1936: Founded as Washington's first supermarket by N.M. Cohen and Samuel Lehrman and their families.
1941: Giant opens its first store in Virginia (Arlington).
1946: Giant expands to Maryland.
1948: Company purchases the Sheridan Bakery, renames it Heidi Bakery.
1955: Establishes the Giant Construction Co. to build stores and GFS Reality to handle site sales and leasing.
1958: Opens the first “Super Giant” department store; establishes Landover, Md., headquarters.
1961: Giant becomes publicly traded on the American Stock Exchange.
1962: Company debuts food/drug combination store.
1964: N.M. Cohen named chairman; Joseph Danzansky named president.
1970: Giant hires Esther Peterson, the industry's first consumer advocate.
1973: Giant opens warehouse and food manufacturing plants in Jessup, Md.
1977: Izzy Cohen takes over as president; Danzansky named chairman.
1979: Danzansky passes away; Izzy Cohen named chairman.
1984: N.M. Cohen dies at age 93.
1988: Pete Manos named president; Izzy Cohen remains chairman.
1994: Lehrman family sells its stake to J. Sainsbury; Giant expands to Delaware.
1995: Izzy Cohen dies at age 83; control passes to the 1224 Corp.
1998: Ahold buys Giant for $2.6 billion; Manos retires; Dick Baird named president and CEO.
2000: BonusCard program launched.
2004: Integration between Giant and Stop & Shop consolidates control in Quincy, Mass.; Baird retires; Bill Holmes named executive vice president and general manager of Giant.
2008: Robin Michel named executive vice president at Giant; Project Refresh, new logo introduced.
2010: Giant introduces gas rewards program.
SOURCES: Giant Food, SN archives
