7 Save A Lot Grocery Stores On South, West Sides Set To Abruptly Close Saturday 3%
By Atavia Reed22% Alexandra Murphy3%
7/24/2026, 12:46:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 6 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Negativity Bias, and Appeal to Emotion, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 7% saturation with 75 hits. Analysis detected 256 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,066 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 15.3% and a BS Rank of 3% (21,281 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 97.20% of the article peer group.
CHICAGO — Seven Save A Lot grocery stores are set to close on the South and West sides Saturday as the stores’ operator faces financial difficulty and as efforts to find an emergency operator have not yet been successful, sources confirmed.
Grocery chain Save A Lot has worked with Ohio-based Yellow Banana since 2023 to operate stores in Auburn Gresham, Englewood, South Chicago, South Shore, West Garfield Park, West Lawn and West Pullman.
But Save A Lot decided to end its agreement with Yellow Banana due to “significant financial headwinds” facing the grocery store operator, officials said in a statement Tuesday .
As Yellow Banana came under financial duress, Save A Lot took on additional responsibilities to keep the stores open — including providing financial support for vendors, employees and other stakeholders, and guaranteeing the stores were stocked and fully operational, sources told Block Club.
Save A Lot officials set a Saturday deadline to find an alternative investor or new supplier to keep the seven grocery stores open, company officials said Tuesday.
Conversations between the city — which invested millions in propping up the stores — Yellow Banana and Save A Lot have been ongoing; but, as-is, the stores are closing at end of business Saturday, a source with knowledge of the situation told Block Club.
Two workers at the Save A Lot at 420 S.
Pulaski Road in West Garfield Park confirmed their store’s last day of business would be Saturday, saying they found out about the pending closure when news of the ownership group’s financial situation broke this week.
Signs in the window of the West Garfield Park store advertise merchandise as 50 percent off.
A Save A Lot store in West Garfield Park advertises merchandise as 50 percent off ahead of its closure on Saturday, as seen on Thursday, July 23, 2026.
Credit: Alexandra Murphy for Block Club Chicago
As the stores close, Save A Lot will disperse some of the remaining food on the shelves to community organizations, according to sources.
Unopened, nonperishable food will be distributed to other Save A Lot stores across the country.
Employees at the seven stores who will lose their jobs after the closures will continue to receive support from the company.
Employees will be in next week to help wind down the stores, a source with knowledge of the situation said.
A solution to reopening the Save A Lot grocery stores can “come in many forms,” including a new retailer, reseller or funding to support the stores, the source said.
Yellow Banana, Save A Lot, the city’s Department of Planning and Development and other financial partners are “discussing opportunities” with potential investors or new suppliers to keep the stores open, Peter Strazzabosco, deputy commissioner at the city’s planning department, previously said.
The Save a Lot at 4439 W. 63rd St. in West Lawn on March 21, 2024.
Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Yellow Banana swept onto the scene in 2022 with promises to renovate a vacant Save A Lot store in Auburn Gresham, which company officials said was “ beat to all hell .”
At the time, the company operated 38 Save A Lot stores across the country.
Later that year, the City Council approved $13.5 million in tax-increment financing funds, another $13 million in New Market Tax Credits and private funding for Yellow Banana to buy and rehabilitate six other stores across the South and West sides.
A redevelopment agreement with the city required the company to open all six stores by March 2025 or lose the TIF dollars.
The company would receive the $13.5 million grant only after the stores were remodeled and reopened, according to the agreement.
Following numerous delays, four locations opened in 2024: West Garfield Park , 420 S.
Pulaski Road; West Pullman , 10700 S.
Halsted St.; South Chicago, 2858 E. 83rd St.; and South Shore , 7240 S.
Stony Island Ave.
Locations in Auburn Gresham , 7908 S.
Halsted St., and West Lawn , 4439 W. 63rd St., opened in 2025.
The newly reopened Save A Lot grocery store, 420 S.
Pulaski Rd., in West Garfield Park on Sept.
4, 2024.
Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Yellow Banana’s journey to opening the Save A Lot stores was marred by missed deadlines , protests , legal disputes , sudden closures and scathing national headlines .
The company faced another blow this year when CEO Joe Canfield died of a stroke at the age of 54 in April.
The stores have also experienced a 26 percent decline in sales tendered under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program compared to last year following changes to the federal food assistance program under President Donald Trump’s “ Big Beautiful Bill ,” company officials said.
City officials confirmed that supplying and paying for inventory at the stores for months in the wake of Yellow Banana’s troubles is “what Save A Lot has indicated as a reason for terminating the license agreement,” Strazzabosco said Thursday.
An occupancy agreement required Yellow Banana’s six stores to remain open through 2035.
If the stores close permanently, the six locations that received TIF funding must be reoccupied by a grocer within a year to avoid defaults, Strazzabosco said.
“The City is exploring every opportunity to recoup taxpayer funding, if necessary,” Strazzabosco previously said.
Seven Save A Lot stores, including this one in West Garfield Park, are set to close Saturday, July 25, 2025.
Credit: Alexandra Murphy for Block Club Chicago
Micheal Crockett, a West Garfield Park neighbor, has been a shopper at the Garfield Park Save A Lot since the store remodeled under Yellow Banana’s ownership.
He has shopped at the store at least twice a week because other grocery stores in the community have closed.
Without the store, many neighbors will have to travel farther for fresh food options.
For people who take the bus, it could take at least 20 to 30 minutes to go somewhere to get groceries, Crockett said.
“It feel like they don’t care about Black communities,” Crockett said of the store closures.
“There’s no way that we shouldn’t have no fresh food in a Black community when we’re already dealing with obesity, we’re already dealing with poverty.
So you want us to try to eat healthy, but how can we?
So that’s why we always end up where we at.”
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