A shuttered Save-A-Lot opened in Auburn Gresham on Thursday, five years after the grocery company closed it and more than two years after Yellow Banana, the grocery operator that was approved for millions in city dollars to help reopen it, indicated it could.
The city announced a $13.5 million grant for Ohio-based Yellow Banana to reopen the Auburn Gresham supermarket and acquire and renovate five other Save-A-Lots on the city’s South and West Sides in 2022. The move, made under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, was just one of many attempts that city leaders have made under multiple mayoral administrations to try to address the supermarket closings that have long plagued the South and West Sides, leaving residents of some neighborhoods with limited access to fresh groceries. The city funding was set to cover about half the project’s estimated $26 million total cost.
The project has been beset by delays.
Yellow Banana, which has until the end of March to open the final store still being renovated, which is in West Lawn, said it will do so next month. But residents of Auburn Gresham have seen target dates for their supermarket’s reopening come and go.
When the city grant was announced in July 2022, Yellow Banana said it hoped to reopen the Auburn Gresham supermarket by the end of that year. More than a year later, in the fall of 2023, the company said it was targeting an opening date for the store in the first quarter of 2024. In August 2024, with the store remaining closed, a representative for Save-A-Lot said it would open in November. In November, the company said it would open in December.
In an interview at the at 7908 S. Halsted St. store Thursday, Yellow Banana CEO Joe Canfield attributed the delays to structural issues with the building that the company discovered when it began remodeling the store. “It added several hundred thousand dollars to the budget that we had to cover,” he said, “but we’re glad that we’re here.”
On Thursday morning, dozens of residents waited outside for the store’s grand opening and a chance to receive a free bag of groceries the company handed out to the first 100 customers. Those at the front of the line said they’d been waiting in the cold since about 6 a.m. Doors were set to open at 9.
Wilma McCray and Richard Bryant, neighbors who live near the store, said they are excited for the supermarket to reopen.
“We’re grateful to have it back,” said McCray. “I want to get inside and see what it looks like.”
On Thursday, residents had to wait just a little longer: Save-A-Lot representatives began letting shoppers into the store just before 9:45 a.m.
“Thank you so much for your patience,” Canfield told the crowd before a brief official ribbon cutting. “Had a couple of things to wrap up — we are done, we’re going to cut the ribbon real quick. We really want to welcome you to the neighborhood grocery store.”
Yellow Banana has faced scrutiny over project delays and its business practices.
A Chicago Sun-Times investigation published in August found the company had racked up $2 million in debts, including unpaid tax and utility bills and business fines. A Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management professor called the company “insolvent” after the Sun-Times asked him to review the company’s 2022 balance sheet, the paper reported.
As part of its agreement with the city, Yellow Banana must keep all six stores open over the course of its 10-year agreement or risk losing its millions in public dollars.
“I don’t know if any business can look down the road 10 years,” Canfield said Thursday when asked if he is confident the company could keep the stores open through the length of the agreement. “I can tell you that we reacted to the situation that we found ourselves in. We are very confident that we got long-term backing and long-term partners to help us keep the business going and serve the neighborhoods in Chicago that we’ve committed to serving.”
Canfield declined to provide additional details about the company’s response to its financial situation.
Yellow Banana has also faced criticism from community groups and local elected officials, some of whom have criticized the company for selling what they describe as low-quality or even rotten produce.
The company has repeatedly defended itself from that criticism, saying in the past, for instance, that efforts to upgrade refrigeration systems in the stores would help improve quality of its produce. At Thursday’s grand opening event in Auburn Gresham, to which members of the press were invited, produce on the shelves looked fresh.
“The stores that are open are doing really well. They’ve been very well-received by the community,” Canfield said Thursday.\
Representatives for Save-A-Lot initially said Ald. David Moore, whose 17th ward includes the supermarket, would attend the opening event. Reached by phone Thursday, Moore said he did not attend because of “lack of communication” from the company. In response, Yellow Banana said it had moved quickly to open the store once it was ready to go and that it planned to work with the alderman and other community partners on a more formal grand opening event in the coming weeks.
Moore said he thinks the community has been “disrespected” but added that he is supportive of the grocery store and feels it is good for the community.
“We’re going to do everything we can on our end to make sure that we’re supporting that store so that it can stay open,” he told the Tribune.