Giant Eagle Convenience Division

Although a significant player in the convenience-store space, Giant Eagle is actually a supermarket chain that operates along the East Coast. Giant Eagle offers grocery, pharmacy, pet, floral, dietitian, entertainment, household and beauty products as well as baking, cafe, dry cleaning, childcare, photo, movie rental, banking and phone services.

Giant Eagle began as a small grocery store called Eagle Grocery in 1918, which was purchased by The Kroger Co. in 1928. The original Eagle Grocery owners then partnered with additional parties to form a new grocery chain called Giant Eagle in 1936. In the 1980s, the company acquired Tamarkin, an Ohio-based retailer and wholesale grocer. In 1997, the chain acquired Riser Foods and County Markets. In 2003, Giant Eagle introduced the GetGo c-store concept and three years later, it developed the Market District banner, which offers gourmet, specialty and organic food options. In 2013, it launched Giant Eagle Express, a hybrid between a supermarket and a c-store.

Giant Eagle's competitive convenience-retailing advantage lie with its GetGo Cafe + Market stores that offer time-pressed customers the same shopping experience found at the company's full-sized supermarkets, but in a convenient, scaled-down format. The c-stores also link fuel to the parent chain's grocery stores with its "fuelperks!" loyalty program, making it a strong, cross-channel competitor.

Source: Convenience Digital Resource Library, Technomic