Groton — The longtime Grossman’s Seafood retail store on Noank Road in Mystic closed Monday, and another outlet on Gold Star Highway will be out of business by the end of the week, the company’s general manager confirmed Tuesday.

“Grossman’s Seafood will be going out of business,” Sean Coleman said in an email. “We are saddened by these circumstances but very much appreciate the support of our loyal customers and the community over the years.”

According to a sign at the Groton seafood outlet, Grossman’s dates to 1916. Though the store advertises live lobsters prominently, fewer than half a dozen could be found in a tank at the store Tuesday afternoon.

“I am deeply saddened,” Greg Hack, an orthodontist who practices nearby, said as he sat eating a bowl of lobster soup at the Beachside Cafe inside the Groton Grossman’s, which is located in a former Department of Motor Vehicles building. “I’ve enjoyed coming over here once a week for lunch.”

Connie Gauthier, another regular customer who works nearby, said Grossman’s could always be counted on for a quick, easy lunch such as the smoked seafood wraps.

“It’s sad to see them going,” Gauthier said after picking up a bite.

Town Clerk Betsy Moukawsher said she was surprised about the closing of Grossman’s.

“I’ve been going there since I lived in Groton,” Moukawsher said. “The community has a loss.”

The Mystic store had been a fixture in the community for years. Catholics would make a regular habit of driving to Grossman’s on Friday to pick up the traditional fish in lieu of eating meat that day, and many have fond recollections of buying bait there to go crabbing at nearby Beebe Cove.

Coleman, son-in-law of the late Grossman’s owner Peter Harold Danesi III, did not immediately respond to a question about how many employees would be losing their jobs, but one worker who asked not to be identified estimated layoffs would affect about a dozen people. Grossmans Seafood Inc., which in the past year sold off its wholesale business to City Fish, initially kept its retail markets as well as its Beachside Catering business, but cited “poor economic conditions over the past several years” as the reason for the closure.

It’s undecided, said Coleman, about whether the catering business will continue on.

Coleman said the Groton location will hold a going-out-of-business sale throughout this week. His father-in-law, Danesi, died unexpectedly in December 2012 after running Grossman’s for more than four decades.

l.howard@theday.com

Twitter: @KingstonLeeHow