To the Editor:

I am very disappointed about the closing of the Stewart's Shop at the corner of Gipp Road and Western Avenue in Guilderland. I frequent this location, as I am sure many of my neighbors do, as I live in the neighborhood right across the street.

I depend on this location especially for picking up basics when a trip to the grocery store is not feasible.  This location is surrounded by residences where parents and children alike can walk down for basics or for a family dessert of ice-cream cones

The other "nearby" locations all require a car ride for the people living in the surrounding homes.

I am also upset, being a frequent customer, that there was little or no notice that it might happen.  I discovered the news when I went to pick up milk and noticed the small yellow note regarding using my Milk Club card at other locations.

In addition to the “Bring Your Milk club Card!” words, in much smaller font was one bullet mentioning that the store would be closing due to an inability to maintain "the Stewart's Shops level of standards and service due to inadequate parking."

Granted, the parking at this location is not great, but why not focus on fixing that rather than "choosing to close this location and refocus our efforts on serving customers at our other nearby locations."

This note basically says that the customers of this particular location are not important enough for us to fix the parking, so we are just going to close.  Stewart's is really letting down the customers and employees of this location, and in a very cowardly way — with almost no notice and no opportunity to say, "Please, don't close!"

I think that the last line of the little yellow note near the register says it all.  When Stewart's has to compromise their motto, "We are closer to you," by saying "We're still pretty close to you," it is doing only the company a service and not the customer.

Christine Govin

Guilderland

Editor’s note: See related story.