RICHFORD, Vt. (AP) – The town’s only supermarket closed Sunday.

After a year of struggling to keep the store open, Food City General Manager Zak Sklar said Friday that sales were too low to make the store profitable.

“It has not been economically feasible to keep that store open for some time,” Sklar said. “We tried to make it work because we don’t like to fail and we know how important the store is to the community.”

The store employed 12 people, Sklar said.

The Richford Food City opened in October 2001. Sklar said business was hurt when it lost its liquor license a month later.

Food City also has a store in St. Albans, and Sklar said that store is not in danger of closing.

“We are very pleased with the St. Albans store and plan to be in St. Albans for a very long time,” he said.

With the Richford store closed, the St. Albans store will be the only Food City store in Vermont. Food City is based in Maine and operates seven stores in Maine, one in Massachusetts, and now one in Vermont.

“We feel very sad that we have to do this,” Sklar said. “We have been subsidizing the Richford store for over a year now and we’re sad we can’t make it in Richford.”

The closing leaves this northern border town without a supermarket of its own. A Hannaford’s supermarket is located in the nearby town of Enosburg Falls.