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A co-operative grocery store designed to provide healthy fruit and vegetables to core neighbourhood residents is closing its doors.

The Good Food Junction, located on 20th Street inside Station 20 West, announced Thursday that Jan. 27 will be its last day of operations.

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“It feels terrible,” said Audra Krueger, vice-chair of the store’s board. “The writing’s been on the wall for a while. We just weren’t generating enough sales.”

The store opened in September 2012 with the idea of providing fresh food to core neighbourhoods on Saskatoon’s west side, an area that had been without a full-service grocery store since the 1990s. The co-op signed up 1,800 members during its three years of operation.

The board and staff tried several different types of promotions, advertising and cost-cutting measures. In the end, the store was just not profitable.

Rachel Engler-Stringer, an associate professor in the department of community health and epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan, called the closure “a huge loss to the people of the area.”