history of Giant stores

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steve
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history of Giant stores

Post by steve »

I have lived in Bethesda, MD most of my life and have shopped weekly at "Giant Food" for groceries all the time

I have always wondered if a book has ever been written about the history of the store. I do not want a novel but a picture book with lots of old pictures

I would also be satified to know if the store has a archives of historical store records.

Stephen Hosmer
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BatteryMill
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by BatteryMill »

Hello!

I do not believe there are books on the subject matter, but there have been a good deal of general timelines as well as insights into the leaders of Giant from 1936 through 1995.

I have compiled a list of nearly every store through the present day though, if you have any suggestions let me know: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Overall I am fascinated by its history and I wonder if we'll someday find detailed images of the chain from its heyday.
rich
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by rich »

A few edits. All numbers are pre-Ahold.

#3 is a CVS. It was a long running Hechingers that was much loved and hated by people in NW DC. Loved because there were fewer decent sized hardware stores in DC than now. The store had rooftop parking which was part of what people hated. The grade was rather steep and the configuration of the lot made it easy to have accidents when you reached the top. There was no elevator so you had to hope that you could park in front of the store to pickup bulky stuff. It was such a landmark that there might be a pic of it from its Hechinger days.

#9 and #101 have a the same address. #9 was probably the old Greenway Plaza which was built adjacent to housing that had been constructed for war workers. This development became public housing and was more utilitarian than Shirlington, McLean Gardens, Ordway Gardens and Fairfax Gardens which live on as popular condo developments.

#25 closed in 1989/90. When I moved to DC in mid 1990, it was on the list of places to pickup phone books that C&P gave out (all or most were Giants). The store was no more at that point and the Safeway next door had just remodeled—possibly taking some of the old Giant back room space, so I assume 89/90 for the closure. The pic of the two stores side by side from the 50s turns up periodically online as do pics of #2 and #4.

The 12051 Rockville Pike store apparently was separate from the department store and Giant planned to stay there (and in some other locations) when the Giant Dept Stores were sold to Woolco in 1978. Woolco sold the store to Bradlee’s in 1982/83. There’s an old Washington Post article on the stores where Giant planned to keep supermarkets. I’m still away with poor WiFi otherwise I’d link it. Some people have tagged the dept store building (which faces the Pike) as an old Memco, but that was where Federal Plaza is now—Memco’s name recently turned up as part of a Federal Realty plan to redo the property—Memco is the formal name of the original development. Back to the Giant—it also was a Something Special, although that was incorporated into the store (probably overlapping with the Gourmet part—the store had an expanded imported foods/gourmet selection and unique deli bakery items) whereas the two Chain Bridge locations were a Giant and a separate Something Special. This was the largest Giant for the first half of the 90s, until the Greenbelt Plaza store was enlarged.

#45: this area is usually considered Marlow Heights. A pic for this location might be somewhere on the web because it had one of the last surviving old times signs, maybe even one for Super Giant.

#94: this was enlarged rather than rebuilt—I think they kicked out some retailers that were in adjacent space. This was my usual Giant in the 90s and for awhile after I moved back.

#282 replaced #78 and #217.

I’ll try to do some additional research on the DC stores.
Last edited by rich on 21 Sep 2022 22:43, edited 1 time in total.
BatteryMill
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by BatteryMill »

rich wrote: 15 Sep 2022 18:31 A few edits. All numbers are pre-Ahold.

#3 is a CVS. It was a long running Hechingers that was much loved and hated by people in NW DC. Loved because there were fewer decent sized hardware stores in DC than now. The store had rooftop parking which was part of what people hated. The grade was rather steep and the configuration of the lot made it easy to have accidents when you reached the top. There was no elevator so you had to hope that you could park in front of the store to pickup bulky stuff. It was such a landmark that there might be a pic of it from its Hechinger days.

