HARMAR, Pa. -- Giant Eagle Express, Giant Eagle Inc.'s newest store concept, designed to fill a retail gap while competing with the rush of pharmacy and convenience store competitors, opened on Friday, reported The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The first Giant Eagle Express is located in Harmar, Pa., adjacent to the site of a demolished Giant Eagle supermarket.
Called a neighborhood grocery store by the O'Hara, Pa.-based company, the facility offers Giant Eagle's GetGo gasoline pumps and products, along with the traditional Eagle's [image-nocss] photo development, DVD rental kiosk, fresh meats and vegetables, deli, bakery and prepared foods, plus a drive-through pharmacy, said the report, all contained in 14,000 square feet.
The typical Giant Eagle is between 80,000 square feet and 90,000 square feet, while GetGo stores range between 1,700 square feet and 4,500 square feet, the report said.
Giant Eagle Express is the contemporary neighborhood grocery store that provides fresh, convenient and affordable groceries and meal solutions to customers with on-the-go lifestyles, said Brett Merrell, Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle's marketing vice president, in a statement.
The store will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Grocery industry consultants said Giant Eagle Express made sense and that its heavy focus on fresh items is reminiscent of the plans announced by Britain's largest grocer, Tesco, which is bringing its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets to the West Coast this fall, albeit without the gasoline pumps.
It's a brilliant, strategic initiative by Giant Eagle, Burt Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, New York, told the newspaper. It's a great roadblock to the deep discounters like Wal-Mart and Target, to pharmacies like Rite-Aid, Walgreen and CVS and to other supermarkets. It also preempts Sheetz from doing this.
People are aware there is a place between the evolving supermarket and the evolving conveniences store, Willard Bishop, a Barrington, Ill.-based consultant, told the paper. Our lifestyle is driving us toward more fresh food and more prepared foods.
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