Supervalu had three different CEOs in the last four years that it owned Save-A-Lot, and Flickinger says the chain suffered from a lack of investment. The parent company also raised wholesale prices, he said, putting pressure on independent licensees who own two-thirds of the current 1,230 Save-A-Lot stores.

In one telling stumble, Supervalu expanded Save-A-Lot into Southern California but Onex pulled out of that market in 2017, closing 13 stores.

Onex brought in an executive team headed by a former Lidl executive, moved Save-A-Lot to a new headquarters in St. Ann and introduced a new round logo, but sales continued to fall.

“To Onex’s credit, they brought in new, successful leadership at the executive level, but the stores are not successful,” Flickinger said. Save-A-Lot once had higher per-store sales than Aldi, he said, but is now well behind its bigger rival on that measure.