Is the City of Dallas going to save the Save-U-More grocery store in southern Dallas?

When Freda Robinson read about a new community grocery store in South Dallas’ Forest District, she wanted to know why there wasn’t something like that in the Highland Hills neighborhood she grew up in.

“Why can’t we get something like this? Why can’t we get a neighborhood store? This is embarrassing to me.”

Robinson, 60, remembers shopping at a family-owned fresh foods market when she was growing up. But, when the owner retired, no one filled the space. A couple of convenience stores and a Dollar Store have come in, but no supermarket with fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Then five years ago, Save-A-Lot opened in the neighborhood at Stuart Simpson and Bonnie View roads, thanks to a $2.8 million grant from the city of Dallas — the first of several grants in southern Dallas to incentivize grocery stores in “food deserts.”

Robinson remembers taking her 84-year-old mother to the store when it first opened.

“It started out great,” Robinson says, but over the last few years, the store shelves didn’t stay stocked and the produce wasn’t fresh, she says. Robinson went back to driving her mom 20 minutes away to Cedar Hill, DeSoto or Duncanville to shop for groceries.

In January 2021, Save-A-Lot, since re-named Save-U-More, closed. The store’s owner, Joseph Kemp, told Spectrum News the store had closed only temporarily.

“Business is slow due to the pandemic, and this time will be used to find a new operator and make modifications to the facility to increase the shopping of local residents,” Kemp told Spectrum at the time.

Now, Kemp — who avoided foreclosure earlier this year — is trying to sell the building. Kemp is a developer and president of KRR Construction in Duncanville. He did not return calls for an interview.

Earlier this year, grocery store executive Jerry Brown offered to consult for Kemp. After being turned down, he now wants to buy the building and use his 20-plus years experience in the grocery industry to create a new type of store that he believes will be sustainable. Brown previously worked as a general manager for Walgreens, Save-A-Lot and Whole Foods Market. 

“I would take a Walgreens, Trader Joe’s and throw it in this box and then — abracadabra — probably have the perfect model,” Brown says.

Brown says the average Walgreens is generating around a million dollars a month in revenues through their prescription business. His idea is to create a smaller grocery store that combines a pharmacy and fresh foods market.

“If you combine a prescription business and a small box operation, you have a small sustainable model to be able to fill that gap in food deserts in South Dallas, West Dallas and other rural and urban areas across America,” Brown says. “The math shows that these communities need access to prescription medication.”

Brown says major grocery chains like Kroger, Walmart or H-E-B aren’t willing to invest in building out an entirely new model for a niche market, but it gives smaller entrepreneurs like himself an opportunity. 

James McGee, president of Southern Dallas Progress, supports Brown’s proposal. He says Brown has been working on this plan for some time, and he has the experience to pull it off. 

McGee says Kemp was hesitant because Brown’s plan includes selling wine and packs of beer at the store. 

“There’s a certain type of person that buys a bottle of wine versus a 24-ounce beer,” McGee says. “It’s just two different types. We will not sell anything below a 6- to 12-pack of beer because that might bring a different type of traffic, frequent traffic, that you don’t want.”

McGee says they already have a pharmacist on board, as well as urban farmer and community activist Ples Montgomery of the Oak Cliff Veggie Project, plus a person with experience in food logist