Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

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GiantAcme

Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by GiantAcme »

When did Giant start moving into suburban Philadelphia? The earliest I ever remember even hearing about them was in the early 2000's. Also I'm curious as to why there is not much history available about Giant on the Internet. When did they start to become the somewhat dominant player they are today? Did they compete successfully against Acme back when Acme had stores all over the state?
catnapped
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by catnapped »

GiantAcme wrote:When did Giant start moving into suburban Philadelphia? The earliest I ever remember even hearing about them was in the early 2000's. Also I'm curious as to why there is not much history available about Giant on the Internet. When did they start to become the somewhat dominant player they are today? Did they compete successfully against Acme back when Acme had stores all over the state?
Looks like Giant started expanding into the Philly outskirts in the mid-1980s, with a bigger push during the mid-1990s. Matter of fact, Ahold (Giant's parent) was planning to buy the Acme chain in the early 1990s but that never materialized.
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by maynesG »

Hi, Yes, Giant started to hit the suburbs of of Philadelphia about the late 80!s. They really did not make their move untill Fleming went belly up. They stated to buy up many of the leases of the Thriftways and built new stores at many of their locations. Thus came the end to many former A&P, Food Fair, Penn Fruit. Acme in our area as food markets.


The second event was when Albertsons, decided to reposition Acme from the market price
leader to and upscale market. This allowed Giant access to the market.
Its funny I never heard of Ahold looking to purcahse Acme. I think since Acme was extremly succesfull at the time, they would have had to purchase the Parent Company American Stores.

It is interesting to think about if Ahold had purchased Acme,would that mean that mean that the Thriftways that had been closed would still be open ? Thus we would have many more interesting older stores to explore. I wonder!
Gerry
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Ephrata1966
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by Ephrata1966 »

I think you may mean that Ahold was looking to buy Pathmark, and that was around 2000. The deal fell through because of antitrust.
JoshAustin610
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by JoshAustin610 »

Giant first started to inch into the greater area in the early 80s; the first store in west Allentown was in 1982, and the store in Thorndale was in 1984. Between 1985 and 1987 they opened stores in Easton, south Allentown, Brookhaven, Levittown, Warminster, and Yardley. Pottstown was around 88-89, giving them at least one store in each of the counties (except Philadelphia of course).

One of the reasons I personally have had trouble finding info about Giant is simply the fact that the word "Giant" is such a common word; in search engines you have to combine it with something else like "Giant Carlisle" or "Giant grocery" to get the results narrowed down to any meaningful level.
GiantAcme

Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by GiantAcme »

yes it really seems like once Acme was bought by Alberstons it was the beginning of the end for the company (unless they are bought again or whatever). The difference between Giant and Acme now seems to be very negligible in terms of quality. The other thing that seems to be odd about Giant is that it seems to be better than its sister companies Stop & Shop and Giant of Landover. The Acme Style blog which I respect very much has pointed out that there are several differences between the divisions. So it almost seems to me that Giant Carlisle is a very respectful grocer in their own right.
catnapped
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by catnapped »

Ephrata1966 wrote:I think you may mean that Ahold was looking to buy Pathmark, and that was around 2000. The deal fell through because of antitrust.
Nope, Ahold was going to buy Acme...go through the Philly news archives from around 1989-1990 and you'll find it (well, the snippet, unless you pay for the whole thing)

edit: matter of fact, here ya go:

http://business.highbeam.com/4524/artic ... tores-acme
Ephrata1966
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Albertsons may not have done the best they could with Acme, but it was clear that Acme was in bad shape. Even their "fresh" new stores from the early 90's were a mess by the late 90's/early 2000s. That was where Albertsons and Starbucks came in.
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by maynesG »

Hi, Actually to be historiclaly correct, the Fresh New Stores of the 90!s were built by Albertsons. Prior to that Acme ran a combination of new stores and a lot of older smaller stores. Not to go beyond the historical and into store operations I would love to discuss this
in the retail operations web site.















.
Ephrata1966
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Did you try to post a picture?

These 10 current Acmes were all built or remodeled between 1989 and 1996, and have had minor remodels from Albertsons:

1. Bala Cynwyd, PA

2. Collegeville, PA

3. Cape May Court House, NJ

4. West Chester, PA (at Routes 202 and 926)

5. West Chester, PA (at Paoli Pike and Route 3)

6. Holmes, PA (MacDade Mall)

7. Mt. Holly, NJ

8. Clifton Heights, PA

9. Broomall, PA

10. Somers Point, NJ
maynesG
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by maynesG »

Hi, I would be glad to continue this conversation via private message or on the Retail operations web site as this is no longer and historic conversation. If you want I can give you
a fairly large list of stores Acme Built and a much larger list of stores that Albertson built as replacement or new stores.
Let me know
Gerry
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Why did Giant used to sell FINAST brand products? And why did Ahold blur the line between the two different Giant chains with one brand?
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by danielh_512 »

Giant sold Finast-brand products because Ahold had acquired Finast, which had stores in New England (which were merged into Stop N Shop) and Cleveland (which were merged into Tops). Finast became commonplace through the 90's at all Ahold stores. When the Finast name was retired on all stores by the late 90's, Finast began to be replaced.

Finast products probably disappeared later from PA-Giant than any of the chains. Up until a few years ago, there were a few things with the Finast logo. After the purchase of MD-Giant, you saw the retirement of Super G and the Giant letters being put in the old Finast rounded rectangle. This is disappearing as we speak, with a new packaging for MD-Giant and Stop N Shop. For PA-Giant, the old packaging remains on many items, others have had the Giant logo switched to the orange PA-Giant logo, and on some items, the MD-Giant/Stop N Shop version is seeping through, creating one uniform brand for all Ahold stores.
catnapped
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by catnapped »

danielh_512 wrote: on some items, the MD-Giant/Stop N Shop version is seeping through, creating one uniform brand for all Ahold stores.
I've actually seen some Stop N Shop labeled items show up at Giant (PA)...dunno if those are a mistake or intentional.

edit: today saw a display of corn flakes with both Giant-PA and Giant-MD (fruit slice) boxes mixed together...wonder which logo they're going to end up going with for everything?
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Re: Giant Food in Philadelphia Area

Post by MikeRa »

What i think will happen is they will replace the generic "Giant" logo (the one based on the old Finast logo) with the Giant [PA] logo for the products sold at Giant [PA] and Martin's, and use the "fruit slice" logo for Giant [MD] and Stop & Shop
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