CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) — Reid’s Super Save Market is struggling. 

"It hurts in a lot of ways to not be able to service them," Sue Clements said through tears. 

Reid’s is Clements’s family business. Many shelves are empty. 

"All of our expenses have gone up, right? It’s not just the cost of product,  it's our electric, it’s our trash pickup, it's everything. Even the cost of employees,” she said.  

Clements said the store has lost 20 percent in profits since the end of the pandemic. Now, people are only buying the essentials.

"We offer that community feel, we offer the family feel. Customer service is very important to us," she said. 

People come to Reid’s the most for their meat and produce, so that's what they're stocking. Clements said the store will start restocking dairy and frozen items in November and then work its way back aisle by aisle.  

"We offer the groceries for the folks that are in these neighborhoods that need us,” Clements said. 

If Reid’s closed, the members of the surrounding community would lose the only store they can walk to, because the next closest stores are roughly two miles away.

"When a grocery store closes in an urban environment, especially if there are not other grocery stores that have fresh, affordable food, it is very difficult for folks to get there and it does have a huge impact on the community,” Les Sinclair with the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank said. 

It would be a food desert. That’s a big reason Clements is asking customers to stick with Reid's. 

“Everyone that we've been honest with has been extremely supportive, and that's what's keeping us going right now. Continue to support us in our current state, and in our future state,” Clements said.