Save A Lot’s Auburn Gresham location expected to open in April

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Yellow Banana, operator of Save A Lot stores throughout Chicago, expects to open its Auburn Gresham location in April, according to Ald. David Moore (17th).

The discount grocery store at 7908 S. Halsted was originally slated to open in July 2023 but faced a series of delays and pushed back opening dates, with the previous opening expected around Thanksgiving.

Moore said it will now open in April. The delay, he said, was caused by unexpected floor issues at the Gresham store, which needed “a lot of work.”

“The floors are done, but everything else had to be on hold until then,” he said.

Yellow Banana did not immediately return a request for comment.

A company spokesperson told the Sun-Times in December that the Gresham store, along with its West Garfield Park store, was slated to open in the first quarter of 2024 after “construction and equipment installation delays.”

In an email dated Oct. 25, a company representative confirmed to the city its construction delays. Yellow Banana’s plan was to renovate the Gresham store before starting work on its other Save A Lot properties, according to the email, but the store “had an unforeseen subsurface condition that required additional geotechnical work and other investigations causing a delay of more than 90 days.”

Plans to reopen the long-vacant Auburn Gresham store were announced in July 2022 by Ohio-based Yellow Banana. CEO Joe Canfield made big promises of offering organic food and lots of products for local shoppers, along with a renovated store.

It was one of six Save A Lot stores on the South and West sides that Yellow Banana purchased with plans to revitalize. But the company has courted controversy in Chicago since it was awarded more than $25 million in tax increment financing and federal tax grants to rehab and revitalize Save A Lot stores on Chicago’s South and West sides.

The company operates Save A Lot stores in Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin. It owned locations in Florida until Oct. 1, when it finalized the sale of four stores to Ascend Grocery, a Yellow Banana spokesperson confirmed last month.

The company has 10 locations in Chicago, with five that are open including a controversial Englewood site that took over a former Whole Foods.