It’s a good sign that grocer Yellow Banana reopened a Save A Lot store in the West Garfield Park neighborhood last week, providing a bit of relief in one of the city’s most parched food deserts.
The community’s residents certainly saw it that way, lining up in droves Thursday to attend a reopening ceremony and shop at the store at 420 S. Pulaski Road.
But as the Sun-Times Watchdogs reported recently, the Ohio-based Yellow Banana company is also being rocked in other states by store closures, fines, delinquent tax and utility bill payments, health code violations and a $2 million lawsuit.
That’s troubling news. The West and South sides deserve more grocery stores that sell healthy, affordable food. And we want Yellow Banana to deliver, for the sake of folks who don’t have the means to travel several neighborhoods away to buy a week’s worth of groceries — or just pick up a loaf of bread when they run out.
But with all of its financial troubles, can the company fully live up to its promise to renovate, reopen and operate six Chicago Save A Lot stores — even with the incentive of $13.5 million in city funding?
Right now, the forecast looks cloudy. The store execs behind the deal, and the city, better be working overtime to make sure the stores are a success.
A company that’s ‘not good’ at what it’s doing
Yellow Banana has had to close 16 stores in Ohio, Florida, Texas and Wisconsin. Those that weren’t shuttered were taken over by Missouri-based Save A Lot, the Sun-Times reported.
In just two years, Yellow Banana has gone from controlling 38 Save A Lots down to just eight in Chicago. Six of those eight stores, including the West Garfield Park location, are slated to reopen under the $13.5 million deal with the city, hatched in 2022.
But so far, the West Garfield Park store, closed two years ago, is the only one to reopen.
On behalf of the Sun-Times, Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management professor Thomas Lys reviewed some of the financial documents the company provided to the city in 2022 to help craft the subsidy arrangement.
“When I look at this balance sheet, it’s a company that’s not good at doing whatever it’s doing,” Lys said. “I don’t see anything here that would give the people on the South and West sides any hope. Understand, all I know is what’s been conveyed to me. But this is a company that can’t pay $800 for its utility bill.”
It can be tough to find companies willing to open up a business and stay the course in lower-income communities of color. Think back to the closure of the Whole Foods in Englewood in 2022, and Walmart shutting down stores in Chatham, Kenwood and Little Village last year.
Even so, that the city knew the company wasn’t in good financial shape, but went ahead with the agreement anyway, is alarming.
Public is owed an explanation
The six Save A Lot stores must reopen by next April and remain open for at least a decade. Otherwise, Yellow Banana will have to repay the full amount of the subsidy.
That sounds like a safeguard, but could Chicago really get its money back? Or would the city become just another creditor trying to get blood from a Save A Lot turnip?
Even worse, people in those communities would be left wandering in the food desert, once again, if things don’t work out.
Which would be a travesty. West Side residents helped Yellow Banana craft the Pulaski Road store. Their input led the store to add fresh-cut turkey, organic products such as baby spinach and lettuce, and even floors and lighting designed to make the store feel more welcoming.
All of that effort can’t be allowed to go to waste.
Yellow Banana CEO Joseph Canfield and Save A Lot Chief Development Officer Bill Mayo attended last week’s store reopening. But they didn’t want to talk about Yellow Banana’s troubles.
“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.”
Said Mayo: “We’re trying to focus on getting this store open, opening up the other stores, getting in the market and being successful. We’re really looking forward. That’s really what our focus is.”
But Canfield, Mayo, and the city for that matter, should explain how Yellow Banana intends to solve its financial issues, and open — and keep open — all six stores.
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