Save-A-Lot To Open Five New Stores In Chicago

St. Louis, Feb. 21, 2011 - Save-A-Lot, one of the nation's leading hard-discount, limited-assortment grocery retailers and a wholly owned subsidiary of SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU), today announced that it will open five new stores in Chicago's South Side neighborhoods on Thursday, Feb. 24, nearly doubling its presence in the area.

With the openings, Save-A-Lot will operate 13 Chicagoland stores. The company expects to open five additional locations in the greater Chicago area by February 2012.

"Chicago long has been a priority market for Save-A-Lot, and we're thrilled to be adding five more South Side stores," said Bill Shaner, Save-A-Lot CEO and president. "These locations are a perfect match with our strategy of bringing affordable groceries and more fresh-food options to neighborhoods with few existing grocery stores."

The new Chicago stores are located at:

Working with neighborhood staffing agencies, Save-A-Lot has hired more than 100 employees from the local community for its new stores. The five South Side stores range in size from 11,000 to 21,000 square feet. All of the stores are located in formerly vacant retail properties, which the company has completely renovated.

"We were fortunate to find some great locations that other retailers and businesses had left, and we greatly appreciate the support of local community leaders as we continue to expand our presence in Chicago," Shaner said.

Save-A-Lot provides consumers with savings of up to 40 percent on their primary food needs, compared with traditional grocers. Stores offer a carefully selected mix of 1,200 to 1,500 of the most popular, in-demand everyday essentials, including farm fresh fruits and vegetables; USDA-inspected meat and dairy; and a full line of baby and household products. Merchandise is both brand-name and the company's exclusive private label.

Nationally, Save-A-Lot, which recently passed the 1,200-store mark, announced in 2010 that it plans to double its number of locations to more than 2,400 in the next five years. Throughout this expansion, there will be a continued emphasis on growth in urban markets and areas known as "food deserts," where there is little-to-no access to healthier foods.