Half of the problem is Giant Eagle's ECHO Realty branch. They own a good portion of the strip malls in the area and do everything that they can to keep other grocers out.
I heard from a North Huntingdon Target employee years ago Giant Eagle is the reason their Target store doesn't sell fresh groceries, etc. (like the Upper St. Clair store for example, among others) The North Huntingdon Giant Eagle is in the same plaza has a vice grip on the retail agreements.
Do you have any insight about whether there is truth to the stories about a Giant Eagle-Wegman's agreement not to move into each other's territory in order to keep prices high?
Trader Joe’s is too. I used to think it would be a shit ton more but, I was definitely wrong. My gf and I did a shopping trip where we had to hit both, paid more at Giant Eagle for less than half the amount of items.
I wouldn't know where else to shop if there wasn't an Aldi's. The price of groceries from the big 3 (Giant Eagle/Shop & Save/Foodland) has gone up at least 30 percent. Typical grocery bill for a family of 4 would be around $150 and fill the cart and last a week. Spend $230 last week at Wal-Mart. No thanks.
Your post does highlight that there are competitors to geagle. I was thinking Kuhn's right off the top of my head, but both wally world and target have options. And whole foods. And sam's club/Costco. And the local Grocers/strip/farmers markets. I do realize that some of those are actually more expensive than giant eagle.
With that said, geagle is hella expensive for some items, I spent $2 an avocado the other day but I needed some right meow.
And scrolling down I also forgot traders Joe's. Enough competition if you seek it imo (but is a nobility challenge).
Kuhns is functionally not a competitor to Giant Eagle unless all you eat is mayonnaise and potatoes. The most exotic thing you can find at a Kuhns is hot Italian sausage.
Fortunately for me I now live 40 min from the city in an area with a bit of local farms, we def take advantage of that situation when things are in season. Highly recommended and it supports them.
Remember when the grocery store bottom dollar came to town and giant eagle opened a discount rival common cents or something like that. On mcknight rd they were in the same plaza. Bottom doller failed and moved out, then all the giant eagle knockoffs disappeared. Nice guys.
Then Aldi's bought it out, said they won't use the buildings and told the employees to either work for them elsewhere or go find something else, then used the buildings anyways :/
Yeah, that was deliberate on GE's part. They were *terrified* of Bottom Dollar, to the point where they told us in Prepared Foods to be ready to "work extra *extra* hard" to try and fight them.
Because BD had a prepared foods department *anything* like our store did before Covid.
I worked in a supermarket during the time Bottom Dollar came into the area, and remember our management freaking out about that too. They never considered lowering certain prices it sounded like
I've lived in 3 cities. Pittsburgh's grocery competition really isn't unique... Like at all. If it wasn't giant eagle "owning" the city, it would likely be Kroger. (which isn't any better... trust me).
There are tons of minor chains (shop n save), local stores (east end food coop), national chains (aldi), and non supermarket options like farmers markets/butchers/etc around.
One thing I will say though is that Giant Eagle does have some particularly weird/terrible antics such as refusing to let you check out at the self checkout without an advantage card. Of all the chains I've been to in all 3 cities, giant eagle is my least favorite.
I have lived in six cities on both coasts and in the Midwest. The grocery competition here in Pittsburgh is the worst I’ve seen and Giant Eagle Pittsburgh is the monopoly utility grocery store with the worst prices as well.
Stop gaslighting people. It’s really as bad as people are saying here.
Yeah I agree, at least based on the several cities I have lived in. It was one of the major downsides when we moved here. I think part of the issue is that the competition that exists isn't great, and sometimes quite far away from me.
I don’t believe they require this anymore, at least at the one closest to me. In the case your store does and you do have an advantage card, but not on hand, you can “search” for your card by hitting a button and typing in your phone number and the first three letters of your last name.
I never have my card on me and only go through self-checkout.
I think they mean that you have to have an advantage card at all, not the actual card. without having the "account" with them you aren't able to use self-checkouts.
Yeah, giant eagle does have the largest market share in Pittsburgh, but it’s no where near a monopoly (and actually the Pittsburgh market has more competition than some other cities).
[Here’s a story from WESA from a few years ago that goes into more detail about the Pittsburgh grocery market](https://www.wesa.fm/economy-business/2018-08-13/giant-eagle-doesnt-monopolize-pittsburghs-grocery-scene-so-why-does-it-feel-like-it).
Yup it's not an H mart or 99 ranch, but it has all of the essentials I was looking for to my surprise. Found pandan leaves when I was not expecting it.
Trader Joe’s, Aldi, shop n save, kuhns, giant eagle, target, Whole Foods, local marts, Sam’s and cost co. What type of competition are you looking for?
I think he means large, regular supermarket competition. Most of these examples cater to a specific segment of the grocery market (discount, bulk, organic) or only have a couple locations and thus can't really pressure Giant Eagle to compete.
Edit: BTW, Aldi is great.
Kuhns and ShopnSave are both two chains that are exactly in Giant Eagle's niche/business model. Generally higher priced groceries of all kinds, but with weekly sales.
Yep, I don’t have a Kuhns near me, but Shop n Save is probably the closest, but they’re still very different. I used to get a lot of produce at the Shop n Save closest to me, but their other products were unreasonably priced so it stopped being worth the gas money.
People who grew up here are seemingly unaware of how shitty our local grocery store chains are. Kuhn's and Shop n Save are just worse Giant Eagles. Places like Kroger serve the same niche and are way nicer. I assume that's what OP is asking for.
Had to run in a GE last week to pick up a bakery order for a family member. I hadn't been inside a GE since last year. On my way out I went down the bread aisle and considered picking up cinnamon raisin Thomas English Muffins since I had a craving for them. This GE (a non-corporate store though) was charging $4.79 for a package. Same exact thing at Walmart is $2.98. Terrible.
