Saskatoon`s only core neighbourhood grocery store closing

Low sales and a challenging marketplace has led to the closure of Saskatoon’s only core neighbourhood grocery store.

The Good Food Junction Co-op will close on Jan. 27, with a liquidation sale starting Friday. It opened its doors in 2012 on the corner of 20th Street and Avenue L with the goal of providing fresh, affordable food in an area of the city that hadn’t had a grocery store since the ’90s.

The decision to shut down the store was made after three years of insufficient sales, according to a news release.

“Unfortunately, the co-op was not able to meet our customers’ expectations with respect to product offerings and prices. Our inability to overcome the complex challenges of running an independent grocery store in an underserved community made the decision to close the store necessary,`board vice chair Audra Krueger said in the release.

Despite the co-op growing to more than 1,800 members, Krueger said the store still struggled in the highly-competitive, low-margin grocery industry