Save A Lot is planning to hit the ground running in 2025 after a year of readying key initiatives that will propel the discounter’s growth and sharpen its competitive edge in the grocery industry, Chief Operating Officer Bill Mayo said in an interview.
Mayo is at the helm of this rapid growth effort, overseeing marketing and merchandising in addition to leading up operations in this newly expanded c-suite position.
Save A Lot promoted Mayo in October, just seven months after he joined the company and during a time of whirlwind change for the discounter. Around the time of Mayo’s promotion, Save A Lot announced the launch of its first-ever loyalty program, debuted a micro-fulfilment center in New York City and opened a Hispanic grocery store concept — all initiatives that Mayo said will catapult the discounter’s growth in 2025.
“I would say in 2024 we started to lay the groundwork for growth… and we expect 2025 to be a growth year for us,” Mayo said.
A tech-savvy approach
Save A Lot launched its first loyalty program and app last October, allowing members to access deals and redeem awards. Throughout 2025, the discounter hopes more of its franchise locations will adopt the app, especially as saving money continues to be top of mind for consumers, Mayo said.
The app aims to further prop up Save A Lot’s “value proposition” and will draw focus to signature items such as produce and fresh-cut meat offerings.
Save A Lot’s loyalty app currently operates in approximately 650 of the company’s approximately 750 locations. While the plan is to introduce it to more stores, it may not reach all locations by the end of 2025.
“This was a big launch for us, and we’re going to work with the licensees in the stores that haven’t brought the app on,” Mayo said.
Given that the app and loyalty program are still in the early stages, Save A Lot’s focus is on gathering consumer data through the app to drive more value to customers, Mayo said. Customized ads and coupons that target specific shoppers is the discounter’s long-term goal, he said, adding that its technology is “pretty close” to enabling individual stores with this ability.
Save A Lot’s loyalty program works in conjunction with its nascent retail media efforts. The retailer tapped Swiftly in February 2024 to ramp up the discounter’s digital footprint, including expanding retail media capabilities and helping develop an updated website and mobile app.
Now, the discounter has started outreach to its CPG partners, who are more experienced players in the food industry, to strengthen its digital-focused growth efforts, including integrating supplier partners into its loyalty program and retail media network.
Along with building out its tech capabilities, Save A Lot also plans to introduce more than 100 new items across its own brand portfolio covering numerous categories and products. However, the discounter did not provide specifics on upcoming products, as they will vary by market.
Venturing into new store formats
The discounter surprised many in the industry when it opened its first micro-fulfillment center in Brooklyn, New York, in October. Though it spans around the same size as a traditional Save A Lot location, the 12,000-square-foot center is almost entirely autonomous and has significantly fewer staff members.
Running a micro-fulfillment center has allowed Save A Lot to enter a more urban market than it normally does and for much cheaper than it would be to open a full-size store in New York City, Mayo said
Save A Lot partnered with automated fulfillment solutions provider Fabric and Uber for its autonomous Brooklyn location. The center can serve almost the entire borough, with delivery wait times rarely taking more than 30 minutes, Mayo said.
Save A Lot plans to introduce more micro-fulfillment centers this year and is currently evaluating more sites, Mayo said, but would not disclose where. Two fulfillment sites, he said, would allow the company to reach customers throughout Brooklyn.
Adding more micro-fulfillment centers bolsters Save A Lot’s omnichannel operations, which will be another key to growth in 2025, Mayo said.
At the start of 2024, a sales and marketing executive with Save A Lot told attendees at the NRF Show that over the next few years, the discounter would up its store count from nearly 800 to 3,000. While Mayo declined to comment on where Save A Lot stands with this initiative, the company is eyeing more alternative formats to bolster its store count and create immersive, in-store experiences.
Ahorra Mucho, the new Hispanic grocery store concept Save A Lot debuted in October in Aurora, Colorado, in partnership with Leevers Supermarkets, aims to tap into the rising buying power of Hispanic shoppers. Save A Lot wanted to establish an “ethically curated” assortment based on different Hispanic countries with a “fun atmosphere,” Mayo said.
The Ahorra Mucho in Aurora caters mainly to Mexican shoppers, matching the makeup of the area’s Hispanic community. As it rolls out more locations under this concept, Save A Lot plans to work with its retail partners to customize product offerings to fit the surrounding community’s demographics, whether it be majority Colombian or Northern or Southern Caribbean, he said.
This ability to create a hyper-focused grocery store can be strongly supported by the company’s franchise ownership model, Mayo said. In addition to Save A Lot’s ethnic merchandising experts, the discounter relies on its local owners and operators to know how to meet customers’ needs.
“That local expertise allows that [local] operator to know what their customers are looking for in that market, and then Save A Lot is there to help as well from a sourcing standpoint and from a business standpoint, to help support the retail partners succeed,” Mayo said.
Save A Lot plans to open more Ahorra Mucho locations throughout 2025, but Mayo did not specify where or when they will appear. While the Aurora location is slightly over 12,000 square feet, Mayo said this isn’t a standardized size for future Ahorra Mucho stores.
“That smaller concept, limited variety, smaller footprint story is really the sweet spot for Save A Lot,” Mayo said, “and we think the same of that for Ahorra Mucho.”