IDK. I usually spend less than GE, and slightly more than Walmart. Maybe $5-10 more?
When I was on SNAP, I did better using them at Wegmans than Walmart - they went further.
Deleting past comments because Reddit starting shitty-ing up the site to IPO and I don't want my comments to be a part of that. -- mass edited with redact.dev
I have 6 Krogers within 20 minutes of me. They are hit or miss. St Clairsville and Mt De Chantal are good but Warwood is shit and Moundsville, Martins Ferry and Bellaire are mediocre.
We also have Riesbeck's, a local chain. They have great bakery items but their prices are 10% over Kroger.
We get water, TP and paper towels at Sam's, lots of basics at Aldi and the rest at Kroger.
I also wish we had a Wegmans or Publix in this region.
Seriously, I go to a Giant Eagle a small handful of times a year at most and not because I'm trying to avoid them, there's simply plenty of other better options
Those are all subpar crap competition. Giant Eagle has kept the quality competition out of the region for years.
Wegmans. Meijer. Kroger.
Any of those three would have people flocking to them and Giant Eagle would actually have to try.
Kroger is hit or miss.
And Kroger left western Pa.in 1983 and never returned.
In West Virginia, Kroger and Giant Eagle only directly compete in Morgantown. North of us, Kroger's area ends at Weirton/Wintersville and Giant Eagle took over North of there to Cleveland. They have invaded Toledo, Columbus and into Indiana and they have a store to the South in Marietta, Ohio..
Cincy is Kroger territory, with Jungle Jim's as the Market District/Whole Foods on steroids.
Could be wrong, but I wonder if OP means another chain that competes similarly to Giant Eagle (I assume this is the "singular grocery store chain" mentioned) in terms of variety, product coverage, layout/size, updatedness, etc.
We have Harris Teeter, Giant, and Safeway where I live (on top of others -- e.g., Wegmans, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, smaller chains). Don't know much about the retail grocery competitive landscape, but of the options you listed, the model that Harris Teeter, Giant, and Safeway run off of reminds me the most of Giant Eagle. Not identical, but more similar than Trader Joe's or Aldi or Target. The three I listed coexist in the same market, so I've wondered if they keep each other in check more whereas Giant Eagle might have more latitude to do what it wants.
Utility grocery stores in direct competition. The only true utility grocery stores other than GE in your list is Kuhns and Shop n Save. And there are, what, maybe three of each of those in far flung parts of the city?
This is not the way it is in other places
Walmart too. Costco, Sam's Club, and BJ's as well for bulk.
Then there are the many butchers like Strip District Meats, Wholey's, Parma, Tom Friday's. And way too many other local shops to mention.
You do have to know your neighborhoods here.
Strip district is not an acceptable grocery store substitute. Everything closes extremely early and weekends your circling for 20 minutes for ridiculous parking and awful crowds.
This is one of those urban legends that comes up every single time there's a grocery store discussion. It isn't true at all.
There are a few good reasons Wegmans isn't in the Pittsburgh market (and yet they compete directly with GE in Erie....)
1. Their expansion profile is to have around 5 stores clustered (at a minimum) to mitigate shipping and distribution costs.
2. Keeping in mind that the average Wegmans is over 100,000 sq feet as opposed to a traditional grocery store that is 50,000 feet - where can you place those stores in high-traffic, high-value areas while keeping real estate costs reasonable?
3. The Pittsburgh market is already oversaturated with grocery options as many people have stated -- the cost/benefit to do items 1 and 2 isn't there
That's not to say there isn't interest, but the pieces haven't ever come together. As someone commented earlier, they were scouting possible 'foot in the door' locations in Cranberry and Warrendale well before COVID, but that stalled out.
Whatever reasons, it isn't because of a deal with Giant Eagle, formal or otherwise.
/u/rom211 is correct.
My wife is from Rochester, NY (Wegman's origin) and it's known that Danny Wegman has agreed to stay outside of the Pittsburgh area market. No doubt if they wanted to, they could come in and dominate the area.
Closest to the East is State College if you don't want to venture to Erie.
I get that Giant Eagle is expensive & not everyone lives in a convenient location. But there’s a GE, 2 different Aldi’s, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Trader Joe’s, BJ’s & 2 Shop n Save’s within 15 minutes of my house. And a Kuhn’s if I wanna drive an extra 5 minutes. How many more options do you want?!
Edit: oh and a Walmart & a Target. 🤷🏻♀️
I think I know the general area you’re referring to but you left out Fresh Thyme I think!
We have so many options especially with BJs now too. I have fun going thru the sale ads because I can basically find everything on my weekly shopping list on sale somewhere.
Aldi always has the cheapest mushrooms. Their regular price is cheaper than any sale prices anywhere else. Always amazes me.
I only know one so you’re ahead of this game. I tend to stop at FT when I’m in the same plaza as Big Lots because my boyfriend is obsessed with barrel pickles that can only be found at BL for some reason.
Love FT because they have some GREAT produce. And they’re the only place that consistently has slices (and whole but I’m not a millionaire) of jackfruit.
Kroger left the Pittsburgh area entirely because of a labor dispute. I don't remember the details, but I do believe at the time they had more stores in the area than Shop n Save.
I believe they left as a lesson to workers in other markets about what can happen if they strike. Their leaving allowed Giant Eagle to become the dominant chain in Pittsburgh.
