SALEM -- The city's only supermarket is set to close its doors any day now.

For years, Incollingo's market anchored the shopping center on East Broadway. Its imminent closure will turn Salem City into a food desert.

It's something that Mayor Charles Washington says is "not acceptable" for Salem's residents, many of whom have no transportation of their own and must walk to wherever they need to shop.

"We were willing to work with Incollingo's if they were willing to stay open, but we believe their mind was made up about closing which is probably why we never received advance warning and weren't given the opportunity to provide assistance," Washington said.

Numerous attempts were made to contact the supermarket's owners for comment without success.

Washington said city officials learned of the pending closure through Facebook posts made by store employees, not from the store's owners.

When they were eventually able to meet with the owners, officials said they were told the supermarket was closing because of not enough business.

The store has been holding a going out of business sale, discounting prices to clear what little is only left -- mostly non-perishables and frozen foods -- in the store.

On the weekend only skeleton staff was on hand to check-out bargain-hunters.

With the closing of Incollingo's expected by the end of this week, the only local alternative for some will be buying limited food items at a couple of dollar stores or food marts in the city.

To find full-service supermarkets with fresh fruits, vegetables and meats, shoppers will now need to travel to neighboring towns as far away as Pennsville, Woodstown, even Bridgeton.

Many of Incollingo's current shoppers walk -- often several blocks -- to and from the store.

"It means our residents will not have a local grocery store to shop at and that is not acceptable," Washington said of the closing. "Things like grocery stores closing ... only happen in economically-deprived communities and this closure is another blow."

While Salem City has lost manufacturing jobs over the past years, officials expect new businesses and jobs to be locating in the city.

Once officials received word that Incollingo's was closing, they reached out to a number of other store chains including ShopRite, Save-A-Lot and ALDI in hopes of luring one of them to Salem.

ShpRite told the city "we welcome your interest in having a ShopRite supermarket in your area. As you can imagine, a new store takes years of research ... finding the perfect location is just the first of many steps in the process."

ALDI said it has "a lot of criteria" in choosing a store site. "Our No. reason is to be where ALDI fans are shopping."

Both companies told Salem they'd share the city's interest with their real estate teams.

"Times like these demand that everyone pull together, help each other out, provide transportation for friends and family to ensure they get food until a solution can be found." Washington said.

One area non-profit organization is working on a food coop program that could provide some groceries for those without a means to get to stores, the mayor said, but the group is in need of money to secure freezers.

State legislators have also been contacted for help and provided with economic development and demographic data for the city.

The mayor and Salem officials say they realize "this is not an issue that is going to resolved quickly."

"We will continue to put feelers out and take all reasonable suggestions into consideration for short, intermediate and long-term resolution," Washington said.

Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.