A Webster County grocery store announced Thursday that it will be closing its doors. The Dayton Community Grocery has been in business since 2001. A group of Dayton leaders serve on the store’s board of directors. Board members said that despite cutting costs,ordering alongside other stores and limiting store and employee hours, the Dayton Community Grocery was at a crossroads that leads to its closure. The store’s Facebook page announced that ‘The store is just not able to compete with big box stores to generate the income necessary to keep going at this rate. The board doesn’t want to be any further in debt that they currently are and the store owners felt the responsible thing to do is go out debt-free. While everyone wants to see the store continue, the owners felt that to meet the greater responsibility to the community, the store will need to be closed. Dayton Community Grocery board members have applied for grants, fundraised, partnered with Iowa State University Extension, purchased from sources other than the store’s main supplier, sent out a mailer informing the public of the situation and also initiated promotions and special products like Webster City Custom Meats pork products and the Webster County Pork Producers coupons. There are eight full and part-time employees at the store. They will continue to sell grocery items in the store until they are gone but will not be placing additional orders. The Dayton Community Grocery will close after the last of the groceries is sold.