Springfield Alderman Shawn Gregory is celebrating the impending opening of 7’s Groceries, but the City of Springfield is about to get a lesson in what happens when good intentions, government checks, and grocery-store economics collide.
Based on the track record of nearly identical projects, the outcome is already written: the store will absorb hundreds of thousands (more likely millions) in grants and public money, limp along for a few years, then close.
Grocery is a brutal, low-margin business. Independents typically clear 1–3 percent net profit, if they are profitable at all. Most new operators never reach the sales needed to stay solvent.
This location itself already delivered the market’s verdict. After nearly three decades as a discount chain store, with buying power, logistics, and brand recognition, the store closed for good on Christmas Eve 2025. After almost 30 years in business, Save-a-Lot couldn’t make the numbers work.
Save-a-Lot is a company with vast assets and resources. In 2025, Save-a-Lot had $4 billion in company-wide sales and likely has tens of millions of dollars in cash on hand. They decided this location is a waste of time and money.
7’s Groceries will be operated by Springfield native Arriel Williams in the former Save-A-Lot on Clear Lake Avenue.
According to the Illinois Times, Williams recently sold a 60 unit residential complex he owned in Chatham. The only property which fits that description is Chatham Crossing, which sold for $4,250,000 on November 1, 2025.
At the October 6th, 2026 Springfield City Council meeting, 7’s Groceries was awarded a $100,000 grant from the City of Springfield, which according to Williams, accounts for roughly 40 percent of his startup inventory costs.
If you look around the country at very similar examples, that $100k grant is just the tip of the iceberg for what 7’s Groceries will probably need to receive in public money just to keep the doors open.
Just down the highway in Peoria, CJ Foods is the cautionary tale that 7’s Groceries is already copying in real time. Backed by roughly $1.7 million from the Illinois Grocery Initiative plus additional ARPA and state grants that pushed the total public commitment well into the millions, the project has repeatedly missed opening dates and still sits unfinished as of late 2026.
Look at Community Foods Market in West Oakland, California. It opened in 2019 after years of organizing and roughly $15 million raised from grants, nonprofits, and a direct public offering. It was the only full-scale grocery in the neighborhood. It closed in early 2022 after less than three years.
Sun Fresh Market in Kansas City, MO is an even clearer case. The city spent roughly $17–18 million acquiring and redeveloping the shopping center and propping up the store. It opened in 2018, received additional emergency money (including $750,000 for security), and still closed in August 2025.
MARSH Grocery and Diner in St. Louis’s Carondelet neighborhood tried the progressive model: pay-what-you-can, worker-owned co-op, climate education, gardens in the back. It opened around 2021 with Healthy Food Financing Initiative support and closed in July 2023.
The Pooch truly wishes Arriel Williams the best, and The Pooch hopes that Williams can buck the trend and keep the doors open at 7’s Groceries for more than a couple of years.
But the most likely path for 7’s Groceries is the one already road tested by similar stores: the doors will open, the store will operate at a steady loss while burning through whatever money is available, and at the first real sign of trouble Alderman Shawn Gregory and Alderman Roy Williams will demand more city support.
Alderman Gregory and Alderman Williams will do what they have done on other local projects—frame any resistance as proof of racism or indifference to the East Side—and bully a reluctant city council into writing another check. That cycle will continue until either Springfield’s willingness to continue underwriting a money-losing grocery finally runs dry or the failure becomes so obvious that even Alderman Gregory and Alderman Williams stop trying to prop it up.
The Pooch would love to be proven wrong, but the writing is on the wall. Springfield taxpayers, hold on to your wallets. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.