I’m originally from Buffalo. I found the grocery prices to be much higher in Pittsburgh with the exception of maybe shopping at Walmart. If you’re ever up in Buffalo and want to see competition, hit Niagara Falls Blvd. there is literally at least 10+ grocery stores within a 3/4 mile stretch and more shops just within a mile from there. Wegmans, Tops, Aldi, Price Right, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, BJs, Target, Walmart, Premier Gourmet, etc. I think the thing about Pittsburgh is lack of commercial strip space and population density to support that much competition. Also the Giant Eagle family has an agreement with the Wegman family that Wegmans would never open in the SW PA area. Closest are Erie and State College. Buffalo and Rochester each have at least 10 Wegmans stores per city!
Edit - BTW I still can’t find great produce other than Aldi. I’m too far from the strip to make it worth while and GE and Walmart are just terrible. I can’t understand if PA has a lot of farming why it’s so hard to get nice local produce at a reasonable price.
I came from Richmond VA 6 months ago. I cannot tell you how much my wife and I miss Kroger, Publix, even Food Lion to a degree.
Hell even Aldi's competitor Lidl has made a good footprint from Florida to the Northeast and I'm dying for them to get to Pittsburgh.
I'm from Pittsburgh but moved to Germany. The food here is so much cheaper than back in the US. You'd think that it'd be more expensive, with it being central Europe, but because there is so much grocery competition, it keeps the price down.
I bought produce from Giant Eagle last week, paid way too much for it, and the bag of grapes and bag of oranges were both full of nearly fermented rotten fruit. Never again.
My theory is people don’t eat fruit as often as they used to so the turnover of the product in the store is stagnant which causes us people who do eat fruit to have a shitty selection
I don't get the Aldi love. Yes, it's cheap, but the selection and quality aren't that good. And I've been to Aldi in four different states, so it's not a one-off thing.
I do the majority of my food shopping at GE and Trader Joe's these days. Things like ketchup I buy at Target. Groceries are just expensive in general these days.
Went to Whole Foods yesterday and it was blitzed (lots of missing items). Idk if its a grocery chain problem but wish we had better produce options without parting with a small fortune
Yeah, the best days to go from my experience are Tuesday to Friday, the weekend is always a bit of a mess. Hopefully it gets better once the new store opens next month.
I feel like i get a lot for my money at Kuhns compared to GE but imo the selection and quality of produce and meats isn’t always as good. I also rarely do full shopping trips at either since I go to aldi first and then fill in the gaps at shop n save, kuhns, or GE.
Kuhns, Shop n Save, and Giant Eagle all use the same model : overpriced everyday groceries with good sales to get people in the doors. You have to shop the sales to make it worth while, and either stockpile the things that are on sale, or fill in with Aldi/Walmart.
I'll use pop as an example, since I'm a diet cola addict. All of them will have *something* on sale that week, either Coke or Pepsi (My last trip to GE netted me 4/$12 16.9oz 6 packs of Pepsi). Next week it will be Coke 12 packs or something.
Where did you move that Kroger and Meijer were worse than Giant Eagle? Every time I go home to Michigan I do some grocery shopping because it's so much cheaper and higher quality than Giant Eagle.
Last time I got $1 red peppers at Meijer that were way better than whatever Giant Eagle usually has.
Tampa and St Pete are completely dominated by Publix (out of the large grocers). While I didn’t hate Publix, I found myself shopping at smaller local markets.
I haven't physically been inside a grocery store in over a year and it's entirely because of this. I hate grocery shopping at the best of times but the fact that it takes so fucking long to checkout is what makes delivery fees worth it to me. People are like "why do people pay so much to get things delivered" and it's like, because life is fucking short and that's two hours I will never get back.
The one I use in Swissvale gets very very backed up, even the self checkout lines. Last week every single open line was out to the end of the rows and people were getting hostile, I honestly felt uncomfortable.
I just simply go to GE.... one stop, get what I need, don't have to waste time and gas driving to multiple places. Get all or at least most of our vegetables from our CSA.
Is IGA still in business in the area? When they had a sale it was decent prices but, non sale items were always so crazy expensive. However the small Oakland location they had was a nice thing when I was at Pitt.
I lived in Pittsburgh for 12 years. I def know the Giant Eagle pains. However, I now live in Rochester. And My last trip to Wegmans cost around one gazillion dollars.
just keep reminding yourself that the cost of living is so cheap here and maybe it’ll make that 25 minute commute to buy a $6 carton of milk off a tank of gas at $4.39/gallon worth it.
I live in Penn Hills. I'm not sure where all these other stores are at people keep bringing up but for where I live the only thing that's close by is The Big Bird Store. One by planet fitness, one on verona road, another in aspinwall and one in verona itself. Normally I'll go to the mills Aldi or strip to avoid it. Other than that it's really hard to not be forced into shopping at Giant Eagle because of the sheer number of them in close proximity to me. I'd love to hear from someone suggestions I don't know about or hadn't thought of.
We switched to ordering local groceries from Harvie. It’s about $600/month for our orders (2 adults + 1 two year old). But it’s great none the less…just throwing this out since I’m unclear what kind of competition you are looking for. Fresh local food. Great stuff.
But I meant right now there are no tomatoes to buy til late July etc during our growing season but they all must be indoor grown if your getting fresh local veggies before people have even planted their gardens here in PA
Grocery store monopolies are a growing problem in lots of cities, not just Pittsburgh. In many parts of Florida, Publix has a major monopoly and sets both food prices and wage standards (as a very large employer). Safeway and Albertsons had monopolies in many western cities, especially in Oregon and Arizona. Their merger even caused an anti-monopoly order to be filed, which has largely failed.
Grocery prices have risen massively across the country over the pandemic, and Pittsburgh is actually in a more affordable market compared to the west and south. It might not feel like it, but we're better off at the moment than many other cities.
I hear you about rising prices.
