URGENT: CLICK TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE LEFT!
(DC Pundit) – Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has a federal government to blame for everything. Convenient, isn’t it? Because when seven Save-A-Lot grocery stores shuttered across the city’s South and West sides this week, leaving some of Chicago’s most impoverished residents without a nearby place to buy food, Johnson pointed his finger squarely at Washington rather than examining what’s happening in his own backyard.
Here’s what actually happened. The city of Chicago handed Yellow Banana, the operator of these stores, $13.5 million in taxpayer-funded grants to keep them open. That is not a small amount of money. It is the kind of investment that should have provided a solid foundation for sustained operations. Instead, all seven stores closed anyway, taking that public money with them.
Yellow Banana had been struggling for some time. Block Club Chicago noted the company had difficulty getting the stores open in the first place, dealing with missed deadlines, protests, legal disputes, and sudden closures that generated scathing national headlines. Then Save-A-Lot cut ties with Yellow Banana entirely, leaving the operator without its retail partner. The company also suffered a significant blow when CEO Joe Canfield died of a stroke at the age of 54 in April.
The result is a food desert expanding across neighborhoods that were already struggling. The South and West sides of Chicago are impoverished, crime-ridden areas where residents depend heavily on accessible grocery options. The closure of these seven stores makes an already difficult situation considerably worse.
Residents who spoke to FOX 32 Chicago were understandably devastated.
“It’s bad, because this is the only reasonable store that we have around the neighborhoods,” one woman said.
“It just opened up, and now it’s about to close down again,” another resident said. “We got nothing! I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Others worried about the workers left jobless by the closures. “The majority of the people working (at the store) are like my family,” one man said. “Another blow to the community.”
Chicago sank $14M into a discount grocery chain and it went under.
This is progressivism in action: Overpromise, waste tax dollars, watch the project fail miserably, then shrug it off.
Progressives don't care about a plan succeeding.
Progressives only care about being… pic.twitter.com/rbh8zh3Ya9
— Chicago Contrarian (@ChicagoContrar1) July 25, 2026
Mayor Johnson’s response to all of this? Blame the federal government. “You know what’s happening at the federal level? That’s what’s causing the disruption of the local market,” he said. “I’m going to continue to do my part to make these necessary investments. The hope is that our different leaders can come together to find a way.”
The city already made a $13.5 million investment, Mayor. They closed anyway. At some point, Chicago’s leadership has to reckon with the fact that decades of failed progressive policies, soaring crime rates that drive businesses out, fiscal mismanagement, and an environment hostile to private enterprise, are the reason grocery chains don’t want to operate in these neighborhoods in the first place. Blaming Trump doesn’t feed anyone.
URGENT: CLICK TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE LEFT!
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