STRATFORD — The Board of the Stratford Food Center announced Thursday that the small town grocery store will soon be closing.

“There is just no possible way to keep operating under these circumstances,” the Board’s statement read.

The Stratford Food Center is the third area grocery store to announce its closure in the past month. The Manson Hometown Grocery announced just three weeks ago that it is facing closure. The Dayton Community Grocery store closed last week after selling off its inventory.

“Much like our partner Dayton Community Grocery, we have mentioned the many challenges in the grocery business facing our small-town grocery store,” said Manager April Carlson.

“To combat these challenges, we have taken numerous steps to be more cost effective and continue to generate sales including sharing ordering with other stores, fundraising, applying for grants, partnering with ISU Extension, buying from sources other than our main supplier to keep costs even lower, increased marketing on social media, and sending a mailing out to notify of our situation.”

Carlson, who has served as the store’s manager for the past two years and is also a longtime board member, noted that alongside those challenges, the store has also faced increased pricing, broken freezers and coolers, and increased debt.

According to Carlson, the store will remain open as they sell off inventory already in the store, but that they will not be ordering more moving forward.

“We have a lot of older folks and others who frequent the store,” said Carlson. “We serve lunch every day — 16 lunches a day — to the Athens Woods retirement community and we deliver to a couple of ladies who are unable to get out. I’m concerned about what they’re going to do when we close.”

The Stratford Food Center has been community-owned since 2009.