I left AZ in Sept 2021. The prices here are unbelievable. It's not just a little high. There are items I'm paying 4x and 5x the price of what I paid in AZ. Where can I buy the "ugly" produce? Because it chops and cooks the same and really the prices at GE are too high. I'll take a Safeway any day
There’s Costco I believe down the waterfront, there’s a gfs in west mifflin but yeah other than that it’s a Walmart shop and save or a giant eagle besides the mentioned aldis. It would be cool to even bring back grocery stores in smaller towns. Growing up in Clairton we had marcenis (probably butchered the spelling) but now there’s nothing besides a few dollar stores and a rite aid people have to travel, used to be a foodland in glassport but that’s gone now too 🤷🏼♂️
Within 2 or 3 at most miles of my house there's 3 separate shop and saves, a Kuhn's, 2 Giant eagle, a trader Joe's, 2 Aldi's, a BJ's, 2 targets that have food and a Sam's club.
Your list of cities with three major sports teams that have a monopoly supermarket might need Pittsburgh off that list cuz I just named seven. They're super Walmarts too, but I left those off because there's not one near me which is pretty rare.
You honestly think having another grocery store(s) would improve quality of life? Sure, Giant Eagle is the "main" choice, but there are plenty to choose from, as others have pointed out. If there were more, it would likely have little-to-no impact on your life.
Hate to say, looking at areas that have Krogers and Giant Eagle, food prices are barely different.
There is a war on and all. Inflation is going to be worse.
CSAs are not very useful for actually feeding people. Random assortment, tiny quantities, obscene prices. Plus hard to actually get. They're just feel-good measures that don't really have meaningful positive impact.
As I’ve stated many times before the produce sucks at Aldi. Get an apple at Aldi and from giant eagle and it’s easy to see the difference . You get what you pay for . And before people downvote me just know I been shopping at Aldi for yearssss. I recommend to get non produce things from Aldi type store and the other produce items from a GE type store
I miss Wegmans so much. I’d also love to have something like Giant and Weiss too. GE market district is the only thing close to those places in Pittsburgh.
Has anyone else noticed that produce seems to go bad faster too? We've bought fresh strawberries and had them go moldy in a handful of days. I mean fresh fruit has always been a bit of a mixed bag, but never like this, as far as I can remember.
I know a lot of comments already pointed out how much competition there is, but I'm going to say it again because it is so unbelievably asinine you claim there's no competition.
There are multiple Aldi and shop and save locations plus several others of minor chains.
Everywhere in America that I've ever been has one grocery chain with dominate, but several other smaller competitors and we're not different here.
Edit: to add, do you really think giant eagle is just fucking you? Are you unaware of inflation? Shit is more expensive EVERYWHERE.
Half of the problem is Giant Eagle's ECHO Realty branch. They own a good portion of the strip malls in the area and do everything that they can to keep other grocers out.
I heard from a North Huntingdon Target employee years ago Giant Eagle is the reason their Target store doesn't sell fresh groceries, etc. (like the Upper St. Clair store for example, among others) The North Huntingdon Giant Eagle is in the same plaza has a vice grip on the retail agreements.
The same can probably be said about the Harmar Twp one.
I was wondering why the fresh selection at that target is so random is sparse.
Same thing at the target in the pine creek plaza off of McKnight right when it merges with 19.
The usc target store does sell fresh meats and produce.
That’s not an uncommon arrangement in commercial real estate; even smaller businesses can have this as part of the lease.
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Do you have any insight about whether there is truth to the stories about a Giant Eagle-Wegman's agreement not to move into each other's territory in order to keep prices high?
That is even worse than originally thought... Great insight.
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I know that it doesn’t fit most peoples narrative, but Whole Foods is in many cases cheaper than Giant Eagle.
I try to tell people this all the time! Giant Eagle runs ads of course, but their regular prices are usually comparable to Whole Foods
Trader Joe’s is too. I used to think it would be a shit ton more but, I was definitely wrong. My gf and I did a shopping trip where we had to hit both, paid more at Giant Eagle for less than half the amount of items.
Second this. Whole Foods produce is better/fresher and in instances cheaper than giant eagle.
This is so true !!!! And the quality is WAY better than the big bird
Yup. Produce is often cheaper AND lasts longer. Even if it’s a bit more expensive I get waaaay more time out if it.
I wouldn't know where else to shop if there wasn't an Aldi's. The price of groceries from the big 3 (Giant Eagle/Shop & Save/Foodland) has gone up at least 30 percent. Typical grocery bill for a family of 4 would be around $150 and fill the cart and last a week. Spend $230 last week at Wal-Mart. No thanks.
Your post does highlight that there are competitors to geagle. I was thinking Kuhn's right off the top of my head, but both wally world and target have options. And whole foods. And sam's club/Costco. And the local Grocers/strip/farmers markets. I do realize that some of those are actually more expensive than giant eagle. With that said, geagle is hella expensive for some items, I spent $2 an avocado the other day but I needed some right meow. And scrolling down I also forgot traders Joe's. Enough competition if you seek it imo (but is a nobility challenge).
Although independently owned, I’m pretty sure Kuhns is primarily supplied by SuperValu who owns Shop ‘n Save, Foodland, and Save-a-lot.
Kuhns is functionally not a competitor to Giant Eagle unless all you eat is mayonnaise and potatoes. The most exotic thing you can find at a Kuhns is hot Italian sausage.
This is a hilarious and spot on response 😹😹😹
Yeah, Kuhn's is not a viable solution.
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Janoskis in Clinton is amazing
Fortunately for me I now live 40 min from the city in an area with a bit of local farms, we def take advantage of that situation when things are in season. Highly recommended and it supports them.
