After eight years of serving Wareham's sweet tooth, Gourmet and Gourmand is turning off the ovens and closing its doors at 219 Main Street.

"The downtown area has changed over the last eight years," said Kristine Hastreiter, owner and chef at Gourmet and Gourmand. "Some new businesses came in but a lot of businesses have left."

Hastreiter said while they started off busy in the spring of 2004, things had gotten slower and slower each year. She'll be officially closing her doors on Oct. 1.

She attributed the closing to a variety of issues. Trouble finding experienced staff led her to running the shop by herself this past year, sometimes pulling 22-hour shifts. The Streetscape project to revitalize Main Street over the past few years left her without a sidewalk entrance for weeks at a time.

Annual rent increases and power outages from storms also left her struggling to stay afloat. She said outages from last year's winter storm Nemo cost her all of her profits from the week of Valentine's Day.

But the main reason she's closing seems to be the loss of pedestrian traffic downtown as more businesses move to West Wareham. She cited Wareham Crossing and Rosebrook Place as one-stop shop areas with state of the art buildings, public relations teams and constant promotional events.

"I'm not sure those of us who run small businesses can overcome that," she said. "These are brand new facilities and it's gorgeous and peaceful out there."

During an interview on Friday afternoon, a customer walked into the shop to buy a loaf of bread and found out it would be closing.

"You would be great somewhere where a lot of people were walking," he said.

But Hastreiter doesn't seem to regret the eight years she ran her business.

"It's been an adventure," she said.

She said a small group of core customers has helped keep her in business as well as family and friends who have helped out with time and money. Hastreiter said she enjoyed the personal catering and wedding cake jobs she had over the years and the other unique baking creations she made.

One of her favorites was the chocolate oysters she made as a lead sponsor in the Oyster Festival this past spring: A chocolate shell in the shape of an oyster, filled with pastry cream and M&M "pearls" inside.

Hastreiter said in order to stay open, she would need six months of rent forgiveness, $20,000 and four staff workers by Oct. 1. Short of that, she's not sure what her next step will be, but she has plenty of options.

"A couple of people have offered me baking jobs and two restaurants have offered shared use of their kitchens," she said.

She is also considering re-entering the museum curating field, which she worked in for 15 years before opening Gourmet and Gourmand, or teaching more courses at Bristol Community College, where she currently teaches food photography and basic art skills.

"I wish we had been able to find a solution," she said. "I just pray we're not the canary in the coal mine of what's to come."