WEBSTER, N.Y. — From its produce, pastries and the culture of its community, many employees and customers of Hegedorn’s in Webster are saddened to say goodbye.

“It's been really emotional,” store manager Jonathan Gonzalez said. “It's been emotional for our employees. A lot of people have been here for a long time. Emotional for our former employees and probably even more emotional for our customers. There's been so many good memories and so many positives that have come from the last 70 years we've been open.”

As the town of Webster faces the loss of one of its oldest businesses, plans are in the works to preserve some of the most colorful pieces of Hegedron’s history.

“They were done back in 1990-1991 by students in the fourth and fifth grades at Klem North School,” produce manager Fred Palmer said. “And it started with one of the daughters of our maintenance head of our maintenance, who was a student there, and she got the idea they wanted to paint panels. And so her dad says, ‘well, take these panels, we'll put them up in our ceiling above the cash register so the customers can all see them when they're waiting in line to check out.’”

Its personal art collection became a staple to the supermarket.

“I used to look at the time that the grandkids would stand looking at them,” customer Mollie Jones said. “How inventive to have them put on the ceiling. So you're driving, looking around with your cart, although the one time I did that I banged into something, I just kept going like nothing happened.”

With several days until the store’s closing, Palmer took on the task of removing the panels after one student, Carrie Frank, wanted her painting.

“She had painted Campbell's soup,” Palmer said. “Well, come to find out, after about the fourth tile I took down before I found her name, that these were all Campbell's soup cans that were painted. I had a good start on taking them down, so we just kept on going.

But the biggest challenge Palmer says is tracking down the original artists.

“I don't want to see them just thrown in the dumpster and I'm pretty sure they won't be,” Palmer said. “I've had enough people sa, ‘we'll find some place for them.’ We have some without names that we sort of have to have people say, ‘hey, I know who painted that,’ or, ‘gee whiz I remember that.’”

In the meantime, many employees, including Palmer, are curious to see where the next chapter for their own lives will take them.

“My next job, which is my wife, she is going to be my boss,” Palmer said. “It's going to be retirement, and I'm going to take it easy for a while.”

With art memorabilia and memories to forever live on.

“I realized people, places close and time goes on,” Jones said. “But there's always your heart and old shopping grocery store like this. So it will be missed.”

The final day of Hegedorn’s supermarket is June 25. With current plans of remodeling the store, the current store manager has shared that the supermarket is expected to be divided into three different spaces and redeveloped for other businesses.