WETMORE — Midway General Store in Wetmore closed earlier this month after 20 years while current ownership heads into retirement.

Patrick Skorupski, 68, and his wife Myra, 63, have owned the store located on Federal Forest Highway 13 for over two decades. With several of their licenses being up for renewal on May 1, the couple decided not to renew them and head into retirement, Skorupski said.

The plan is that the store will stay until someone else buys the building, and they’re not sure what the new owner would potentially do with it, he said. It would take three to four people to run the store in the summer while they get busier, but lately it’s just been the couple running Midway by themselves. Without enough help, they can’t continue to stay open.

“Finding good help is hard, people just don’t seem to want to work more than a few hours a week anymore,” Skorupski said.

Each year has seen more customers than the last, and even when they thought business would plateau, it barely did, Skorupski said. The success of the store has become very rewarding to the now retiring owners.

“It’s been a very big motivation point (the success) for us to keep it going and we’re sad to have to see it close but we don’t really have a choice. We’re not getting any younger,” Skorupski said. “We loved everybody that came in here, we met people from all over the world and enjoyed every minute of it.”