From left, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer discusses with Save Mart President Jim Perkins the Modesto-based retailer's price-cutting efforts. They were walking a store in north Fresno. Photo by Ben Hensley

Save Mart Companies President Jim Perkins was in Fresno on Thursday, June 26, to discuss the grocery chain’s price-cutting efforts with Mayor Jerry Dyer.

Perkins message: The retailer is working to ease the strain on Valley shoppers facing rising costs.

Dyer and Perkins walked the aisles of the Save Mart store at 1107 E. Champlain Dr., discussing product prices, sourcing and cost-saving efforts.

Perkins assured customers that the company is continuing its commitment to keeping prices low — even if that sometimes means taking a loss.

“We’ve done a lot of extra work in Save Mart in our Fresno market,” Perkins said. “We’ve lowered about 4,000 prices throughout the store and we’ve also taken about 25 items — really market-leading, top-selling items — that the customers buy most and we’ve really leaned in to try and give them a great value every single day.”

The company, which operates Save Mart, FoodMaxx and Lucky Supermarket stores, has increased its sales offerings significantly, Perkins said.

“We have about 10,000 sale items, which is about three to four thousand more than what we used to run, and they’re deeper,” Perkins said. “We ask our vendor to lean in with us — bread, milk, eggs — all the items up and down.”

He also emphasized the work that the company is doing to support local farmers, sourcing much of their produce locally.

Perkins added that for some items that do see tariffs placed on them — like salmon, which saw a 50 cent tariff added to imports recently — the company has opted to eat the difference, passing savings on to customers; they also often lose money overall when they hold one-day sales, where items are priced far below competitor’s prices.

Dyer praised Save Mart’s approach, saying efforts to hold prices down matter as families continue to deal with financial struggles and the rising costs of utilities and other essentials.

“I think what we’ve seen is, as a result of inflation the price of everything going up, from milk products to eggs,” he said. “They’re actually losing money on certain products that they’re selling, but they’re doing it for the right reason — to give people an opportunity in this community to be able to buy more food for a lower price.”