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Giant Eagle, Inc.

200px
Type	Private
Industry	Retail (Grocery)
Founded	March 17, 1933 [1]
Headquarters	O'Hara Township, Pennsylvania, United States
Number of locations	229
Key people	Laura Karet, CEO David Shapira, President
Products	groceries, bakeries, deli, banking, gasoline station
Revenue	$9.3 billion USD (2011)
Employees	36,000
Website	gianteagle.com

Giant Eagle in Stow, Ohio.

Giant Eagle is a supermarket chain with stores in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. The company was founded in 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and incorporated on March 17, 1933 ^[1]. Supermarket News ranked Giant Eagle No. 21 in the 2012 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2011 fiscal year estimated sales of $9.3 billion.^[2] In 2005, it was the 32nd-largest privately held corporation, as determined by Forbes.^[3] Based on 2005 revenue, Giant Eagle is the 49th-largest retailer in the United States.^[4] As of Summer 2011, the company had 175 company-owned and 54 franchised stores. The company also operates 168 fuel station/convenience stores under the GetGo banner.[3]

The company operates its corporate headquarters in an office park in the Pittsburgh suburb of O'Hara Township, their corperate headquaters.They also own the 35th Street warehouse where they store their equipment.

History[link]

In 1918, three families, Goldstein/Shapira, Porter and Chait, built a series of small grocery stores they called Eagle Grocery. They were successful, and the business grew steadily to 125 stores. In 1928, these three families sold Eagle Grocery to the Kroger Company. As part of their arrangement with Kroger, the families agreed to leave the grocery business for a period of three years.

In the meantime, two families, Moravitz and Weizenbaum, built their own successful chain of grocery stores named OK Grocery. In 1931, the five families combined forces to form Giant Eagle. Giant Eagle operated stores throughout Pittsburgh-area neighborhoods, and the chain grew steadily throughout the 30s and 40s, despite the desperate times of the Great Depression and World War II. From the 1950s onward, Giant Eagle was at the leading edge of modern supermarket innovation.^[5]

The chain entered Ohio in the 1980s, when it bought Youngstown wholesaler Tamarkin Company, and its Valu-King stores that were eventually converted to the Giant Eagle name. The Kent and Ravenna Ohio stores were the first to be converted at that time; the Youngstown stores then got converted years later. Around the mid or late 1990s, the Giant Eagle ("GE") chain later reached Cleveland by acquiring the Stop-n-Shop stores in the area. Stop-n-Shop stores were family owned and operated in different areas of Cleveland. The family operators of Stop-n-Shop formed a holding company named International Seaway Foods as the main umbrella for Stop-n-Shop. In 1998, Giant Eagle acquired the International Seaway Foods and converted the Stop-n-Shop Stores into Giant Eagle Stores. Giant Eagle also purchased or opened other Northeast Ohio stores outside the Stop-n-Shop area, such as the former Apples supermarkets in the nearby Akron, Ohio area.

The company entered the Toledo, Ohio, market by opening two stores in the area in 2001 and 2004. Giant Eagle emerged as one of the dominant supermarket chains in Northeast Ohio, competing mainly against the New York-based Tops, from which it purchased 18 stores in October 2006. The purchases came as Tops exited the Northeast Ohio area.

Giant Eagle purchased independently-owned County Market stores, giving it a replacement store in Somerset, Penn., a new store in Johnstown, Penn., and its first Maryland stores: one in Cumberland, one in Hagerstown, and two in Frederick. The Cumberland store closed in December 2003, and the Hagerstown store closed in August 2005.

Giant Eagle has aggressively expanded its footprint in the Greater Columbus area, capitalizing on the demise of the former Big Bear supermarket chain, and taking Big Bear's traditional place as Columbus' upmarket grocer. Giant Eagle first entered what it calls its "Columbus Region" in late 2000, opening three large newly-built stores at Sawmill and Bethel Rd., Lewis Center, and Dublin-Granville Rd., with two more following in 2002 and 2003 at Gahanna and Hilliard-Rome Rd. In 2004, Giant Eagle purchased nine former Big Bear stores in Columbus, Newark and Marietta from parent company Penn Traffic. Giant Eagle has since expanded to several additional locations, acquiring other abandoned Big Bear stores and in newly-constructed buildings using the current Giant Eagle prototype. Giant Eagle opened its 20th Columbus-area at New Albany Road at the Ohio Rt. 161 freeway (New Albany) in August, 2007, its 21st area store at Hayden Run and Cosgray Roads (Dublin) in November, 2007, its 22nd area store at Stelzer and McCutcheon Roads (Columbus) in July, 2008 and its 23rd area store at South Hamilton Road and Winchester Pike (Groveport) in August, 2008. A new Giant Eagle opened in Lancaster, Ohio in November 2008, and the former Big Bear located at Blacklick Crossing is undergoing an expansion and remodeling.

