South Cook News

Richton Park's only grocery store, Save-a-Lot, closed permanently on Friday, Feb. 16.

But one day earlier, the village of 12,494 celebrated the grand opening of its first marjiuana retailer.

Galaxy Dispensary, "an independent social equity adult-use" marijuana retailer, is located at 22214 Governors Highway in Richton Park.

Galaxy's grand opening featured a disc jockey named "Sesh Bus." Attendees could receive "free product samples," according to a press release.

Michelle and Rick Ringold of Frankfort own Galaxy, which received a state license from a program that reserved them for black Illinois residents.

The Illinois marijuana "social equity" program helps "disadvantaged people and communities of color disproportionately affected by the war on drugs" benefit individually from selling government-approved drugs, legally, in their communities.

Michelle Ringold is president and CEO of her own public accounting and financial consulting practice, with offices in Chicago and Tinley Park.

Rick Ringold runs a "certified minority owned" and disadvantaged construction company, Sergeant Construction Office of Tinley Park, that has contracts with the City of Chicago and State of Illinois. He's a Kentucky native and U.S. Army native who seved with NATO in Belgium, Great Britain and Germany.

The Ringolds live in an eight bedroom, six-bathroom, 8,290 square-foot house with an in-ground pool at 620 Butternut Trail in Frankfort. They paid $762,500 for it in 2018.

The Galaxy location is in the former space of another Richton Park grocer, Super Save, which closed in 2018.

Save-a-Lot was 15,000 square feet, the "anchor" tenant of a 30,000 square foot commercial strip that includes a Shark's Fish & Chicken, Sun Chinese restaurant, a currency exchange, tobacco shop, Boost Mobile cell phone store and a small fitness center.

The center is owned by Allen Enayatian of New York-based ZEA Capital. 

The Save-a-Lot store was owned by Cleveland-based Yellow Banana, which owns 38 Save-a-Lots across the U.S. 

The Chicago Tribune reported that Yellow Banana said it closed the store due to high property taxes.

Property taxes on the strip have risen from $41,544 in 2003 to $120,512 in 2022, according to the Cook County Treasurer's office.

Save-a-Lot Richton Park's bill was $60,256 last year, or $5,021 per month.

A larger, 17,500 square-foot Save-a-Lot at 5420 Broadway in Merrillville, Indiana, 23 miles east of Richton Park, is part of a 119,885 square foot plaza with a total tax bill of $15,352 per year, or $1,279 per month.

Save-a-Lot Merrillville's bill, if allocated per square foot, would be 8.8 percent of that, or $1,351 per year.

On its web site, Yellow Banana says that "two of our co-founders are black and a third is both black and latino, so our ownership looks like many of our customers."