Save A Lot has completed the sale of 32 company-owned stores across the Greater Cleveland, Greater Chicago and Greater Milwaukee areas to Yellow Banana, LLC, as part of the discount grocer’s ongoing initiative to convert corporate-owned stores to local ownership.
Each of the stores will undergo a significant remodel next year that reflects Save A Lot’s recently updated brand image. The remodel will provide an enhanced shopping environment both inside and outside the stores, Save A Lot noted, with new décor, upgraded flooring and lighting as well as improved produce and meat cases.
The remodeling initiative at Yellow Banana is part of a larger Save A Lot redesign effort that will showcase the company’s more than 50 private label brands, which range from food to household products while introducing modern graphics, bright colors, and fresh departmental signage and lighting as well as new fixtures and fittings. The redesign also provides a break midway through the center of the store, which shortens aisles for an easier browsing experience, according to Save A Lot.
Yellow Banana is an operation controlled by 127 Wall Holdings, LLC, a minority-owned holding company co-founded by Yale Law School classmates Walker Brumskine, Ademola Adewale-Sadik and Michael Nance with Joseph Canfield. The 32 stores generate annual revenues in excess of $130 million, Save A Lot pointed out, making Yellow Banana one of Save A Lot’s largest retail partners nationwide.
“We are thrilled to partner with Save A Lot on this opportunity to invest in underserved, predominantly minority communities in three major cities,” said Brumskine, in announcing the sale.
Adewale-Sadik noted, “As the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear, providing affordable, high-quality nutrition to working families is an essential service that creates meaningful impact.”