#9 and #101 have a the same address. #9 was probably the old Greenway Plaza which was built adjacent to housing that had been constructed for war workers. This development became public housing and was more utilitarian than Shirlington, McLean Gardens, Ordway Gardens and Fairfax Gardens which live on as popular condo developments.

#25 closed in 1989/90. When I moved to DC in mid 1990, it was on the list of places to pickup phone books that C&P gave out (all or most were Giants). The store was no more at that point and the Safeway next door had just remodeled—possibly taking some of the old Giant back room space, so I assume 89/90 for the closure. The pic of the two stores side by side from the 50s turns up periodically online as do pics of #2 and #4.

The 12051 Rockville Pike store apparently was separate from 5he department store and Giant planned to stay there (and in some other locations) when the Giant Dept Stores were sole to Woolco in 1978. Woolco sold he store to Bradlee’s in 1982/83. There’s an old Washington Post article on the stores where Giant planned to keep supermarkets. I’m still away with poor WiFi otherwise I’d link it. Some people have tagged the dept store building (which faces the Pike) as an old Memco, but that was where Federal Plaza is now—Memco’s name recently turned up as part of a Federal Realty plan to redo the property—Memco is the formal name of the original development. Back to the Giant—it also was a Something Special, although that was incorporated into the store (probably overlapping with the Gourmet part—the store had an expanded imported foods/gourmet selection and unique deli bakery items) where as the two Chain Bridge locations were a Giant and a separate Something Special. This was the largest Giant for the first half of the 90s, until the Greenbelt Plaza store was enlarged.

#45: this area is usually considered Marlow Heights. A pic for this location might be somewhere on the web because it had one of the last surviving old times signs, maybe even one for Super Giant.

#94: this was enlarged rather than rebuilt—I think they kicked out some retailers that were in adjacent space. This was my usual Giant in the 90s and for awhile after I moved back.

#282 replaced #78 and #217.

I’ll try to do some additional research on the DC stores.
Thanks for the provided information. There's more to discover but good work, Rich.

Where would Greenway Plaza be exactly? I went off of the information available at https://cjm.catalogaccess.com/.

I'm somewhat confused about the Rockville Pike stores, since Giant was at Congressional Plaza around the time of the Super Giant/Department store. Burke Centre and Hickory Ridge were also touted as Gourmet Giants complete with bulk food bins.

#94, the building looks rather new to me. Interestingly, didn't they do something around 2004? https://web.archive.org/web/20040627062 ... ess_id=226
justin karimzad
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by justin karimzad »

Just wanted to add a note about #32, 6326 Arlington Blvd in Falls Church: It was later Grand Mart, and is now New Grand Mart. There are photos of it on Flickr; it still looks much the same.
rich
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by rich »

BatteryMill wrote: 15 Sep 2022 22:29
rich wrote: 15 Sep 2022 18:31 A few edits. All numbers are pre-Ahold.

#3 is a CVS. It was a long running Hechingers that was much loved and hated by people in NW DC. Loved because there were fewer decent sized hardware stores in DC than now. The store had rooftop parking which was part of what people hated. The grade was rather steep and the configuration of the lot made it easy to have accidents when you reached the top. There was no elevator so you had to hope that you could park in front of the store to pickup bulky stuff. It was such a landmark that there might be a pic of it from its Hechinger days.

#9 and #101 have a the same address. #9 was probably the old Greenway Plaza which was built adjacent to housing that had been constructed for war workers. This development became public housing and was more utilitarian than Shirlington, McLean Gardens, Ordway Gardens and Fairfax Gardens which live on as popular condo developments.

#25 closed in 1989/90. When I moved to DC in mid 1990, it was on the list of places to pickup phone books that C&P gave out (all or most were Giants). The store was no more at that point and the Safeway next door had just remodeled—possibly taking some of the old Giant back room space, so I assume 89/90 for the closure. The pic of the two stores side by side from the 50s turns up periodically online as do pics of #2 and #4.

