Stewart's Shops Scoops Up Five Wilson Farms Stores

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Stewart’s Shops purchased five Wilson Farms convenience stores in upstate New York. The stores are located in Potsdam, Heuvelton, Watertown, Lake Placid and Keesville, Charles Marshall, real estate developer for Stewart’s, told the Watertown Daily Times.

Following the purchase, Stewart’s Shops now owns two stores in Potsdam. The c-store retailer is seeking permission to add walk-in coolers and freezers to both locations, the newspaper reported.

Minor changes -- likely unnoticeable to customers -- are also scheduled for the Heuvelton location.

Consumers walking into the five new Stewart’s locations are beginning to see the transition, Marshall told the news outlet. These changes include the addition of a make-your-own ice cream sundae bar, for which Stewart’s is well known.

In related news, Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc. closed two former Wilson Farms stores in Potsdam and Norwood, N.Y., the Daily Times reported. The two stores are among the 188 sites the c-store chain purchased from Wilson Farms in 2011.

7-Eleven did not respond to the newspaper’s request for a comment. However, as CSNews Online previously reported, the operator, franchisor and licensor of more than 8,500 North American locations took a similar action one year ago when it closed two former Wilson Farms stores in Plattsburgh and Peru, N.Y.

"They were not going to be part of our long-term strategy because sales were disappointing there," 7-Eleven company spokesperson Margaret Chabris said in response to last year’s store closings.

Founded in 1945, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based Stewart’s Shops operates 324 convenience stores in upstate New York and Vermont.