Stewart's Shops
Encyclopedia
Stewart's Shops is a U.S. chain of convenience store
s located primarily in eastern Upstate New York
and southwestern Vermont
.
Headquartered in Saratoga Springs
, the company is well-established, particularly in the Capital District
. Within New York, its stores can be found as far north as the Canadian border towns, as far west as Oswego
and as far south as Goshen
at the northern fringe of the New York metropolitan area
. Its Vermont outlets can be found in Rutland and Bennington counties.
Known for branded ice cream
, potato chips, milk
, coffee
and other drinks, the stores often include gasoline
pumps. In addition, most also feature a small dining area, not common in U.S. stores of this type.
There are now 328 shops in operation.
.
Fourteen years later, the brothers started Saratoga Dairy
in an old barn in Saratoga Springs. This move occurred in the same year that New York began requiring all milk
to be pasteurized. Without this new local plant available, many local dairy farmers would have had to go out of business, and they were grateful vendors.
In 1938 they expanded into the city's old water works, and then went into making cheese
, powdered whey
and casein
two years afterward, following another new property purchase, this time in Greenfield. That and the milk this plant produced were sold all over the Northeast
, as far south as Maryland
.
As the war ended, the brothers bought an ice cream production facility in Ballston Spa
from Donald Stewart. Charles S. Dake, newly discharged from the military
and looking for something to do, decided to start selling Stewart's Ice Cream to the public fresh off the line. This is considered to be the first Stewart's Shop.
Two others quickly followed, in Saratoga Springs and South Glens Falls
. They were popular since ice cream and other sweet foods had been tightly rationed
during the war. In 1948 the company introduced the folding paper ice cream carton
so customers could bring home fresh ice cream more cheaply. The more notable innovation of the year, however, came from the younger Charles Dake's wife Phyllis, who suggested allowing people to make their own sundae
s from a choice of topping
s, a practice which continues today and has been widely imitated. The company's Philly Vanilla ice cream was named in her honor.
Saratoga Dairy and Stewart's Ice Cream were formally incorporated
with the state in 1950, and ice cream production was moved back to the Greenfield facility, which could handle the increased demand. By 1955 there were over 50 Stewart's Shops.
1957 saw a regulatory battle between the companies and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the right to sell the company's own milk in its own stores. It was resolved in Stewart's favor, and as a result of this vertical integration
, retail milk prices in the stores dropped by 25%.
The younger Dake took over the company from his uncle in 1959 and the following year brought his brother William in. The holder of a graduate
degree in engineering
from Cornell University
, William was able to solve some production problems at the dairy, and as a result it began running at a profit
. Over the course of the 1960s, the new Dake brothers turned the company into one of the East
's largest private dairies.
Charles died of cancer
in 1978, leaving William to carry on the business for six years until his son Gary could join the company. A decade later, the company built a new dairy facility and bought the Bonfare chain, adding 40 stores at a single stroke. In the late 1990s, it began aggressively expanding out of its base in the Saratoga area, pushing south into the mid-Hudson Valley
for the first time.
William retired to become chairman of the board in 2003, and Gary became president of the company.
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
s located primarily in eastern Upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
and southwestern Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
.
Headquartered in Saratoga Springs
Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs, also known as simply Saratoga, is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 26,586 at the 2010 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area. While the word "Saratoga" is known to be a corruption of a Native American name, ...
, the company is well-established, particularly in the Capital District
Capital District
New York's Capital District, also known as the Capital Region, is a region in upstate New York that generally refers to the four counties surrounding Albany, the capital of the state: Albany County, Schenectady County, Rensselaer County, and Saratoga County...
. Within New York, its stores can be found as far north as the Canadian border towns, as far west as Oswego
Oswego, New York
Oswego is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 18,142 at the 2010 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in north-central New York and promotes itself as "The Port City of Central New York"...
and as far south as Goshen
Goshen, New York
Goshen, New York is a village and a town in Orange County, New York in the United States.*Goshen , New York*Goshen , New York, within the town of Goshen...
at the northern fringe of the New York metropolitan area
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
. Its Vermont outlets can be found in Rutland and Bennington counties.
Known for branded ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
, potato chips, milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
, coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
and other drinks, the stores often include gasoline
Gasoline
Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
pumps. In addition, most also feature a small dining area, not common in U.S. stores of this type.
There are now 328 shops in operation.
