Special Report Giant Eagle

Giant Eagle started when several families joined forces to create a discount supermarket that provided consumers with everyday affordable, household items and products. Since its inception, Giant Eagle has become a retail powerhouse that strives to listen to and implement consumers’ feedback.

History: Giant Eagle was founded in 1918 as a small grocery store called Eagle Grocery. The company was able to expand as Eagle Grocery to 125 stores, but in 1928, the three families that started it—Goldstein, Porter and Chait —made the decision to sell the company to Kroger. As part of the deal, the three families agreed to leave the grocery industry for three years. During these years, two other families, Moravitz and Weizenbaum, opened OK Grocery.

The five families banded together in 1931 to create Giant Eagle, with the first location opening in 1936. Throughout the next couple of decades, both OK Grocery and Giant Eagle continued to grow and expand within Pittsburgh while enhancing several stores to 15,000-square-feet.

Alongside these expanding store counts and revamps, Giant Eagle continued to be an innovative, trend-setting grocer. Throughout the 60s and 70s, the company was able to improve its distribution system by purchasing a former Kroger warehouse and pioneering computerized buying systems to help with filling orders. During this time, the company opened a 481,000-square-foot warehouse.

In 1981 Giant Eagle celebrated 50 years of business and opened its first independently owned store in Monaca, PA. The retailer also began to standardize in-store pharmacy, floral, automotive, housewares, books, greeting cards, photo development and video rental services.

Today, the company has nearly 500 retail locations in total, which includes the company’s banner stores, and 32,000 employees. Giant Eagle has approximately 196 locations, and operates GetGo Café + Market and Market District locations. There are 270 GetGo locations and 13 Market District loca- tions, which were founded in 2006 and rapidly grew throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Market District banner focuses on an exploration of food that is gourmet, specialty and organic.

Leadership: As Giant Eagle has had several leaders at the helm of the company, the current leadership team has remained true to the company values by putting consumers first, especially during difficult times.

Bill Artman, Interim Chief Executive Officer, has been with Giant Eagle for 40 years. He started as a customer service clerk and has continued to move up in the company. Artman recently served as President of Giant Eagle Supermarkets where he supervised supply chain operations, retail innovation, real estate and construction, retail operations, merchandising, independent retailing/ non-banner and culinary operations. Artman became the interim CEO in March this year when Laura Shapira Karet stepped down as CEO after 11 years of serving.

Greg Baker, evp and General Counsel, has been overseeing Giant Eagle’s Legal and Risk/Safety Departments. Baker previously held the position of SVP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Chico’s FAS.

Kirk Ball, evp and Chief Information Officer, has experience in technology senior leadership roles, and with that experience, Ball has been able to successfully lead Giant Eagle in his position.

Recent News: Giant Eagle has continued to pride itself on its innovation while maintaining its dedication to providing consumers with convenience. In 2018, the company became the first major Pittsburgh supermarket to launch a mobile shopping app, which adhered to consumers' busy schedules. “The notion of the ‘traditional’ customer shopping experience no longer exists,” said Giant Eagle spokesperson Dan Donovan. “The challenge for retailers is to provide solutions for all of the ways customers want to interact with your brand and your products, and we believe that the Giant Eagle Mobile Shopper will become a popular option for those interested in using technology to take an added level of ownership in their shopping experience.”

As prices throughout the nation continue to increase, Giant Eagle strives to bring consumers premium products at affordable prices. Recently, Artman decided to lower prices in an effort to compete with larger discount grocery chains. “We’ve heard loud and clear from customers—they have a lot of options and new doors are opening every day,” Artman told Columbus Business First

According to several media reports, Artman had been paying attention to consumers’ needs for lower price points, which inevitably made them shop elsewhere. The company decided to offer more discounts to consumers, hoping to bring them back in store. “We have to get better. It’s that simple,” he said. “Our customers are telling us that they want to shop with us. Our customers are telling us that they're looking for a better value. And a couple of the steps that we've taken throughout the last couple of weeks are an indication that we hear them.”

To bring convenience to consumers, Giant Eagle added online pet pharmacy services through a partnership with Allivet.com. The website offers thousands of prescription pet medications and OTC pet products. "As one of the largest food, fuel and pharmacy retailers in the country, Giant Eagle serves millions of customers every year, and we are thrilled that our innovative platform will enable them to provide their pet parents access to affordable and convenient medications and supplies for their pets," said Ujjwal Dhoot, CEO of Allivet. com.

As Giant Eagle has grown throughout the years, the company remains loyal first to its consumers and employees, which has been demonstrated through several recent initiatives and business ventures. These include Artman’s recent decision to bring back discounts to ensure consumers shop at Giant Eagle and are able to purchase household items and necessities while remaining within their budgets.