There are many things that customers expect when they walk into their favorite Hudson Valley Stewart's Shop but one thing is leaving soon.

Why I Love Stewart's!

Fresh coffee, great snacks, ice cream, friendly staff, I could go on and on as to why I love them. On top of all of that, they are also one of the only stores in the Hudson Valley that offers FREE air outside for anyone that needs to fill or check the air pressure on their car or truck tires. They are also one of the only stores in the Hudson Valley that have a payphone hanging on the wall at almost every store.

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Payphones at Stewart's

Just last year we told you about Stewart's being one of the only stores anywhere that still gives customers access to payphones. Yes....put a quarter in to make a local call through a payphone, that just 20 years ago, was everywhere.

There were something like 2 million payphones spread across the country. Today there are less than 100,000 of them and that number is shrinking every day. We can expect it to be almost impossible to find one once Stewarts completes their new phone plan.

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Payphones out of Stewarts Shops by 2023

According to the Daily Gazette, by this time next year, almost every Stewart's location across New York will no longer have payphones available for customers to use.

The payphone has been a staple at most locations for many years. Vice president of facilities at Stewart’s Chad Kiesow told the Gazette, "The payphone service became as iconic as Free Air, these are a few of the items that customers just came to rely on and expect from Stewarts."

The free air will continue but the payphones should be gone by 2023. Kiesow said that the chain started to phase out payphones back in 2017 because they struggled to find replacement parts to fix and service the phones, which ultimately led the company to rethink the in-store communications. Payphones at Stewart's were not only available for customers to use but they were also used for decades as a network between retail locations and corporate offices.

Stewart’s is expecting to have landlines installed at most locations over the next year or so and those phones will be for store use only. What will they do with all of the older payphones? Kiesow said, "Once we make the switch, the payphone is removed from the front wall and the internal organs are donated".

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