History
Stewart's has always been a business of the Dake family, which traces the chain's origins to Percy and Charles V. Dake making Dake's Delicious Ice Cream beginning in 1921 at the family farm in Greenfield, New YorkGreenfield, New York
Greenfield is a town in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 7,362 at the 2000 census. The town is named after Greenfield, New Hampshire.The Town of Greenfield is an interior town...
.
Fourteen years later, the brothers started Saratoga Dairy
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...
in an old barn in Saratoga Springs. This move occurred in the same year that New York began requiring all milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
to be pasteurized. Without this new local plant available, many local dairy farmers would have had to go out of business, and they were grateful vendors.
In 1938 they expanded into the city's old water works, and then went into making cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
, powdered whey
Whey
Whey or Milk Serum is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a by-product of the manufacture of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is manufactured during the making of rennet types of hard cheese like cheddar or Swiss cheese...
and casein
Casein
Casein is the name for a family of related phosphoprotein proteins . These proteins are commonly found in mammalian milk, making up 80% of the proteins in cow milk and between 60% and 65% of the proteins in human milk....
two years afterward, following another new property purchase, this time in Greenfield. That and the milk this plant produced were sold all over the Northeast
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...
, as far south as Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
.
As the war ended, the brothers bought an ice cream production facility in Ballston Spa
Ballston Spa, New York
Ballston Spa is a village in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 5,556 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Saratoga County. The village is named after Rev. Eliphalet Ball, a Congregationalist clergyman and an early settler. The village lies on the border of two...
from Donald Stewart. Charles S. Dake, newly discharged from the military
Military discharge
A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve.-United States:Discharge or separation should not be confused with retirement; career U.S...
and looking for something to do, decided to start selling Stewart's Ice Cream to the public fresh off the line. This is considered to be the first Stewart's Shop.
South Glens Falls, New York
South Glens Falls is a village in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 3,368 at the 2000 census. The village is in the northern part of the Town of Moreau, south of the City of Glens Falls....
. They were popular since ice cream and other sweet foods had been tightly rationed
Rationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.- In economics :...
during the war. In 1948 the company introduced the folding paper ice cream carton
Carton
Carton is the name of certain types of containers typically made from paperboard which is also sometimes known as cardboard. Many types of cartons are used in packaging. Sometimes a carton is also called a box.-Folding cartons:...
so customers could bring home fresh ice cream more cheaply. The more notable innovation of the year, however, came from the younger Charles Dake's wife Phyllis, who suggested allowing people to make their own sundae
Sundae
The sundae is an ice cream dessert. It typically consists of a scoop of ice cream topped with sauce or syrup, and in some cases other toppings including chopped nuts, sprinkles, whipped cream, or maraschino cherries.-History:...
s from a choice of topping
Topping
Topping may refer to:* Hill-topping, a mate-acquisition strategy amongst insects* Topping, slang term for capital punishment, especially hanging or beheading* Topping , the name of several people...
s, a practice which continues today and has been widely imitated. The company's Philly Vanilla ice cream was named in her honor.
Saratoga Dairy and Stewart's Ice Cream were formally incorporated
Incorporation (business)
Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...
with the state in 1950, and ice cream production was moved back to the Greenfield facility, which could handle the increased demand. By 1955 there were over 50 Stewart's Shops.
1957 saw a regulatory battle between the companies and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the right to sell the company's own milk in its own stores. It was resolved in Stewart's favor, and as a result of this vertical integration
Vertical integration
In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or service, and the products combine to...
, retail milk prices in the stores dropped by 25%.
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
degree in engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, William was able to solve some production problems at the dairy, and as a result it began running at a profit
Profit (accounting)
In accounting, profit can be considered to be the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market whatever it is that is accounted as an enterprise in terms of the component costs of delivered goods and/or services and any operating or other expenses.-Definition:There are...
. Over the course of the 1960s, the new Dake brothers turned the company into one of the East
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, the American East, or simply the East is traditionally defined as the states east of the Mississippi River. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be included in the East today; usually in...
's largest private dairies.
Charles died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in 1978, leaving William to carry on the business for six years until his son Gary could join the company. A decade later, the company built a new dairy facility and bought the Bonfare chain, adding 40 stores at a single stroke. In the late 1990s, it began aggressively expanding out of its base in the Saratoga area, pushing south into the mid-Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
for the first time.
William retired to become chairman of the board in 2003, and Gary became president of the company.