The 12051 Rockville Pike store apparently was separate from 5he department store and Giant planned to stay there (and in some other locations) when the Giant Dept Stores were sole to Woolco in 1978. Woolco sold he store to Bradlee’s in 1982/83. There’s an old Washington Post article on the stores where Giant planned to keep supermarkets. I’m still away with poor WiFi otherwise I’d link it. Some people have tagged the dept store building (which faces the Pike) as an old Memco, but that was where Federal Plaza is now—Memco’s name recently turned up as part of a Federal Realty plan to redo the property—Memco is the formal name of the original development. Back to the Giant—it also was a Something Special, although that was incorporated into the store (probably overlapping with the Gourmet part—the store had an expanded imported foods/gourmet selection and unique deli bakery items) where as the two Chain Bridge locations were a Giant and a separate Something Special. This was the largest Giant for the first half of the 90s, until the Greenbelt Plaza store was enlarged.

#45: this area is usually considered Marlow Heights. A pic for this location might be somewhere on the web because it had one of the last surviving old times signs, maybe even one for Super Giant.

#94: this was enlarged rather than rebuilt—I think they kicked out some retailers that were in adjacent space. This was my usual Giant in the 90s and for awhile after I moved back.

#282 replaced #78 and #217.

I’ll try to do some additional research on the DC stores.
Thanks for the provided information. There's more to discover but good work, Rich.

Where would Greenway Plaza be exactly? I went off of the information available at https://cjm.catalogaccess.com/.

I'm somewhat confused about the Rockville Pike stores, since Giant was at Congressional Plaza around the time of the Super Giant/Department store. Burke Centre and Hickory Ridge were also touted as Gourmet Giants complete with bulk food bins.

#94, the building looks rather new to me. Interestingly, didn't they do something around 2004? https://web.archive.org/web/20040627062 ... ess_id=226
It’s been awhile since I’ve been around Minnesota Ave, so I don’t know if any fragment of Greenway the housing project or the plaza still exists. It also had a Grand Union, which probably started out as the Dc-not-Philly Food Fair. The wiki for the housing project made it sound like it was built on filled-in swamp and basically sounded doomed physically. It would have been near the Minnesota Ave Metro station, on the North side of Minnesota Ave, just over the Anacostia from the RFK area. There’s been some effort to gentrify and rebrand the area since the end of the 90s as River East, but it’s just a little too far East for that to work.

It is odd that Congressional and the department store were so close, but take a look at the density of their stores in lower Silver Spring which was a feature of that area for a long time. Giant had places they colonized for whatever reason. I don’t think they ever had much competition on the Pike until fairly recently. I don’t recall any Safeways until the new one that’s failing. There was an A&P at Congressional which became Magruders, but A&P underperformed in DC. I don’t think Grand Union had a store around there. Shoppers (now an Asian market) was further out near Gude Dr and I think White Flint was a later, but pre-SuperValu store. There was a now gone A frame that looked like an old Acme but that was near the Rockville Metro Station. Memco had grocery stores, so that would have been their major competition in the 70s. I don’t think Korvettes had super markets in DC. The Loehmanns Plaza Safeway would have later than that. In its waning days, Congressional was a neglected store that was probably held to keep out competition. A&P was still around. My guess, is that they left after the lease ended. I think that store became the Container Store but I don’t recall if Container Store immediately took over the space. All I recall was a small, not very good Tower Records which was a few stores away.

The 12051 Rockville store was branded as Giant Gourmet and Something Special in the 90s. It had been enlarged at some point and the import/gourmet packaged goods had a different ceiling height (lower) than the rest of the store—perhaps it had been a special delivery entrance for something like bread or dairy—Acme used to do this sort of thing in its A frames. So it may have evolved from a large for its time, but conventional Giant.