Giant Eagle has the highest share of any supermarket chain in the Pittsburgh area, largely due to being a de-facto monopoly in the region (only Aldi and stores supplied by Supervalu such as Shop 'n Save, FoodLand, and Save-A-Lot even have a presence in the area, let alone significant market share), but has lost some market share in recent years due to Wal-Mart's construction of supercenters in the area.

Aside from Wal-Mart, Giant Eagle's last major competitor in the Pittsburgh market was, ironically, Kroger, which had bought the original Eagle Grocery from the founders. Kroger withdrew from Western Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s due to labor issues. The two chains still compete head-to-head in the Columbus market and, to a lesser extent, Toledo, Morgantown, West Virginia, and the Wheeling/Weirton/Steubenville markets.

Loyalty program[link]

In 1995, Giant Eagle introduced the "Advantage Card", an electronic loyalty card discount system (already popular in many chains), as a sophisticated version of the obsolete stamp programs. The card was later modified to double as a video rental card for Iggle Video. More recently the company has started the FUELPERKS! program to entice customers. This program allows customer the opportunity to earn 10 cents off each gallon of gas (20 cents in select markets) with fifty dollars worth of authorized purchases. This program has become widely popular in many markets, and helps to moderate price comparison shopping. In early 2009 Giant Eagle launched its new FOODPERKS! program, mainly geared towards Get Go. This program allows customers who use their fuelperks at Get Go to also earn foodperks to save on groceries purchased at Giant Eagle. Every 10 gallons of gas purchased earns a 1% discount. This can be used up to 20% max at a time on a purchase of up to $300. FOODPERKS! are good for 90 days, FUELPERKS! are good for 60 days and if the customer has more than the price of gasoline, or more than the 20%, those discounts will stay on your card for the remainder of the 90/60 days, and if they are not used by then, they expire.

Operations[link]

There are 225 store and Get Go locations in the United States: 99 in western Pennsylvania, 122 in central, northeastern and eastern Ohio, 2 in Morgantown, West Virginia, and 2 in Frederick, Maryland. Each store carries between 22,000 and 60,000 items, approximately 5,000 of which are branded by Giant Eagle.

Giant Eagle offers over twenty-four different departments across its stores. The range of services includes Redbox video terminals, dry cleaning, in-store day care, and pharmacies. Giant Eagle also has banking partnerships with Citizens Bank, Huntington Bank, and U.S. Bank, all of which have their branches open inside Giant Eagle branches seven days a week except for federal holidays.

The chain has built large prototypes, and it has experimented with many departments unusual to supermarkets. Larger stores feature vast selections of ethnic and organic food, dry cleaning services, Iggle video, drive-thru pharmacies, in-store banking, Eagle's Nest (for daycare purposes while shopping), as well as in-store coffee shops and prepared foods. Prepared foods are also sold at larger GetGo locations that can accommodate a GetGo Kitchen.

The Giant Eagle stores franchised by the McKillop Family (Altoona, Bedford, Ebensburg) hold a yearly event with the American Cancer Society. The "Grocer's Fight Cancer Day" event is held the first Thursday of October. It features live entertainment, food demos, unbelievable one day deals, and games of chance. The event is in its 19th year and has raised over $600,000 dollars for the ACS.

Although older Giant Eagle locations tend to be unionized and some are even franchised stores, in recent years the company has started leaning toward non-union company-owned-and-operated stores.

