stewart’s representative Chuck Marshall told The Enterprise that the layout — in particular the lack of parking — was a problem that the company could no longer overlook.

“It’s not a lack of desire to be in the area,” he said, but that the challenges of the layout and the small parking lot in particular had become unworkable.

He noted that, in order to pull away from the store, customers needed to back out onto Gipp Road or Western Avenue. This was a safety issue, he said, and kept the store from thriving.

“Because people couldn’t get in and out of it, no one stopped there,” Marshall said.

He pointed to the lack of parking and the lack of what he called “circulation” in the lot, and said, “Under current standards, the store would not be designed or built that way.”

In response to a suggestion that the lot always looked full, he said, “Well, a small parking lot always looks full.”

Many of the customers who stopped into the store Tuesday night had not realized that the store was closing, although there was a pile of small printed announcements to that effect on the counter.

Casey Smith works nearby with Albany ARC, caring for people with cognitive disabilities. She said that she comes to the store “maybe four nights a week,” with a client who likes to stop in to buy a Lotto ticket. “It’s going to be sad,” she said, “because they’re so friendly in here.”

Joe Graffunder was manning one of the registers. He normally works at a different Stewart’s shop but has been helping out at the Gipp Road store for the last month and a half.Graffunder was manning one of the registers. He normally works at a different Stewart’s shop but has been helping out at the Gipp Road store for the last month and a half.

“Without the gas pumps,” he said of the Gipp Road store, “we don’t get a lot of people traveling through. All the people in the store here are regulars who live right in the community.”

Christine Govin, who lives across Western Avenue on Maynes Avenue, told The Enterprise Tuesday by phone that she relies on the shop for being able to get basics in a hurry. It’s nice, in a pinch, she said, to be able to walk there to buy milk for a child’s cereal, before school.

It was the first place she allowed her daughter to walk to alone, she said. It has also been where the family goes to celebrate with ice cream cones after school concerts.

Marshall noted that all employees from the Westmere store have been relocated to other shops, and that no jobs will be lost.

Asked whether Stewart’s might open another shop in the same area, Marshall said, “We’re always looking, particularly in instances where we have to close stores, but we don’t have anything under contract or lined up.”

Stewart’s plans to sell or lease the property, but Marshall said that process has not yet begun, and that no one has approached the company to express interest.