BOSCAWEN, N.H. (AP) – Carey’s Market, a Boscawen landmark that has operated as a store for 171 years, is closing this weekend.

“The business model for a small, family-run grocery store is no longer financially viable for us,” owner Bob Carey said in a prepared statement.

Customers leaving the store Thursday were shocked by the abrupt closing, and said they didn’t know what they would do without the market or the Careys, who’ve become known as much for their philanthropy as for their meat counter.

Carey’s parents, Dan and Betty Carey – both originally from Ireland, moved to Boscawen from Brooklyn, N.Y., and bought the store from George “Vic” Flint in 1953.

According to town records, the building has been a store since 1836. It became the first post office in town in 1843. The ownership changed hands several times over the next 100 years, until the Careys took over.

When they bought the store, the Careys had two children and lived above the market. Their brood expanded over the years to eight children, all of whom worked at the store growing up.

Although the business changed hands for a few years in the 1990s, Bob Carey bought it back and has been running it for the past seven years.

His brother, Pat, said expenses have been rising faster than sales, so they had to close.

The family always supported the community – donating meat for Old Home Day or gift certificates for door prizes or raffles, giving food to families who couldn’t afford it or opening in the middle of the night for the fire department when it responded to late calls, Town Administrator Sherlene Fisher said.

One night decades ago, Dan Carey loaded up a basket with potatoes, bread, hamburgers and hot dogs, and drove it to a mother and her four children, he told Boscawen’s community newsletter last year. The woman’s husband was a truck driver who just moved to the area in search of a job. He had picked up groceries from the market for three weeks without paying, and his car had broken down that night in Connecticut.

“‘This family is desperately hungry, and I think these kids may be literally starving,”‘ Carey remembered telling his wife. He didn’t ask for anything in return, but he still keeps the man’s thank you note in his wallet.

“Many years ago when me and my family ran into hard times, you extended credit to help us when we had nothing,” the letter said. “When there were rough spots, you helped us over the years. I have never forgotten your help.”

Customers stopped by Thursday to stock up on discounted goods and console the family. Nearly every patron greeted the owner by his first name as they headed in for one of the last times, and he knew most of them.

“You go to Market Basket or something, and you’re just money,” said longtime patron Paula Wood. “Here you’re a person, and you’re a special person. Everyone’s special to Bob.”