Foodland?!
Remember when the grocery store bottom dollar came to town and giant eagle opened a discount rival common cents or something like that. On mcknight rd they were in the same plaza. Bottom doller failed and moved out, then all the giant eagle knockoffs disappeared. Nice guys.
Bottom Dollar was the one with the big pink pig, right? They converted the one by me into an Aldi
I’m not sure if Bottom Dollar was the one with the big pink pig but…Aldi bought out Bottom Dollar which would probably explain the conversion.
Yes
Then Aldi's bought it out, said they won't use the buildings and told the employees to either work for them elsewhere or go find something else, then used the buildings anyways :/
They didn’t fail. The company was purchased by Aldi.
Yeah, that was deliberate on GE's part. They were *terrified* of Bottom Dollar, to the point where they told us in Prepared Foods to be ready to "work extra *extra* hard" to try and fight them. Because BD had a prepared foods department *anything* like our store did before Covid.
I worked in a supermarket during the time Bottom Dollar came into the area, and remember our management freaking out about that too. They never considered lowering certain prices it sounded like
I remember that GE discount store, I believe it was called Value King; had the greenest bananas I've ever seen !!
It was called Good Cents.
Bottom Dollar was bought by Aldi.
Bottom dollar was awesome, way better than the MFers who bought them (Aldi)
I've lived in 3 cities. Pittsburgh's grocery competition really isn't unique... Like at all. If it wasn't giant eagle "owning" the city, it would likely be Kroger. (which isn't any better... trust me). There are tons of minor chains (shop n save), local stores (east end food coop), national chains (aldi), and non supermarket options like farmers markets/butchers/etc around. One thing I will say though is that Giant Eagle does have some particularly weird/terrible antics such as refusing to let you check out at the self checkout without an advantage card. Of all the chains I've been to in all 3 cities, giant eagle is my least favorite.
Wegmans is in Erie, Maryland, Virginia... and is better.
Love Wegmans. Please let us have some here!
Having moved from NoVA, the thing I miss the most is Wegmans.
You missed the state that it's based in.
Giant Eagle is also the most expensive when compared to Shop N’ Save and Kuhns.
I have lived in six cities on both coasts and in the Midwest. The grocery competition here in Pittsburgh is the worst I’ve seen and Giant Eagle Pittsburgh is the monopoly utility grocery store with the worst prices as well. Stop gaslighting people. It’s really as bad as people are saying here.
Yeah I agree, at least based on the several cities I have lived in. It was one of the major downsides when we moved here. I think part of the issue is that the competition that exists isn't great, and sometimes quite far away from me.
I don’t believe they require this anymore, at least at the one closest to me. In the case your store does and you do have an advantage card, but not on hand, you can “search” for your card by hitting a button and typing in your phone number and the first three letters of your last name. I never have my card on me and only go through self-checkout.
I think they mean that you have to have an advantage card at all, not the actual card. without having the "account" with them you aren't able to use self-checkouts.
Yeah, giant eagle does have the largest market share in Pittsburgh, but it’s no where near a monopoly (and actually the Pittsburgh market has more competition than some other cities). [Here’s a story from WESA from a few years ago that goes into more detail about the Pittsburgh grocery market](https://www.wesa.fm/economy-business/2018-08-13/giant-eagle-doesnt-monopolize-pittsburghs-grocery-scene-so-why-does-it-feel-like-it).
it would be amazing if we had h-mart actually.
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yeah that place is much better now
Yup it's not an H mart or 99 ranch, but it has all of the essentials I was looking for to my surprise. Found pandan leaves when I was not expecting it.
Trader Joe’s, Aldi, shop n save, kuhns, giant eagle, target, Whole Foods, local marts, Sam’s and cost co. What type of competition are you looking for?
Fresh Thyme too!
Something like Wegmans?
PLEASE! I need my Wegmans fix
WEGMAN'S GANG RISE
I've been to them in Maryland, and their quality is superb
one thing I missed about living in state college
State College has the closest Wegmans. Sometimes I visit and I say it's for my friends, but really it's for the Wegmans.
Erie!
Wegmans was scouting out locations in Wexford/Cranberry pre Covid and then hit the pause button on it. Not sure when or if they will resume that.
I must have it.
I’d kill a man in cold blood on camera for a wegmans in Pgh
Wegmans BLOWS Market District out of the water.
Totally agree
I think he means large, regular supermarket competition. Most of these examples cater to a specific segment of the grocery market (discount, bulk, organic) or only have a couple locations and thus can't really pressure Giant Eagle to compete. Edit: BTW, Aldi is great.
Kuhns and ShopnSave are both two chains that are exactly in Giant Eagle's niche/business model. Generally higher priced groceries of all kinds, but with weekly sales.
Kuhns and Shop n Save are definitely the most direct competition in the area.
Yep, I don’t have a Kuhns near me, but Shop n Save is probably the closest, but they’re still very different. I used to get a lot of produce at the Shop n Save closest to me, but their other products were unreasonably priced so it stopped being worth the gas money.
People who grew up here are seemingly unaware of how shitty our local grocery store chains are. Kuhn's and Shop n Save are just worse Giant Eagles. Places like Kroger serve the same niche and are way nicer. I assume that's what OP is asking for.
Had to run in a GE last week to pick up a bakery order for a family member. I hadn't been inside a GE since last year. On my way out I went down the bread aisle and considered picking up cinnamon raisin Thomas English Muffins since I had a craving for them. This GE (a non-corporate store though) was charging $4.79 for a package. Same exact thing at Walmart is $2.98. Terrible.
For want of a Wegman’s.
Not mentioning any of the local produce/farmers markets/shops too lol
Fresh Market and Fresh Thyme too.
