Duck Soup Coop, a cooperatively owned food market, will close due to being $60,000 in debt and the members’ belief that the business was not economically feasible.

The $60,000 included debt to vendors who would no longer fill orders, leaving the store with a depleted inventory, said Mylan Engel, president of the Duck Soup Coop board of directors. Engel estimated restocking the store would cost about $50,000.

Duck Soup Coop, 129 E. Hillcrest Drive, is a non-profit retail business owned by 120 board members whom vote and make all decisions concerning the business, said Patty Ruback, Duck Soup Coop board of directors member. The decision to close Duck Soup Coop was made Sunday at an emergency membership meeting held at the store.

“This is the third emergency general membership meeting in the last year and a half, all three of which have been called to determine whether Duck Soup Coop should remain in business,” Engel said.

The belief that the business was not feasible was supported by the first quarter sales from the last four fiscal years. Fiscal Year 2011 had $241,000 in sales, but sales fell to $150,000 in FY 2014.

Membership revenue has also dropped close to $48,000 since June 2010, Engel said.

Andrew Shepherd, member and clerk of Duck Soup Coop, said the food market takes pride in selling healthy, sustainable, fair trade, organic and gluten-free products.

Ruback, a co-op member for eight years, said she’s a vegetarian and she can’t find anywhere else that provides the products Duck Soup Coop has.

“As a shopper in the area I loved the cooperative model and what it stands for, and I love having, you know, this my neighborhood whole foods grocer. And I don’t want to see it go, but … members have to decide, collectively,” Ruback said.

Engel presented the voting members with four options: raise $100,000 in two weeks, file for chapter 11 bankruptcy, file for chapter seven bankruptcy or carry out an orderly close outside the courts.

The vote to orderly close the store as soon as possible was supported by 36 voting members and opposed by three, fulfilling the two-thirds requirement.

“The main push was for organic and ethical products,” said Winifred Halsey, a member of the co-op since the 70s. “Now you see them in Hy-Vee and Jewel, so I think that would not have happened without a food co-op.

“These people led the way for it to become more mainstream. You can almost say our jobs are done.