Shelves and freezers are nearly empty at Lorain-area Save A Lot stores. A store manager says owner Yellow Banana LLC is selling area Save A Lot stores and the company has stopped paying vendors.
LORAIN -- Shelves have been nearly empty for weeks at three Lorain-area Save A Lot stores, and the discount grocery chain’s future is up in the air.
Employees said owner Yellow Banana LLC is selling area Save A Lot stores and the company has stopped paying vendors.
“We’ve only been getting produce – meat, milk and eggs – fresh stuff, for about three weeks,” said Jared Cortez, assistant manager at Save A Lot, 1965 Cooper Foster Park Road, Amherst. “Owners are in the middle of a sale, and they are keeping us in the dark. They told us there won’t be any store closures, but we just don’t know.”
Cleveland-based Yellow Banana acquired 32 stores in the Greater Cleveland, Greater Chicago and Greater Milwaukee areas in September 2021 as part of Save A Lot’s efforts to convert corporate-owned stores to local ownership, according to the Yellow Banana website.
Cashier Sasha Jackson rings up items at Save A Lot in downtown Lorain. Employees say owner Yellow Banana LLC of Cleveland is selling its area Save A Lot stores and the future of the discount grocery chain is unknown.
Save A Lot remodeled the old More 4 Less stores in downtown and South Lorain and the store in Amherst with new décor, upgraded flooring and lighting, and new produce and meat cases in 2022, after Yellow Banana announced plans to rebrand and expand the assortment of local and regional products and hire talent from local communities at each of its 32 stores.
But shelves are almost empty at the West Fourth Street store in downtown Lorain, where a sign is posted announcing closing hours have moved up from 9pm to 5pm daily. A sign posted at the Amherst store said the store was closing at 3pm Sunday, Oct. 1.
“If the store closes down, I’ll be heartbroken,” said Sasha Jackson, who has worked at the downtown Lorain store since May. “I just went from being homeless and now I have a job, a home and things are going pretty good for me. To lose my job now would be devastating.”
Yellow Banana became Save A Lot’s largest retail partner in the nation when it bought 32 Midwest stores in 2021. That same year, Yellow Banana reported the stores generated more than $130 million in annual revenues.
“In many cases our stores are the only accessible option for healthy, affordable groceries,” Yellow Banana CEO Joseph Canfield said in a 2021 news release. Just two years later, the grocer’s sketchy future has some shoppers worried.
Lee Kimble looks over meat selections at a Save A Lot store in Downtown Lorain. Kimble said Save A Lot on West Fourth Street is the only store within walking distance of his home “and if it closes, things would be pretty hard.”
“It’s the only store within walking distance and if it closes, things would be pretty hard,” said Lorain resident Lee Kimble, who walks to the downtown store to shop. “The only other place to get groceries around here is Dollar General. The other grocery stores are miles away.”
Family-owned Fligner’s grocery store on Broadway is about a mile south of the downtown Save A Lot, and Apple’s market is 2 miles away on Meister Road. Walmart and Meijer are even farther South from downtown at 4 miles away on Leavitt Road.
Amherst shoppers can go to Giant Eagle in a plaza neighboring Save A Lot on Cooper Foster Park Road or Meijer located two blocks away. But the Save A Lot on Fairless Drive in South Lorain and on West Fourth Street in downtown Lorain are the only options for residents who don’t have transportation.
“This is a poverty-stricken area,” said Lorain resident Raymond Wade who shops downtown. “This store is essential for many people because it’s the only access they have to fresh fruits and vegetables.”
A Yellow Banana spokesman had not responded to a request for comment at press time.
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All Photos by Chanda Neely
