This Low-Cost Grocery Chain Is Reopening a Closed Store and Upgrading 6 Others

Grocery shopping has been anything but normal for the past few years, and the trend isn't stopping now. Big changes are coming to Save A Lot stores in one of the country's largest cities.

Yellow Banana LLC—a retail grocery platform that currently owns 38 Save A Lot locations across five metropolitan areas—has officially announced that plans to renovate six Chicago area stores are well underway. Plus, another store that was shuttered back in 2020 will return to the scene.

The Save A Lot renovations will begin in the fall and affect both the South and West Side neighborhoods of Chicago, which are areas that currently offer limited access to both low-cost and nutritious food.

Shoppers in these Chicago communities will still enjoy all the familiarities of their local Save A Lot, but will also benefit from vast improvements both inside and outside the building. Each of the six stores will receive a fresh paint job, new HVAC system, refreshed signage and decor, plus updated flooring, lighting, and cases for both dairy and meat products.

save a lot grocery store — Eric Glenn/Shutterstock

Yellow Banana anticipates wrapping up all remodels by the end of 2022, at the same time the Save A Lot store on the city's South side at 7908 S Halsted Street is scheduled to resume operations.

A total of $26 million will go towards fueling the ambitious project, with contributions from Yellow Banana itself paired with a considerable Community Development Grant of $13.5 million awarded by the city of Chicago and Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

The grant is part of the Chicago Recovery Plan—an effort intended to stimulate economic recovery across the city following the pandemic. The Save A Lot stores are among 79 total businesses—many of them food-related—which received a portion of the nearly $50 million in allocated funds.

Supermarket News says Michael Nance, the co-founder of 127 Wall Holdings—the investment company which owns Yellow Banana—said in a statement: "We know how critical access to high-quality food at affordable prices is in many of these neighborhoods–I myself having been raised in a community with many similarities–and we are honored to be able to serve them.