West Garfield Park Save A Lot Reopens More Than 2 Years After City Shutdown

WEST GARFIELD PARK — After months of construction delays and electrical setbacks, a West Side Save A Lot grocery store will reopen Thursday as company officials try to reestablish the community’s trust.

West Garfield Park’s Save A Lot, 420 S. Pulaski Road, will have its grand reopening celebration 10 a.m. Thursday. The first 100 customers will receive a free bag of groceries.

The West Side grocery store is the first of six Yellow Banana-owned Save A Lot grocery stores across the South and West sides that will reopen this year. All the stores have been beset with numerous delays toward reopening.

Stores in West Pullman, 10700 S. Halsted St.; South Shore, 7240 S. Stony Island Ave.; South Chicago, 2858 E. 83rd St.;  Auburn Gresham, 7909 S. Halsted St.; and West Lawn, 4439 W. 63rd St., could reopen ahead of Thanksgiving, said Yellow Banana CEO Joe Canfield.

The grand opening of the West Garfield Park store comes nearly two years after City Council approved $13.5 million in tax-increment financing and another $13 million in New Market Tax Credits and private funding for Yellow Banana to buy and rehabilitate the six stores.

The Ohio-based company, which owns and operates stores under the Save A Lot name, swept onto the scene in 2022 with promises to renovate stores “beat to all hell.”

But in the years following the City Council approval, community leaders, local officials and neighbors said Yellow Banana missed deadlines, left stores in disarray and evaded accountability about the conditions of its stores. The company has nearly $2 million in debt, the Sun-Times reported.

Nationally, Yellow Banana had made headlines for lawsuits filed by former employees, legal disputes with its produce distributor, sudden closures and decreasing its grocery footprint.

Yellow Banana previously operated 38 Save A Lot stores in Ohio, Texas, Florida and Wisconsin. The company now only operates seven local Save A Lot stores, including an Englewood location that took over the former Whole Foods and opened in May 2023, Canfield said.

“We’ve already taken a lot of steps to put the company in a much better financial position to move forward,” Canfield said. “We understand it’s a tall order to do what we’re trying to do, and that’s why no one was rushing in to fill the void that we’re trying to fill.”

Yellow Banana has a redevelopment agreement with the city to open all stores by March 2025 or lose its TIF dollars. The company will receive the $13.5 million grant only after the stores are remodeled and reopened.

Despite “frustrations,” the goal now is to earn neighbors’ trust and reopen the six stores, Canfield said.

Canfield is “confident” all stores will be open by Thanksgiving.

“For us, it’s about earning trust back with the community and customers, and there’s only one way to do it,” said Bill Mayo, chief development officer at Save A Lot. “Customers come in. They see the fresh produce and the fresh cut meat, and they start to trust the store. You earn it one day at a time. There’s no shortcuts.”

‘Outside Of Our Control’

A “confluence of things,” including securing city permits, vandalism and a 5-inch dip in one of the store’s floors, caused the company to miss its many reopening deadlines, Canfield said.

The West Garfield Park store, under old ownership, was shut down by the city in 2022 after a rat infestation. Yellow Banana took over the business, reopened the store and closed it again in spring 2023 to start a $2 million renovation.

The West Garfield Park Save A Lot store was initially slated to open in March.

Canfield told neighbors in June 2023 the “reimagined Save A Lot” at 79th and Halsted would reopen the following month.

But after months of delays — once attributed to city permits — leaders at Save A Lot said the Auburn Gresham store would reopen in April 2024. It’s now projected to open in November.

“Starting with the Great Chicago Fire, when demolition was done, they would knock the old building down and put it in the hole where they dug the foundation for the new building,” Canfield said. “A building of [the store’s] size and weight settles. That’s what happened in Auburn Gresham.”

Yellow Banana had to hire structural engineers to address the 5-inch dip in the store’s floor caused by previous developers, Canfield said.

That work put a halt to construction, and the company had to pivot to open the West Garfield Park store first, Canfield said.

Similar unexpected problems, like installing meters and coordinating with contractors, delayed progress on their other stores, Canfield said.

Yellow Banana previously told Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st) his ward’s West Pullman store would reopen with renovations in May. It’s now expected to open in October.

This summer, someone stole the electric feed from stores in West Pullman and South Chicago, disconnecting the stores from the power grid, Canfield said. Both stores were prepared to open, but the “vandalism” pushed the stores back three months, Canfield said.

It took 10 weeks to restore power at the West Pullman store, according to a social media post from Mosley.

“It’s frustrating. You hear about the delays on those stores opening and Yellow Banana delays, and it’s like, so much of this has been outside of our control,” said Yellow Banana co-founder Michael Nance. “It is what it is. We keep our heads down. We keep going. But the proof is in the pudding, and people will be able to come here and see what’s been done, and I think that they will enjoy the experience.”

Last year, Yellow Banana began closing or selling off some of its stores around the country, including in Florida and Texas. Officials announced in February they were closing a nearby Richton Park store, offering a two-week warning to residents.

Chicago was where the company could “make the most impact and have its best chance at success,” Canfield said.

“It was difficult, and it’s not fun to go through those processes, but we feel like it’s absolutely the right thing for our business,” Canfield said. “We feel like it’s the right thing for the communities in Chicago that we’re operating in and the right thing for the team here in Chicago.”

‘The Demands Of Local Customers’

On Thursday, the newly remodeled, freshly stocked store shined bright under fluorescent lights.

Yellow Banana added new flooring, lighting and refrigeration to the West Side Save A Lot. Neighbors have previously found spoiled food and dirty conditions at Yellow Banana-owned stores.

“It just had a very kind of worn-down, dated feel,” Canfield said. “I think that contributed a lot to kind of the perception of the brand, and we’ve been very cognizant of that, and we worked very hard during the remodel to remedy a lot of that.”

Neighbors can shop for assorted chopped fruit and fresh-cut meat at the West Side store. Yellow Banana employs a meat cutter in all its stores, Canfield said.

Most of the items on the store’s shelves match what neighbors requested at community meetings, Nance said.

Yellow Banana has partnered with community organizations like the West Garfield Park Community Council and Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) for months “to meet the demands of local customers,” Nance said. Collard greens, organic produce and non-dairy products line the aisles at a low price.

“We do quite a bit of work with Save A Lot to make sure that we’re comparing to other markets and seeing where prices are to make sure that our products are very affordable to our customers,” Canfield said. “That’s paramount to us. People can stretch their dollar while shipping with us without sacrificing the quality of freshness and healthiness.”

During the remodeling process, Yellow Banana kept managers, assistant managers and meat cutters on staff at five of its stores, Canfield said.

Tamunique Bell, store manager at the West Garfield Park Save A Lot, is one of several employees who returned to work Thursday.

Bell, a West Side resident, shops at the store where she works, she said. While it was closed, she bought her groceries from delivery apps. The experience was “terrible, and the prices were high,” Bell said.

Seeing the remodeled store stacked high with fresh produce — her favorite aisle — was “an amazing experience,” Bell said.

“My mission is to keep the store full, fresh and ready for the community,” Bell said. “I’m hoping people are happy to come back and shop with us.”

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