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Giant expects big things from latest stores

New design, expanded fresh offerings up the ante in competitive D.C. market

Russell Redman

August 26, 2019

3 Min Read
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Giant Food

With the opening of its first brand-new store with its latest retail concept, Giant Food is bullish on its prospects in the ultra-competitive Washington, D.C., marketplace.

Landover, Md.-based Giant on Friday opened a 66,730-square-foot supermarket in Owings Mills, Md. Built from the ground up with the chain’s new store layout and design, the location features bigger selections of hot and prepared foods, fresh sushi, an extensive organic section and a full-service pharmacy, along with a PNC Bank branch, a Starbucks, a full-service floral section and expanded cheese, deli, meat and seafood departments.

“This puts a stranglehold, in my opinion, on us being the No. 1 brand in the Balt-Wash area. I'd put this store up against any competitor that we have in the marketplace,” Gary Budd, director of strategic planning and execution at Giant, said in an interview.

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Located at 10210 Mill Run Circle, the new store replaces two older, smaller Giant supermarkets at 9934 Reisterstown Rd. and 9730 Groffs Mill Dr. in Owings Mills.

“From a format perspective, it basically has every bell and whistle available to us,” Budd said. “It has our new, expanded produce format, and we now have a huge prepared offering in our new stores. There’s a fresh pizza area where we can make a $6 personal pan pizza and have it ready for you in less than two minutes. We also have a new double-breaded fried chicken program and hot piadinis that we can again make in less than two minutes. And along with a cold salad bar, we have a new hot bar offering with Asian food, barbecue and a hot wing program as well.”

Related:Giant Food ushers in grocery pickup

Other highlights include an enhanced gourmet cheese counter; full-service meat and seafood departments with local items; full fresh bakery and deli departments; an expanded assortment of natural and ethnic groceries; and a new health and beauty care department, which Budd described as “absolutely gorgeous.”

“And the pharmacy has our new program called Pick Point, an automated system that shortens the time it takes for us to service customers,” he added. “Basically, they just give us their name with a prescription, and the system lights up an LED that has their prescription in the back.”

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On the convenience side, the Owings Mills store offers self-checkout, including belted units that can be switched to self-checkout mode for customers with larger orders. It’s also the first new location to offer Giant’s curbside pickup service. Powered by Peapod, the online grocery arm of parent company Ahold Delhaize USA, Giant Pickup is slated to become available at 100 by the end of the year.

Related:Ahold Delhaize USA makes Giant investment

In December, Giant kicked off a two-year, $175 million expansion program that includes one new store in Fairfax Circle, Va., and 24 remodels over its D.C. regional trade area. That effort came in addition to a $21 million investment for the opening of a new 40,270-square-foot store in Olney, Md., this past spring. In November, the chain also opened two new stores in Herndon and Alexandria, Va., that were former Shoppers Food & Pharmacy locations.

“We’ve been doing major remodel investments the entire year. We’ve done about 14 remodel projects, and we're down to basically the last three, which we’ll finish in the next few weeks,” Budd said. Those reopenings, scheduled for mid-September, include stores in Catonsville, Md.; Centerville, Va.; and the Festival at Riva shopping center in Annapolis, Md.

Overall, Giant currently operates 163 supermarkets, including 153 in-store pharmacies, in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia.

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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