Giant Eagle
Vorlage:Infobox Company Giant Eagle, Inc. is an American supermarket chain with stores located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. Giant Eagle was founded in 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and since then has continued to grow. In 2005, it was the 34th largest privately-held corporation, as determined by Forbes.
History
Eagle Grocery was founded by the families of Goldstein/Shapira, Porter, and Chait in 1918 in Pittsburgh. In 1928, the families sold the Eagle Grocery company to the Kroger Company. In 1931, however, the families regained ownership of the Eagle Grocery stores and combined with the Moravitz and Weizenbaum families' OK Grocery chain to form Giant Eagle. The chain continued to prosper even through the 1930s and 1940s, an era of poverty and war. In the 1950s, the average size of a Giant Eagle grocery store was 15,000 ft².
Like many grocery chains, Giant Eagle ran a trading stamp program, which it named "Profit Sharing Blue Stamps." This program led to a strong sales growth for some time. In the 1960s, Giant Eagle eliminated the program to focus on a simple low-price strategy; and as a result, in the 1970s the company advertised a pledge that it offered the lowest prices of all the grocery stores. In 1995, Giant Eagle introduced "Advantage Card", an electronic loyalty card discount system (already popular in many chains), as a sophisticated version of the obsolete stamp programs. The card was later modified to double as a video rental card for Iggle Video.
In 2004, Giant Eagle acquired and reopened several former Big Bear stores in Ohio (including about six in Columbus, Ohio alone) after Big Bear had gone out of business. The company was also rumored to be considering a relationship with regional department/grocery store chain Meijer in an attempt to expand in the Midwest. Vorlage:Citation needed
Locations
Currently there are 216 store locations in the United States: 100 in Western Pennsylvania, 110 in Northeast and Eastern Ohio, 3 in Northern West Virginia, and 2 in Western Maryland. Each individual store carries between 22,000 and 60,000 items, approximately 5,000 of which are manufactured by Giant Eagle.
Services offered
Giant Eagle offers over twenty-four different departments across its stores. The range of services includes Iggle Video (a store for renting videos, DVDs, and video games), dry cleaning, banks such as US Bank and Citizens Bank, in-store day care, and pharmacies.
Recently, Giant Eagle has created the GetGo brand chain of self-service gas stations - some in conjunction with existing Giant Eagles, but most having their own convenience store. To compete with other local convenience store chains, Giant Eagle has instituted the Fuelperks program, in which customers are rewarded by saving $0.10 per gallon they buy on a fill-up with every $50 they spend in Giant Eagle using their Advantage card. Most GetGo's are built from the ground-up, though Giant Eagle has bought several existing gas stations that are near Giant Eagle locations and has converted them into GetGo's. Some GetGo's also have a WetGo automatic car wash and a GetGo Kitchen, the latter of which is used to help GetGo compete better with its main rival in Pittsburgh and up-and-coming rival in Cleveland: the more established, fast growing chain Sheetz.
The chain has built large prototypes, and it has experimented with many departments unusual to supermarkets. Larger stores feature vast selections of ethnic and organic food, dry cleaning services, Iggle video, drive-thru pharmacies, in-store banking, Eagle's Nest (for daycare purposes while shopping), as well as in-store coffee shops and prepared foods. Prepared foods are also sold at larger GetGo locations that can accommodate a GetGo Kitchen.
The chain, under pressure from Wal-Mart, has implemented a lower prices campaign throughout its stores, featured on products customers buy most. Giant Eagle has also reconfirmed its commitment to value by selling Topco-produced Valu Time products, which are substantially cheaper than other private-label and name-brand merchandise. These co-exist with the Giant Eagle branded items, which are priced lower than national brands yet higher than Valu Time. Before these brands existed, Giant Eagle generally used Topco's Food Club label as the generic product.
Market District
Giant Eagle has rebranded two of its stores as Market District, an attempt to woo upscale shoppers. The two stores are located in the upscale communities of Shadyside and Bethel Park. The position of the Shadyside location seems aimed to compete with a Whole Foods Market, located a few blocks away.
The stores offer free Wi-Fi, Churrasco-style foods, a smoothie bar and other options not offered at other Giant Eagle locations.
Despite the wording of the one article linked, the Giant Eagle name is still evident on the logos for the rebranded stores. It's just dimished. See comparison of receipts here.
Status of the chain
The chain started in the Pittsburgh area, where it now maintains both corporately owned and independently owned stores. The chain entered Cleveland in the 1980s, then aggressively expanded by acquiring the Stop N Shop stores in the area. Giant Eagle emerged as one of the dominant supermarket chains in Northeast Ohio, competing mainly against the New York-based Tops.
Giant Eagle purchased independently-owned County Market stores, giving it a replacement store in Somerset, PA; a new store in Johnstown, PA; and its first Maryland stores: 1 in Cumberland, 1 in Hagerstown, and 2 in Frederick. The Cumberland store closed in December 2003, and the Hagerstown store closed in August 2005.
Currently, Giant Eagle has the highest share of any supermarket chain in the Pittsburgh area, but has lost market share in recent years due to Wal-Mart's construction of Supercenters in the immediate Pittsburgh area. In contrast, in the Columbus market, Giant Eagle has been struggling. As of November 2005, Giant Eagle held about 10% market share, compared to 15% each for Wal-Mart and Meijer, and 50% for Kroger.
The chain has many workers unionized, under United Food & Commercial Workers Local 23 of Pittsburgh, UFCW Local 880 out of Cleveland, and UFCW Local 400 of Washington, DC, which represents workers in West Virginia stores. The Frederick, MD stores are not unionized, much like some independently owned stores throughout Pennsylvania.
Advertising
Giant Eagle uses the slogan "Make every day taste better", after having eliminated their previous slogan, "It takes a giant to make life simple." The former was introduced in August 2001, while the latter was first seen around January 1993. The "It takes a giant to make life simple" slogan spawned the "Fe Fi Fo Fum" commercials, which featured everything from the general store, the produce and deli departments to a spot featuring Jay Bell and Jeff King of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The slogan replaced the previous "A lot you can feel good about...especially the price" motto.