I used to visit DC for work and remember #94 from about 2004, as I was staying in downtown Bethesda and took a walk around the neighborhood. The store seemed new at that time and perhaps it had received a major remodel. It didn’t have the usual Giant decor. It’s competition at that time would have been two tired Safeways (one since replaced and the other closed) and perhaps the Whole Foods further South by River Road.
BatteryMill
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by BatteryMill »

rich wrote: 16 Sep 2022 23:10 It’s been awhile since I’ve been around Minnesota Ave, so I don’t know if any fragment of Greenway the housing project or the plaza still exists. It also had a Grand Union, which probably started out as the Dc-not-Philly Food Fair. The wiki for the housing project made it sound like it was built on filled-in swamp and basically sounded doomed physically. It would have been near the Minnesota Ave Metro station, on the North side of Minnesota Ave, just over the Anacostia from the RFK area. There’s been some effort to gentrify and rebrand the area since the end of the 90s as River East, but it’s just a little too far East for that to work.

It is odd that Congressional and the department store were so close, but take a look at the density of their stores in lower Silver Spring which was a feature of that area for a long time. Giant had places they colonized for whatever reason. I don’t think they ever had much competition on the Pike until fairly recently. I don’t recall any Safeways until the new one that’s failing. There was an A&P at Congressional which became Magruders, but A&P underperformed in DC. I don’t think Grand Union had a store around there. Shoppers (now an Asian market) was further out near Gude Dr and I think White Flint was a later, but pre-SuperValu store. There was a now gone A frame that looked like an old Acme but that was near the Rockville Metro Station. Memco had grocery stores, so that would have been their major competition in the 70s. I don’t think Korvettes had super markets in DC. The Loehmanns Plaza Safeway would have later than that. In its waning days, Congressional was a neglected store that was probably held to keep out competition. A&P was still around. My guess, is that they left after the lease ended. I think that store became the Container Store but I don’t recall if Container Store immediately took over the space. All I recall was a small, not very good Tower Records which was a few stores away.

The 12051 Rockville store was branded as Giant Gourmet and Something Special in the 90s. It had been enlarged at some point and the import/gourmet packaged goods had a different ceiling height (lower) than the rest of the store—perhaps it had been a special delivery entrance for something like bread or dairy—Acme used to do this sort of thing in its A frames. So it may have evolved from a large for its time, but conventional Giant.

I used to visit DC for work and remember #94 from about 2004, as I was staying in downtown Bethesda and took a walk around the neighborhood. The store seemed new at that time and perhaps it had received a major remodel. It didn’t have the usual Giant decor. It’s competition at that time would have been two tired Safeways (one since replaced and the other closed) and perhaps the Whole Foods further South by River Road.
Yeah, I don't know the actual space of Congressional or whether Giant had no grocery operation while the first Rockville location was a Giant Department Store.

The Shoppers at White Flint opened after SVU's takeover, so it was more of a conventional supermarket at that point, with little trace of the "warehouse" model.

#94 actually closed for remodel in October 2005 and work was completed early next year.
rich
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by rich »

My bad on #94. I had it confused with the store in Bethesda. #94 was enlarged rather than rebuilt. It’s always been in the ground floor of one of the Van Ness buildings (huge collection of condo/co-op/ rentals plus office buildings). They expanded into other space but basic elements remained like the entry to the parking garage, street access on Connecticut, and access to the residential buildings. It would have been a major undertaking because of the location and I don’t know where they would have done the staging, except in the original store and it’s loading area, which would have explained the closure. Unlike Safeways awkward stores in 60s complexes like this, the original was a basic rectangular store.

My guess is that Giant at Congressional coexisted with the dept store. It would not have been that unusual and the it was in the same part of the plaza in the 50s as in the 90s—-there’s a pic of the store from the 50s without the sign having been erected, although there was a sign on Rockville Pike. It was relatively large for its time and probably a twin to Wheaton Plaza, which opened at the same time. People’s, btw, had two stores that were almost as close, Congressional and Mid-Pike Plaza (Korvettes). Drug stores were about as common as supers in the suburbs (but more common than supers in DC, once Safeway closed their early supers) so that is a useful comparison and People’s was willing to saturate key suburban markets. They were in all the early major shopping centers like Congressional and Wheaton, as well as many secondary centers. Drug Fair (later Rite Aid) had really second rate locations and was largely absent from DC proper, whereas People’s was everywhere.
Grocery Buff
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by Grocery Buff »

That's a great list BatteryMill, thank you for sharing!

