About Us
Three families— Goldstein, Porter and Chait —build a small grocery company called Eagle Grocery, beginning in 1918. The business is a success, and quickly expands to 125 stores.
In 1928, the families sell Eagle Grocery to the Kroger Company. As part of their arrangement, the families agree to leave the grocery business for three years. In the meantime, two other families—Moravitz and Weizenbaum—had been building their own successful chain of grocery stores named OK Grocery.
In 1931, the five families combine forces to form Giant Eagle. The first Giant Eagle supermarket opens on Brownsville Road in 1936.
50 Years and Still Going Strong
1980s – 1990s
• Opens first independently owned store in Monaca, Pennsylvania.
• Becomes a full-fledged wholesaler and begins supplying independent Giant Eagle stores.
• Introduces Absolute Minimum Pricing, attracting national attention and driving food prices down in the Pittsburgh region.
• Grows store-within-a-store convenience with addition of Pharmacy, Floral, automotive, housewares, books, greeting cards, photo development and video rentals.
• Installs efficient bar code scanners at registers, as well as convenient ATMs.
• Continues community involvement with Round-Up for the Hungry, Smash 'Em Cash 'Em recycling services and Apples for the Students.
• Introduces Cookie Cards, with proceeds benefiting local children's hospitals.
• Grows to 137 stores, ranging in size from 106,000-square-foot superstores to small neighborhood markets.
• Establishes Nature's Basket® to appeal to health-conscious customers.
• Launches Advantage Card, a loyalty card that gives Guests access to exclusive deals when shopping in-store.
Building on Tradition
2000s and Beyond
• Diversifies its business strategy by opening GetGo gas stations.
• Operates more than 400 retail locations, including fuel and convenience locations.
• Employs more than 36,000 Team Members throughout stores, retail support centers and offices.
• Launches fuelperks! loyalty program in 2004.
• Launches Market District—offering an array of specialty foods never before available to Giant Eagle shoppers, it became “a new world of food.”
• Launches foodperks! In 2008 as a partner program to fuelperks! in which Guests can earn a 1% discount on groceries for every 10 gallons of gas.
• Introduces the sale of Gift Cards.
• Operates New Brunswick, Ohio Giant Eagle as the world's first LEED-certified supermarket, continuing the company's award-winning commitment to environmental sustainability and waste reduction.
• Develops Giant Eagle Express, a supermarket/convenience store hybrid.
• Opens Fresh Foods Manufacturing in Freedom, PA, to prepare and supply Giant Eagle locations with soups, hand-cut fruit, and other fresh foods.
• Launches fuelperks+ in 2016. Combining the best features of foodperks! and fuelperks!, the new platform introduces the concept of earning perks for each dollar spent.
• Acquires Ricker Oil, an Indiana-based convenience store chain. The acquisition added 56 stores to GetGo’s portfolio and a wholesale fuel distribution business serving Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.
• Launches myPerks in the fall of 2020 for the Canton, OH, market and was made an option for the Columbus, OH, market. The loyalty program would soon become available for all Guests.
• Launches Leap Media Group, an in-house retail media network, connecting brand partners to the company’s owned omnichannel properties, including in-store advertising, social media, influencer content and more.
• Opens its first micro-fulfillment center, which uses state-of-the-art technology and automated machinery to fulfill ecommerce orders.
https://www.gianteagle.com/about-us/our-history