Giant Eagle Market District[link]

Giant Eagle has rebranded four of its stores as Market District, in an attempt to attract upscale shoppers. The initial two stores are located in the upscale communities of Shadyside within the City of Pittsburgh and Bethel Park in southern Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The Shadyside store was expanded from 25,000 square feet (2,300 m²) to 78,000 square feet (7,200 m²), and uses sustainable design, including a green roof.^[6] The Bethel Park store is 117,000 square feet (10,900 m²) in size.^[7] The stores offer free Wi-Fi, churrasco-style foods, a kosher deli, cheese cave^[8][9], a smoothie bar and other options not offered at other Giant Eagle locations.^[10][11] The Giant Eagle name is still evident on the logos for the rebranded stores.^[12]

The third Market District store opened on November 5, 2009 in the Pittsburgh suburb of Robinson. The store is part of the new Settlers Ridge development, and is the largest at 150,000 square feet (14,000 m²). This store is also the largest supermarket in western Pennsylvania.^[13] It replaced the 95,000-square-foot (8,800 m²) Giant Eagle store across from Robinson Town Center.^[14][15] This store expanded on the successful offerings in the initial two locations. New to Market District in this store is a Crepe and Rosti bar, Candy Shop, Gelato Bar, Cooking School, Panini Station, Salad Station, and an on-site nutritionist located in the pharmacy.^[16] Also, this store is the first grocery store in the Pittsburgh area to sell beer. This location is now the Flagship Market District store, and all research and development for the chain will be conducted in this location.^[17]

The fourth Market District store opened on October 14, 2010 in Upper Arlington, Ohio. This store is the first Market District in Ohio; it is part of the Kingsdale Shopping Center redevelopment project in the Columbus Metro Area. The 127,000 square feet (11,800 m²) store replaced the 56,000 square feet (5,200 m²) store it acquired from Big Bear several years before.^[18]

A fifth Market District store opened on January 12, 2012 in the Pittsburgh suburb of Pine Township.^[19] Originally, the 87,500 square feet (8,130 m²) store was opened as a Giant Eagle in February 2008 ^[20]. After renovations and an expansion to 90,000 square feet (8,400 m²) to accommodate the new products and prepared food departments^[21], the store became the fourth Market District in the Pittsburgh region. It is also the first Market District store to have an on site GetGo gas station and convenience store.^[22]

Giant Eagle Express[link]

Giant Eagle Express is a recently opened concept store of Giant Eagle. As of April 2012, there is only one operating store located in Harmar Township, Pennsylvania and a second store opening in late 2012 in Indiana, Pennsylvania.^[23] This store type is thought of as an attempt by Giant Eagle to stave off Tesco's expansion into the United States with a similar store concept.^{[citation needed]} The store is larger than a GetGo, but much smaller than a regular Giant Eagle supermarket store. However, the store offers many of the same services as a Giant Eagle, such as a deli and a drive-through pharmacy. Giant Eagle Express also offers a café with prepared sandwiches, Giant Eagle's own Market District coffee, salad bar, and a wireless internet connection. Outside, GetGo gasoline is available.^[24]

Valu King[link]

GetGo[link]

Giant Eagle Pharmacy[link]

Giant Eagle began adding pharmacies to their stores in the 1980s, along with other "store-within-a-store" concepts photo, floral and video rental. In 2006, Giant Eagle attracted much attention when it became the first pharmacy in the region to offer over 300 (currently over 400) generic prescription medications for $4. As of June 2008, Giant Eagle has updated the pharmacy pricing structure to include several generic prescription medications at $4 and 90 day supplies at $10. Also recently they began to offer some free antibiotics and diabetes medications. The program has been very successful for the company and the pharmacy. The pharmacies are also willing to price-match local pharmacies. As of March, 2012, they have suspended installing pharmacies.

Giant Eagle Optical[link]

In October 2004, Giant Eagle began a long-term experiment with in-store optometry centers dubbed "Giant Eagle Optical." There were four locations in the Pittsburgh area: North Hills- McIntyre Square, South Hills- Donaldson's Crossroads, east- Monroeville, and west- Robinson. The stores accepted most major vision plans and offered a wide variety of designer frames, as well as exclusive Giant Eagle brands. They also participated in the Fuelperks! program and were staffed mostly by ABO-certified opticians. Noting that "some programs don't prove viable across a broad number of stores," Giant Eagle chose to close its Optical locations beginning in August 2009.^[25]

Starbucks[link]

Giant Eagle has a contract to operate Starbucks kiosks in some of its stores; the workers are employed by Giant Eagle, but become certified baristas after completing the process.^{[citation needed]}

Employees[link]

Giant Eagle has about 36,000 employees and many of them are unionized under United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23 of Pittsburgh, and UFCW Local 880 of Cleveland. The Maryland, Parma Heights, Toledo, and Columbus stores are not unionized, much like some independently owned stores throughout Pennsylvania and the Youngstown, Ohio area. In late 2007, Giant Eagle's Columbus division was ranked by employees through a Business First survey as one of the top ten places to work in Central Ohio. Some employees in the Eagle's Nest and Photo Lab departments are also nonunion employees.