I have multiple friends and family that work for the chain and everything on the list looks great, especially considering the recent relocation of stores they've been doing. My only comments or updates are:

Proposed/Upcoming Stores:
  • Dumfries: was meant for the Food Lion that's currently at 5227 Waterway Dr, Dumfries, VA 22026 (https://goo.gl/maps/DyDoQjF8fXrxHWY18). The short story is that the real estate and leadership dropped the ball at the time but also was greatly impacted by the layoffs at HQ during the time as well as Giant's ambition to open very large stores which were rebuked for this site when the developer team changed or simply said no. They tried to get the Shoppers location a few years later and a few miles down the road but were outbid by Shoppers. They tried again when Shoppers more recently had their stores up for sale but they were trying to sell multiple stores for my understanding. If/when Shoppers sells this location as a one-off I would expect it to be a multiple bid situation between Giant, HT, and Publix.
  • Manassas: they had a spot but the chain was in a fog during this timeframe and also got overly cautious due to the '07-'08 economic issues going on even though that area was a huge residential growth area. I am not sure if it was supposed to be in place of the Target or joint anchored development.
Sources: employees at nearby stores during the time. It was frustrating since that was. heavy growth area during the time and to this day leads to a slight gap in Giant Food coverage along the route 234 corridor in Central and SE PWC, where the Giant of 5-10 years before or after that time would easily have snapped up at least 1 if not both locations.

Misc:
Article on the "Something Special" McClean, VA Store with a picture of the front sign. One of my favorite stores to visit back in the day
https://www.insidenova.com/news/fairfax ... 77be1.html
Attachments
Someting Special Giant.jpg
Someting Special Giant.jpg (15.51 KiB) Viewed 1489 times
BatteryMill
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by BatteryMill »

Grocery Buff wrote: 18 Sep 2022 12:56 That's a great list BatteryMill, thank you for sharing!

I have multiple friends and family that work for the chain and everything on the list looks great, especially considering the recent relocation of stores they've been doing. My only comments or updates are:

Proposed/Upcoming Stores:
  • Dumfries: was meant for the Food Lion that's currently at 5227 Waterway Dr, Dumfries, VA 22026 (https://goo.gl/maps/DyDoQjF8fXrxHWY18). The short story is that the real estate and leadership dropped the ball at the time but also was greatly impacted by the layoffs at HQ during the time as well as Giant's ambition to open very large stores which were rebuked for this site when the developer team changed or simply said no. They tried to get the Shoppers location a few years later and a few miles down the road but were outbid by Shoppers. They tried again when Shoppers more recently had their stores up for sale but they were trying to sell multiple stores for my understanding. If/when Shoppers sells this location as a one-off I would expect it to be a multiple bid situation between Giant, HT, and Publix.
  • Manassas: they had a spot but the chain was in a fog during this timeframe and also got overly cautious due to the '07-'08 economic issues going on even though that area was a huge residential growth area. I am not sure if it was supposed to be in place of the Target or joint anchored development.
Sources: employees at nearby stores during the time. It was frustrating since that was. heavy growth area during the time and to this day leads to a slight gap in Giant Food coverage along the route 234 corridor in Central and SE PWC, where the Giant of 5-10 years before or after that time would easily have snapped up at least 1 if not both locations.

Misc:
Article on the "Something Special" McClean, VA Store with a picture of the front sign. One of my favorite stores to visit back in the day
https://www.insidenova.com/news/fairfax ... 77be1.html
Thanks much for the new history on Giant Food! There's a lot of interesting things I've explored about the chain so far, and I hope to see more. Do you have any old photos or other memorabilia to fit along with this thread?

