CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Jerome Bouyer is fed up with vandalism and violence.
So this week, the operator of 18 Cleveland-area grocery stores made a public plea. He asked neighbors to pay attention – and to call the police if they see anything strange.
“In the 21 years I’ve been with Save A Lot, I’ve never seen this kind of activity around our stores,” Bouyer said. “It’s something new to us, and that’s why we’re reaching out to the community for help.”
A discount grocer based in Missouri, Save A Lot has more than 800 independently owned stores across the country. In some Cleveland neighborhoods, it’s the only place to buy fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.
Over the last few months, the Cleveland Heights store has become a test case for a partnership between the company and its customers.
Shoppers rallied in March to show support for the retailer after a rash of break-ins. And activists have worked with police to put more eyes on the block on Noble Road near the East Cleveland border.
“This is gonna be precedent,” said Art McKoy, the founder of anti-violence group Black on Black Crime Inc. and a frequent shopper at the Cleveland Heights location.
“That’s going to encourage other businesses – banks and grocery stores – to join with the partnership,” he said. “And let’s make this whole thing work.”
McKoy, 80, lives a few blocks away in East Cleveland. He’s worried about the loss of basic services, from drug stores to bank branches, in low-income neighborhoods.
“There’s so many people that’s on the bus, walking, handicapped, children, seniors. We need it,” he said of having a grocery store nearby. “We need this place real bad.”
'We want to be in the food deserts'
Bouyer knows that feeling. He grew up on Cleveland’s East Side, where it wasn’t easy to find nutritious food.
“Everyone talks about food deserts,” he said. “We want to be in the food deserts. I grew up in the food deserts.”
He started his career with Save A Lot as an assistant manager and later worked as a manager in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood. Now, as vice president of retail operations, he oversees 47 stores across Ohio, Wisconsin and Illinois.
He took over the Cleveland Heights store and a few others in the suburbs in May.
The recent crime wave here in Cleveland is the worst he’s seen, with break-ins and three armed robberies that left his employees on edge.
“We’ve had people have guns to their head,” he said. “Trapped behind safes. And we just, we want to protect both our employees and our customers.”
Save A Lot has roughly 400 employees in the Cleveland area. Almost all of them live in the neighborhoods around the stores.
“I give my employees all the credit in the world,” Bouyer said. “They’re very vigilant. … They do get worried, though. They wonder if it’s going to be safe. Are they going to be robbed today? And we’ve done everything in our power to ensure that that doesn’t happen.”
The operations team has added security. And the heightened attention from neighbors and police in Cleveland Heights is helping, he said.
“This market is very near and dear to my heart,” he said, stressing that Save A Lot is not planning to close any local stores.
But vandalism drives up costs – costs he doesn’t want to pass along to customers.
“We work on razor-thin margins,” he said of the grocery business. “For every dollar that goes through the register, we’re having a good year if we make two cents.”
'If you don't have this, what do you have?'
On Wednesday, Krystle Campbell stopped by the Noble Road store to pick up the ingredients for salmon cakes. She’s trying to keep up with the appetites of three kids – two of them ravenous teenage boys – on a nursing aide’s salary.
Save A Lot is her go-to store. She likes the convenience, the quality and the prices.
“That’s the biggest thing, is my budget,” she said. “That’s what I worry about most of the time. … I’m living paycheck to paycheck, but I try to save as much as I can.”
She would hate to see crime make grocery shopping more limited or expensive.
“It’s good that we look out for others – make sure that everybody is safe,” she said. “Because this is just a simple grocery store. We need a grocery store. … If we don’t have this, what do you have?”
Bouyer said his team has invested almost $2 million to fix up the Cleveland-area stores over the last few years. The inside of the Cleveland Heights store recently got a deep cleaning, along with updated lights and a freshly waxed floor. New signs are in the works.
“We don’t have all the frills of pharmacies and flowers and all those other things in our stores,” he said. “We’re here to sell quality, affordable groceries to our customers.”
McKoy is thrilled by the recent upgrades and encouraged by Save A Lot’s willingness to work with the community.
“Look how beautiful this store is,” he said. “Look how clean it is. Look how stocked it is. A little while ago, it didn’t look nothing like this.”
He has a message for other people living in neighborhoods where retail is scarce.
“If you see something, say something,” McKoy said. “Don’t let petty thieves and criminals destroy our stores.”