Advertising[link]

Giant Eagle currently uses the slogan "That's my Giant Eagle Advantage"^[26] with its advertising. This campaign allows customers to put their own spin on what Giant Eagle offers. The campaign includes a focus on product selection, quality, customer service, and price leadership.^[27]

From 2009 until 2011, the slogan was "Low prices. Uncompromising quality." In December 2009, a variation being used was "Lower prices. Uncompromising quality." for online advertisements on thepittsburghchannel.com website.^[28]

From 2001 until 2009, the slogan "Make every day taste better", was used. It was meant to showcase product quality as compared to the convenience focus used in the previous campaign.^[29]

From 1993 until 2001, "It takes a giant to make life simple." was used as the slogan. This was focused on convenience, and spawned the "Fe Fi Fo Fum" commercials. The commercials featured everything from the general store, the produce and deli departments to a spot featuring Jay Bell and Jeff King of the Pittsburgh Pirates. This replaced the previous "A lot you can feel good about...especially the price" motto.

The chain, under pressure from Wal-Mart, has implemented a lower prices campaign throughout its stores, featured on products customers buy most. Giant Eagle has also reconfirmed its commitment to value by selling Topco-produced Valu Time products, which are substantially cheaper than other private-label and name-brand merchandise. These co-exist with the Giant Eagle branded items, which are priced lower than national brands yet higher than Valu Time. Before these brands existed, Giant Eagle generally used Topco's Food Club label as the generic product.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Market District's official website
• Giant Eagle Optical's official website
• Giant Eagle Express official website

Martin Wood
Martin Wood at Comic-Con 2007
Occupation	Director Producer
Years active	1995 – present

Martin Wood is a Canadian television director who has been directing since the mid 1990s.^[1] Specializing in science fiction, where he is best known for his work as a director and producer on Stargate SG-1 (46 episodes), as well as its spin-off series Stargate Atlantis (30 episodes).

Biography[link]

Career[link]

Martin Wood began his television career in 1995.^[1] Although he is best known for his work on the Stargate franchise's Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, he has also directed for many other television series, including The Invisible Man and Earth: Final Conflict. In addition, Martin directed two TV specials on sudden infant death syndrome.

Along with Peter DeLuise, Andy Mikita and Will Waring, Wood was one of Stargate SG-1's main directors during its 10 year run. He also frequently appears as an extra known as "Major Wood"^[2] in the Stargate SG-1 episodes that he directs, often assisting Sergeant Siler as a repairman using the oversized crescent wrench that serves as an inside joke. He is also featured on many Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis DVD special features, such as featurettes and audio commentaries.

Currently, Wood is the director for the science-fiction series Sanctuary, starring Amanda Tapping and Christopher Heyerdahl. He was set to direct Stargate: Revolution (working title), the third Stargate SG-1 direct-to-DVD movie, but that production has been shelved indefinitely.^{[3] [4]}

Selected filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Wood has won 1 award, out of 5 nominations.^[5]

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Martin Wood at the Internet Movie Database
2. ^ Wood, Martin (2002). Stargate SG-1: Season 5 – Audio Commentary for "Red Sky" (DVD). MGM Home Entertainment. Event occurs at 27 minutes 10 seconds. 
3. ^ Sumner, Darren (2009-01-05). "Wright discusses third SG-1 movie.". gateworld.net. http://www.gateworld.net/news/2009/01/wright-discusses-third-sg-1-movie/. Retrieved 2009-05-12. 
4. ^ Colvin, Chad (2011-04-17). "SGU continuation, other movies dead". gateworld.net. http://www.gateworld.net/news/2011/04/wright-sgu-continuation-other-movies-dead-for-now/. Retrieved 31 May 2011. 
5. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0939869/awards

External links[link]

• Martin Wood at the Internet Movie Database
• Martin Wood at Stargate Official Site
• Martin Wood on StargateWiki