That was something new to see Giant in the Montclair shopping center, but I do feel that Food Lion was a better fit for a more rural development at the time. I thought that Giant would be elsewhere closer to the interstate during their second try, I recall seeing something about it being on a Van Buren Road extension but I don't remember where that source came from exactly. It's interesting to see how Shoppers is carrying on there now, and as to what may come next since UNFI is indefinitely keeping stores.

Manassas, this was also the time when Harris Teeter really dominated newer-growth areas like that, Loudoun and D.C. urban developments, so you can tell that is where Giant's overall expansion slowed and HT took risks.

I don't have a link to the site plan right now, but the Giant was to be at the left of the center and was part of the 2000s "Super Giant" concept. As for Target, I believe it either was not drawn up or only a standard store as opposed to being of the SuperTarget format. According to a leasing brochure of the nearby Cannon Branch development Circuit City was also tapped as part of the Center at Innovation. Whether this was to be a relocation of the store on Sudley or not, I don't know.

As for Something Special, I do wish I could have seen it in action.
mjhale
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by mjhale »

The Congressional Plaza Giant closed just before or along with the big very early 90s upscale renovation that Congressional Plaza went through. The old Giant was demolished for a two level space with Container Store on the first floor and a relocated Tower Records on the second floor. Tower Records had been closer to Halpine Road in what is now Buy Buy Baby and a couple of smaller shops. I would agree with Rich that Giant likely kept the store open to keep out competition. The side of Congressional Plaza that A&P (later Magruders) was on was never that strong. Had Giant closed prior to the center's renovation it might have opened the door for A&P to move or someone else to come in. Also, behind all of the shopping centers on the west side of Rockville Pike are multiple residential neighborhoods. Giant may have done well enough at Congressional to live out its lease.
rich
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by rich »

Congressional had a lot of turnover in the early-mid 90s and I think the current look came in stages. JC Penney closed there around the same time they closed at Ballston (1994, I think). The center had one of the first suburban Starbucks locations (still there) which was notable for screaming kids and really slow service even during rush hour. JCP was replaced by Whole Foods (previously down the Pike near their current location). I think it co-existed with Magruder's for awhile.

I had an errand not too far from Minnesota Avenue, so I stopped by---there is a fragment of what might have been a streetside portion of Greenway Plaza---the Senator theater (the façade and lobby are used for retail--the rest has been demolished. There are some retail stores to its right, all using the same yellow brick as the theater. According to Cinema Treasures, the theater dates to 1942, so it and at least the streetside retail came with the housing project (some of which still stands--it looks more like a "project" than Shirlington, McLean Gardens, etc. which were built around the same time for white collar workers). The address for the Giant is now a mid-rise apartment building that's under construction and I assume that's where the plaza stood. I didn't see the old "cheese grater" Giant that houses the health center (w/o the grater)--perhaps it sits behind the buildings on Minnesota--it's an awkward place to drive, so I didn't do much exploring. Across the street is the East River Terrace complex which has a Safeway. My guess is that when Giant left, Safeway opened a new store or enlarged an existing one in that complex---there was a pattern of the the two chains doing this sort of thing from the late 80s through the 90s. The Alabama-Naylor Giant(#93) closed and Safeway replaced an existing store on the site of the old Sears, and as noted before, Giant remodeled the Van Ness store and Safeway closed nearby, Giant closed on Columbia and Safeway remodeled, etc.

#7 has been demolished for a new condo building. It was a couple different Irish bars from the '80s into the '10s. Ireland's Four Provinces was the longest running, I believe.
steve
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Re: history of Giant stores

Post by steve »

Would anybody know where is the best place to get pictures of "Giant Foods" store in Bethesda, MD

Has anyone done and stores on when the first "Giant Foods" store open in Bethesda, MD

If anyone knows of any good timeline or brochures of the first "Giant foods" in Bethesda, MD I would love to know about them.

Please do send me anything you can
Stephen Hosmer
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