Save A Lot store opens in West Garfield Park as Yellow Banana dodges questions about lawsuits, finances - Anlık Haber

A line of eager shoppers snaked around the freshly painted Save A Lot store in West Garfield Park on Thursday morning. Some customers waited more than three hours in the heat after word spread of a food giveaway at the grocery store, which had been closed for a year.

Save A Lot employees and officials from operator Yellow Banana handed out small bottles of water, $5 gift certificates and reusable bags filled with pantry food items.

“Everybody is basically here for the free giveaway,” said longtime resident Allen Richardson, who lined up at 7 a.m. “I was sad when the store closed. I had to go way down to [Fairplay Foods] miles away for groceries.”

A Save A Lot employee opens the doors as shoppers wait outside, with many lining up as early as 7 a.m.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Customers said they were happy to have the Save A Lot store back, after years of full-service grocers abandoning the area.

City leaders and Yellow Banana executives gave speeches before opening the doors shortly after 10 a.m., but some residents were impatient. “Open the store,” yelled several shoppers. Others yelled at suspected line-cutters.

The West Garfield Park location marks the first opening out of the six Save A Lots that are part of Yellow Banana’s city-funded $13.5 million deal. If the Ohio-based discount grocery operator opens all six stores by the city’s April deadline, it will receive the full $13.5 million in funding. The Englewood Save A Lot, which replaced a Whole Foods in 2023, is excluded from the city deal.

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“To everyone who has seen this location change and transform, today is the day that we start a new beginning here in the West Garfield Park community,” Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) said. “You don’t have to leave to get fresh foods, vegetables and groceries.”

Chicago Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright said in a news release that the city is looking forward to the reopening of its Morgan Park, South Chicago, South Shore, Auburn Gresham and West Lawn locations.

“Food security is essential to healthy neighborhoods, which is why the City is committing more than $13 million to support the six stores’ capital improvement needs,” Boatright said.

West Garfield Park resident Timothy Hamilton and his mother, Sharon, were first in line, waiting since 7 a.m.

“We’re waiting because he told us yesterday that the first 100 people get a free bag of food,” Timothy Hamilton said, pointing towards a Save A Lot employee.

Once inside, Timothy Hamilton said, “It’s better than it was last time. It used to not be stocked at all.”

Sharon Hamilton shops for items at the renovated Save A Lot in West Garfield Park.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Neighborhood grocery store

Many residents said the store’s reopening meant they no longer had to travel several miles for fresh food.

“We’re starving. It’s hard to get food right now,” said Kadedra Taylor, who traveled more than two miles to an Aldi after the Save A Lot closed. “I always spent my money here.”

By 11 a.m., the $5 gift certificates — part of a week full of daily giveaways — had run out. Lines inside the store grew as shoppers filled their carts with grocery items such as spices and garlic bread.

Residents said the store looked and smelled better than before.

Miles Thomas had meat, eggs and frozen pizzas in his shopping cart. He said getting groceries has been “hectic, and he’d often go without groceries rather than spend all the time to travel for groceries.”

“They couldn’t have [opened] at a better time,” he said.

Minne Wilson doesn’t mind traveling for groceries, often taking the bus. But she said it can be difficult for older residents such as herself to take public transit so sometimes she’ll take an Uber or rely on others who can drive her to the market. As a diabetic, she said she can find what she needs at Save A Lot’s produce section.

“I would rather come here than go anywhere else,” Wilson said.

Other shoppers beelined for the giveaway bags that had free items including ketchup, cookies, rice, chips, mayonnaise and canned green beans.

“It’s nice,” Anthony McClendon said. “I was looking for a little piece of meat in there or something though … but I really was just coming to see how it looked and it looks nice in there.”

The freezer section of the Save A Lot grocery store at 420 S. Pulaski Rd. ahead of its opening on Thursday.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Yellow Banana CEO Joseph Canfield and Save A Lot Chief Development Officer Bill Mayo told the Sun-Times during a store preview Wednesday that they’re excited to “prove themselves” to Chicago residents, who have complained about its expired food and dirty stores.

The renovated store at 420 S. Pulaski Road was expected to offer an updated shopping experience, after Yellow Banana closed it for renovations.

The site incorporates suggestions from residents such as the addition of two organic produce items — baby spinach and lettuce. Fresh-cut turkey was also added at the urging of residents along with new floors and lighting, which add a “welcoming” aesthetic, according to Mayo.

Canfield said the biggest change at the store is the updated refrigeration, which previously caused “product integrity issues.”

He said the other five stores are expected to open by Thanksgiving.

Financial setbacks and store closures

In the past two years, Yellow Banana’s 38-store portfolio has shrunk to only include its Chicago locations. Stores outside of Chicago and in Ohio, Florida, Texas and Wisconsin have either closed or been taken over by Missouri-based Save A Lot.

“Save A Lot is the custodian and has taken financial and operational control of some of the stores,” Mayo said. “But that also has allowed Yellow Banana to really focus on Chicago.”

Canfield and Mayo didn’t want to talk about the challenges that have plagued Yellow Banana from missing store opening deadlines to the nearly $2 million in lawsuits filed by suppliers.

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“We’re looking forward on things; we’re really not going to talk about things in the past,” Canfield said. “We don’t comment on any litigation. Any challenges we have with suppliers we are actively working through with them.”

The duo also declined to discuss what led to vendors such as PepsiCo and Sherwood Food Distributors to file lawsuits against the company over unpaid bills. The new store didn’t appear to sell Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Frito-Lay products — all vendors that filed lawsuits against Yellow Banana.

“We’re trying to focus on getting this store open, opening up the other stores, getting in the market and being successful,” Mayo said. “We’re really looking forward. That’s really what our focus is.”

Vendors claim $950,000 remains unpaid in active lawsuits, according to court records. Other debt includes utility bills and more than $167,000 for property tax bills on six Chicago stores.

Canfield said the property tax bills are in the process of being paid.

Earlier this year, Yellow Banana transferred ownership of its 13 stores outside of Chicago to a new entity controlled by Save A Lot, records show. When asked about the change, Canfield said they “took on a lot.”

“We’ve got a big commitment in Chicago, and we really need to be able to deliver what we said. … There’s public tax dollars there,” he said. “We take that commitment very, very seriously. So we went to Save A Lot and said, ‘Hey, for us to focus on this, we should figure out a partnership here that’s going to allow this to move forward.’”

Contributing: Hailey Bosek of WBEZ

Fresh produce and fruit is on display inside the renovated Save A Lot in West Garfield Park.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

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Save A Lot store opens in West Garfield Park as Yellow Banana dodges questions about lawsuits, finances

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