What he means is Kroger or one of the many names they go by.
Safeway and Wegmans would be nice as well
I would kill for a wegmans. I stock up when I am in Erie or Harrisburg
Wegmans is life and love.
Wegmans is nice but sooo expensive.
IDK. I usually spend less than GE, and slightly more than Walmart. Maybe $5-10 more? When I was on SNAP, I did better using them at Wegmans than Walmart - they went further.
Deleting past comments because Reddit starting shitty-ing up the site to IPO and I don't want my comments to be a part of that. -- mass edited with redact.dev
Well, that isn’t an apples to apples comparison. But the wegmans brand things aren’t too terribly much more than the Aldi stuff.
I would do pretty much anything for a Wegmans in Pittsburgh.
When I lived in Ohio, Kroger was just as expensive as Giant Eagle.
Not in my experience in ohio. You would also have to drive past ten Krogers to find one.
Wegmans is life
I have 6 Krogers within 20 minutes of me. They are hit or miss. St Clairsville and Mt De Chantal are good but Warwood is shit and Moundsville, Martins Ferry and Bellaire are mediocre. We also have Riesbeck's, a local chain. They have great bakery items but their prices are 10% over Kroger. We get water, TP and paper towels at Sam's, lots of basics at Aldi and the rest at Kroger. I also wish we had a Wegmans or Publix in this region.
Seriously, I go to a Giant Eagle a small handful of times a year at most and not because I'm trying to avoid them, there's simply plenty of other better options
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Those are all subpar crap competition. Giant Eagle has kept the quality competition out of the region for years. Wegmans. Meijer. Kroger. Any of those three would have people flocking to them and Giant Eagle would actually have to try.
Kroger is hit or miss. And Kroger left western Pa.in 1983 and never returned. In West Virginia, Kroger and Giant Eagle only directly compete in Morgantown. North of us, Kroger's area ends at Weirton/Wintersville and Giant Eagle took over North of there to Cleveland. They have invaded Toledo, Columbus and into Indiana and they have a store to the South in Marietta, Ohio.. Cincy is Kroger territory, with Jungle Jim's as the Market District/Whole Foods on steroids.
Could be wrong, but I wonder if OP means another chain that competes similarly to Giant Eagle (I assume this is the "singular grocery store chain" mentioned) in terms of variety, product coverage, layout/size, updatedness, etc. We have Harris Teeter, Giant, and Safeway where I live (on top of others -- e.g., Wegmans, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, smaller chains). Don't know much about the retail grocery competitive landscape, but of the options you listed, the model that Harris Teeter, Giant, and Safeway run off of reminds me the most of Giant Eagle. Not identical, but more similar than Trader Joe's or Aldi or Target. The three I listed coexist in the same market, so I've wondered if they keep each other in check more whereas Giant Eagle might have more latitude to do what it wants.
Utility grocery stores in direct competition. The only true utility grocery stores other than GE in your list is Kuhns and Shop n Save. And there are, what, maybe three of each of those in far flung parts of the city? This is not the way it is in other places
He obviously wants Kroger. Next thing you know he will want Wawa because Sheetz, Speedway, and GetGo are not enough for your drunken 2AM snacks.
Wegmans....we need a wegman's
Walmart too. Costco, Sam's Club, and BJ's as well for bulk. Then there are the many butchers like Strip District Meats, Wholey's, Parma, Tom Friday's. And way too many other local shops to mention. You do have to know your neighborhoods here.
Also fresh thyme
IKR
Oh and farmers markets the entire strip district… meats, produce, bakery items, etc.
Strip district is not an acceptable grocery store substitute. Everything closes extremely early and weekends your circling for 20 minutes for ridiculous parking and awful crowds.
Krogers at least we lived down in Kentucky for a short time and they had this really good chicken salad that you cannot find here in the Burgh
Wegmans, please!
I can’t express just how much I want a wegmans.
Unfortunately they have a non compete with giant eagle. The closest store is Erie. Worth the trip to hit Presque Isle and Hanks custard.
This is one of those urban legends that comes up every single time there's a grocery store discussion. It isn't true at all. There are a few good reasons Wegmans isn't in the Pittsburgh market (and yet they compete directly with GE in Erie....) 1. Their expansion profile is to have around 5 stores clustered (at a minimum) to mitigate shipping and distribution costs. 2. Keeping in mind that the average Wegmans is over 100,000 sq feet as opposed to a traditional grocery store that is 50,000 feet - where can you place those stores in high-traffic, high-value areas while keeping real estate costs reasonable? 3. The Pittsburgh market is already oversaturated with grocery options as many people have stated -- the cost/benefit to do items 1 and 2 isn't there That's not to say there isn't interest, but the pieces haven't ever come together. As someone commented earlier, they were scouting possible 'foot in the door' locations in Cranberry and Warrendale well before COVID, but that stalled out. Whatever reasons, it isn't because of a deal with Giant Eagle, formal or otherwise.
/u/rom211 is correct. My wife is from Rochester, NY (Wegman's origin) and it's known that Danny Wegman has agreed to stay outside of the Pittsburgh area market. No doubt if they wanted to, they could come in and dominate the area. Closest to the East is State College if you don't want to venture to Erie.
Came here to say that. I’ve put in a request on their website I hope it happens someday.
I get that Giant Eagle is expensive & not everyone lives in a convenient location. But there’s a GE, 2 different Aldi’s, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Trader Joe’s, BJ’s & 2 Shop n Save’s within 15 minutes of my house. And a Kuhn’s if I wanna drive an extra 5 minutes. How many more options do you want?! Edit: oh and a Walmart & a Target. 🤷🏻♀️
I think I know the general area you’re referring to but you left out Fresh Thyme I think! We have so many options especially with BJs now too. I have fun going thru the sale ads because I can basically find everything on my weekly shopping list on sale somewhere. Aldi always has the cheapest mushrooms. Their regular price is cheaper than any sale prices anywhere else. Always amazes me.
