CHICAGO (CBS) — Six Save a Lot discount grocery stores could reopen by November, nearly two years after the company first announced renovation plans that would be supported by city tax breaks.
Parent company Yellow Banana said the grand reopening of the West Garfield Park store at 420 S. Pulaski Road is expected to take place in early September, according to spokeswoman Sarah Griffin.
Three more stores in West Pullman, South Shore and South Chicago are scheduled to reopen in October, and two stores in Auburn Gresham and West Lawn are expected to reopen in November, “barring further project delays.”
The Chicago City Council approved $13.5 million in tax increment financing for Yellow Banana in 2022 to renovate those six stores, but so far none have reopened.
“We are working closely with the appropriate parties to ensure work progresses at all six stores,” Griffin said in a statement to CBS News Chicago Tuesday morning.
Save A Lot stores have not always been popular in Chicago.
In Englewood, many neighbors spent months Protest against the opening of a Save-a-Lot store in the former Whole Foods space at the corner of 63rd and Halsted Streets in 2023.
Neighbours and community leaders have said they cannot trust the Save A Lot brand – on the grounds that the discounter has a reputation for selling lackluster products.
“We just don’t want Save A Lot – because of the product, the smell and the bad service,” Principal Stephanie Coleman (16th) said ahead of the Englewood store’s opening in May 2023.
At town hall meetings, city leaders said they tried to get other companies to take over the old Whole Foods location in Englewood, but Save a Lot was the only company that showed interest.
Yellow Banana executives have said they will run Save-a-Lot stores differently than the discount chain has in the past and will work with local leaders to ensure their concerns are heard.
Yellow Banana officials said they would invest $26.5 million in their grocery stores on Chicago’s south and west sides, with plans for a major remodel and rebrand.
