Economic casualty

Save-A-Lot closure wasn’t a total surprise to Southside community

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook Staff Writer

While a red and white trailer rig backed up to a loading dock behind of Save-A-Lot grocery store to collect the last few remaining goods, a handful of customers pulled up at the entrance. 

They were greeted by a sign that informed them the store was permanently closed. The shelves inside the huge space were already all emptied.

By that time last Friday, three days after the doors to the business on South Monroe Street shuttered, community leaders and elected city and county officials were fielding calls about the closure. They came from worried employees and customers.

Multiple sources close to the developments that led to the closure say the operator of the store decided not to renew a lease. They kept the store opened on a month-to-month agreement for almost two years, a situation that surfaced when the city was attempting to negotiate purchase of the Towne South Plaza for a new Tallahassee Police Department headquarters.

“It’s just a casualty of the market,” said Christic Henry, a Southside community advocate and a realtor. “From my looking from outside in, it probably was a ticking time bomb. It was very unfortunate for the employees.

“In these very vulnerable economic times, someone has established their lifestyle and budget and acclimated to their current level of income, and now you go to work and there is no job.”

Shana Johnson, who worked at the store for 17 years, was one of the hardest hit employees. She was at the store to deliver a letter from her doctor when she received word of the closure. She had been on sick leaves since April.

“They called me and told me the store was closing,” she said. “I was hurt because I was looking to come back to a job.”

She wasn’t told if she would be receiving severance pay, Johnson said.

“It hurt me,” she said. “It disappointed me.”

Save-A-Lot, known for offering discounted prices on groceries, sold 33 of its location to Orlando-based Ascend Grocery. The Tallahassee locations, which wasn’t part of the purchase, operated the last two years under new ownership.

Save-A-Lot was the last business that anchored the plaza. The store opened there 19 years ago, replacing a Wynn Dixie store that move less than a mile south. That store eventually left the Southside, followed a few years later by CVS pharmacy. 

There are currently about six empty units in the plaza. Citi Trends and a CSL Plasma lab are the remaining big tenant.

A public relations agent for Save A Lot said the stores are  owned and operated by private retailers. 

“Unfortunately, the lease for the store on South Monroe Street was not renewed and consequently the operator has made the difficult decision to close the store,” Save-A-Lot said in a statement. “We are grateful to our customers for their loyal support in this location.”

Under the sign that said the store was closed, there was a note written on the glass.

“New store coming,” it read. “Cost+ in about 1 month.” 

While he agreed that Save-A-Lot left a void in the community, Antonio Jefferson, president of the Big Bend Minority Chamber of Commerce, wondered if the operators had any other choice. A more diverse customer base might have made a difference, he said.

“At the end of the day if we as a community is not willing to solicit these businesses, it gets pretty hard to survive,” Jefferson said.

Departures from the Southside also include a Walgreens that was at the intersection of Magnolia Drive and South Monroe. Walgreens and others that left the area did so because they might not have been profitable, said County Commission Bill Proctor.

“When they begin to change their business formula, often times in urban communities, when the numbers for their pockets are not well beyond staggering they feel like it’s not worth their effort to serve markets that only make marginal profits,” said Proctor, whose district includes the Southside. “That is a result of corporate classism because there are McDonald’s and other types of business that stay open.”

Save-A-Lot’s move rekindled the argument about the Southside being a food desert. Those with doubt point to a Piggly Wiggly adjacent to the plaza and two Publix locations, one at Crawfordville Road and Capital Circle and the other on Gaines Street.

“This isn’t a conversation about access to healthy food,” Henry said. “It’s about access to healthy affordable food.”

Proctor took a different tact, saying the situation now facing Southside residents is one of integrity.

“It’s a morale issue on who you’re going to make food accessible to and who you’re not,” Proctor said. “And, who are you going to make medicine accessible to and who you’re going to let die. Access to food and medicine is vital and it impacts the longevity of life as well as stability and quality of life.”