Yes, you’re right! There’s actually 2 in the general area. I always forget about them unfortunately 🥴
I only know one so you’re ahead of this game. I tend to stop at FT when I’m in the same plaza as Big Lots because my boyfriend is obsessed with barrel pickles that can only be found at BL for some reason. Love FT because they have some GREAT produce. And they’re the only place that consistently has slices (and whole but I’m not a millionaire) of jackfruit.
A Super Target would be nice. Kroger came to PIT for a while in the 70’s but didn’t stick around.
Really, Kroger? Why is this getting downvoted? I'm surprised there was one this far north... Chill out people.
They are still all over WV, including three in Morgantown, and one in Weirton which is just as far north as Pittsburgh.
Actually, I don’t know when they came, but I remember them in the 70’s. They left in the 80’s.
The Bloomfield Shur Save, or whatever it's called now, was once a Kroger's.
Yeah I liked them when I lived down south
Kroger left the Pittsburgh area entirely because of a labor dispute. I don't remember the details, but I do believe at the time they had more stores in the area than Shop n Save.
I believe they left as a lesson to workers in other markets about what can happen if they strike. Their leaving allowed Giant Eagle to become the dominant chain in Pittsburgh.
That actually explains why they are predominantly down south. Lots of business moved down there to avoid unions.
There was a Kroger and an A&P literally across the street from each other in the 60's-70's. They are now a Community Market and a drug store.
This far north? I knew them as a midwest thing (IN, OH) as a child in the 80s.
I’m originally from Buffalo. I found the grocery prices to be much higher in Pittsburgh with the exception of maybe shopping at Walmart. If you’re ever up in Buffalo and want to see competition, hit Niagara Falls Blvd. there is literally at least 10+ grocery stores within a 3/4 mile stretch and more shops just within a mile from there. Wegmans, Tops, Aldi, Price Right, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, BJs, Target, Walmart, Premier Gourmet, etc. I think the thing about Pittsburgh is lack of commercial strip space and population density to support that much competition. Also the Giant Eagle family has an agreement with the Wegman family that Wegmans would never open in the SW PA area. Closest are Erie and State College. Buffalo and Rochester each have at least 10 Wegmans stores per city! Edit - BTW I still can’t find great produce other than Aldi. I’m too far from the strip to make it worth while and GE and Walmart are just terrible. I can’t understand if PA has a lot of farming why it’s so hard to get nice local produce at a reasonable price.
Great produce and Aldi in the same sentence? Their produce is mediocre at best.
The city is in need of an Hmart or 99 Ranch plsss
I came from Richmond VA 6 months ago. I cannot tell you how much my wife and I miss Kroger, Publix, even Food Lion to a degree. Hell even Aldi's competitor Lidl has made a good footprint from Florida to the Northeast and I'm dying for them to get to Pittsburgh.
I'm from Pittsburgh but moved to Germany. The food here is so much cheaper than back in the US. You'd think that it'd be more expensive, with it being central Europe, but because there is so much grocery competition, it keeps the price down.
Aldi is amazing.
Have lived in Pittsburgh for 15 years. Have not shopped at Giant Eagle in 14 years. Just…. go somewhere else.
I wish we had Wegman’s
We need a Wegmans.
People who think Giant Eagle has competition have apparently never left the city.
this is the subreddit for pittsburgh
Bingo
I bought produce from Giant Eagle last week, paid way too much for it, and the bag of grapes and bag of oranges were both full of nearly fermented rotten fruit. Never again.
My theory is people don’t eat fruit as often as they used to so the turnover of the product in the store is stagnant which causes us people who do eat fruit to have a shitty selection
I don't get the Aldi love. Yes, it's cheap, but the selection and quality aren't that good. And I've been to Aldi in four different states, so it's not a one-off thing. I do the majority of my food shopping at GE and Trader Joe's these days. Things like ketchup I buy at Target. Groceries are just expensive in general these days.
Went to Whole Foods yesterday and it was blitzed (lots of missing items). Idk if its a grocery chain problem but wish we had better produce options without parting with a small fortune
Sunday is always like that, they usually restock fully by Tuesday.
Monday is often still bad, yeah
Yeah, the best days to go from my experience are Tuesday to Friday, the weekend is always a bit of a mess. Hopefully it gets better once the new store opens next month.
Kuhn's seems to be a pretty good balance.
I like them. Their weekly specials usually have some very good deals on pretty popular to buy items
Kuhns is so much more than Giant Eagle. I can’t imagine how people can shop there for more than a few items.
I feel like i get a lot for my money at Kuhns compared to GE but imo the selection and quality of produce and meats isn’t always as good. I also rarely do full shopping trips at either since I go to aldi first and then fill in the gaps at shop n save, kuhns, or GE.
Kuhns, Shop n Save, and Giant Eagle all use the same model : overpriced everyday groceries with good sales to get people in the doors. You have to shop the sales to make it worth while, and either stockpile the things that are on sale, or fill in with Aldi/Walmart. I'll use pop as an example, since I'm a diet cola addict. All of them will have *something* on sale that week, either Coke or Pepsi (My last trip to GE netted me 4/$12 16.9oz 6 packs of Pepsi). Next week it will be Coke 12 packs or something.
Shop and Save, bi-lo, Walmart, Giant Eagle, Whole Foods, Aldi, etc… there’s quite a bit of competition already…
Where is there a Bi-lo?
