Save A Lot grocery stores on Chicago’s South and West sides, backed by more than $13.5 million in city taxpayer funds, are on the brink of closure according to the Starnes Media Group and MSN. These stores, operated by Yellow Banana under a redevelopment agreement meant to fight “food deserts,” have failed despite the public investment. Save A Lot terminated its licensing agreement after the outlets faced dramatic financial headwinds, including a 26 percent drop in SNAP/EBT transactions and other operational pressures.
City officials are now scrambling for new operators.
This outcome was entirely predictable. Taxpayer subsidies cannot manufacture a sustainable business model where private investment has already judged the economics unworkable. Government-backed stores inherit the same cost pressures, labor, energy, supply chains and security, as private owned stores. Layer on political interference, inefficiency, and the absence of a profit motive that drives innovation and cost control, and you have a recipe for failure. This is exactly what has happened in Chicago: millions of public dollars spent, temporary relief, and eventual failure that leaves communities worse off.
The Washington Policy Center (WPC) warned about this very approach earlier this year when Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson floated public options for city-run or city-backed grocery stores. Wilson has argued that “food deserts are not natural” and that corporations create them by abandoning communities. Wilson has suggested restrictions on chains closing locations and explored everything from fully public stores to public-private partnerships.
Only a fool or a politician would try to control food prices or availability through government command. High grocery prices and store closures in Seattle stem not primarily from corporate greed but from real economic realities, Washington’s high minimum wage, elevated energy costs, excessive regulations, taxes, permitting delays, and neighborhood conditions that deter investment. Forcing stores to stay open or having the city compete with private grocers does not lower costs, it shifts the burden to taxpayers and discourages the private investment that actually expands supply.
Chicago’s $13.5 million experiment is a demonstration of that principle. Government stores face the same market tests as private ones; when those tests fail, taxpayers foot the bill for empty shelves and wasted funds. History, from Soviet bread lines to failed municipal experiments elsewhere, shows the pattern never changes. Government control results in shortages, inefficiency, and higher long-term costs for the very people the policies claim to help.
Seattle residents deserve better access to fresh, affordable food. The solution is not to repeat Chicago’s mistakes. Cut regulatory burdens that inflate costs for grocers. Reform taxes and labor mandates that drive up prices. Encourage competition by lowering barriers for new entrants, farmers’ markets, and delivery services. Address root causes such as crime and disorder that make neighborhoods unattractive for business.
Free markets, unburdened by excessive government control, deliver abundance. Chicago has just shown what happens when politicians ignore that lesson. Mayor Wilson should resist the temptation. History, and now Chicago, proves it never works.