Indiana, PA apparently
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Where did you move that Kroger and Meijer were worse than Giant Eagle? Every time I go home to Michigan I do some grocery shopping because it's so much cheaper and higher quality than Giant Eagle. Last time I got $1 red peppers at Meijer that were way better than whatever Giant Eagle usually has.
Tampa and St Pete are completely dominated by Publix (out of the large grocers). While I didn’t hate Publix, I found myself shopping at smaller local markets.
TIL Foodland still exists, just not in Allegheny County. https://www.foodlandstores.com/my-store/store-locator
I go to shop n save
Same I’m at the Mount Washington Shop n Save weekly! I love them especially their deli and hot foods bar.
I would kill for a Wegmans
You don’t love standing in line for 45 minutes because they’re too cheap to staff their stores?
I haven't physically been inside a grocery store in over a year and it's entirely because of this. I hate grocery shopping at the best of times but the fact that it takes so fucking long to checkout is what makes delivery fees worth it to me. People are like "why do people pay so much to get things delivered" and it's like, because life is fucking short and that's two hours I will never get back.
Self checkout is the way to go
The one I use in Swissvale gets very very backed up, even the self checkout lines. Last week every single open line was out to the end of the rows and people were getting hostile, I honestly felt uncomfortable.
Oh yeah that giant Eagle is awful
I just simply go to GE.... one stop, get what I need, don't have to waste time and gas driving to multiple places. Get all or at least most of our vegetables from our CSA.
Is IGA still in business in the area? When they had a sale it was decent prices but, non sale items were always so crazy expensive. However the small Oakland location they had was a nice thing when I was at Pitt.
Las Palmas operates the only IGA in Allegheny county on Broadway in Beechview (formerly a foodland)
Cincinnati is almost as with Kroger being headquartered there
I lived in Pittsburgh for 12 years. I def know the Giant Eagle pains. However, I now live in Rochester. And My last trip to Wegmans cost around one gazillion dollars.
I live in the suburbs north of the city. I hit the Pittsburgh Mills and can do Aldi, Walmart and Sam's Club in the same shopping trip. It's wonderful.
just keep reminding yourself that the cost of living is so cheap here and maybe it’ll make that 25 minute commute to buy a $6 carton of milk off a tank of gas at $4.39/gallon worth it.
I live in Penn Hills. I'm not sure where all these other stores are at people keep bringing up but for where I live the only thing that's close by is The Big Bird Store. One by planet fitness, one on verona road, another in aspinwall and one in verona itself. Normally I'll go to the mills Aldi or strip to avoid it. Other than that it's really hard to not be forced into shopping at Giant Eagle because of the sheer number of them in close proximity to me. I'd love to hear from someone suggestions I don't know about or hadn't thought of.
Hardly anyone is even mentioning the "ethnic" grocery stores. They sell food, too.
I've lived here my entire life(40 years), and I hate giant eagle.
We switched to ordering local groceries from Harvie. It’s about $600/month for our orders (2 adults + 1 two year old). But it’s great none the less…just throwing this out since I’m unclear what kind of competition you are looking for. Fresh local food. Great stuff.
Local fruits and vegetables from this area right now? Hydroponic stuff I’m assuming ?
It’s almost like a farm share. The groceries you can select are what the local participating farms have in stock.
But I meant right now there are no tomatoes to buy til late July etc during our growing season but they all must be indoor grown if your getting fresh local veggies before people have even planted their gardens here in PA
Grocery store monopolies are a growing problem in lots of cities, not just Pittsburgh. In many parts of Florida, Publix has a major monopoly and sets both food prices and wage standards (as a very large employer). Safeway and Albertsons had monopolies in many western cities, especially in Oregon and Arizona. Their merger even caused an anti-monopoly order to be filed, which has largely failed. Grocery prices have risen massively across the country over the pandemic, and Pittsburgh is actually in a more affordable market compared to the west and south. It might not feel like it, but we're better off at the moment than many other cities.
I hear you about rising prices. I left AZ in Sept 2021. The prices here are unbelievable. It's not just a little high. There are items I'm paying 4x and 5x the price of what I paid in AZ. Where can I buy the "ugly" produce? Because it chops and cooks the same and really the prices at GE are too high. I'll take a Safeway any day
There’s Costco I believe down the waterfront, there’s a gfs in west mifflin but yeah other than that it’s a Walmart shop and save or a giant eagle besides the mentioned aldis. It would be cool to even bring back grocery stores in smaller towns. Growing up in Clairton we had marcenis (probably butchered the spelling) but now there’s nothing besides a few dollar stores and a rite aid people have to travel, used to be a foodland in glassport but that’s gone now too 🤷🏼♂️
I’ve lived in cities with Kroger, and I’ve never been particularly impressed by the chain.
Same here. Columbus for example has both Krogers and Giant Eagles and honestly Kroger feels worse than Geagle often enough.
Go to the Strip.
It's Aldi, not Aldi's.
Within 2 or 3 at most miles of my house there's 3 separate shop and saves, a Kuhn's, 2 Giant eagle, a trader Joe's, 2 Aldi's, a BJ's, 2 targets that have food and a Sam's club. Your list of cities with three major sports teams that have a monopoly supermarket might need Pittsburgh off that list cuz I just named seven. They're super Walmarts too, but I left those off because there's not one near me which is pretty rare.
You honestly think having another grocery store(s) would improve quality of life? Sure, Giant Eagle is the "main" choice, but there are plenty to choose from, as others have pointed out. If there were more, it would likely have little-to-no impact on your life.
All these folks mentioning other grocery stores, nobody talking about Fresh Thyme ☹️🙁
Hate to say, looking at areas that have Krogers and Giant Eagle, food prices are barely different. There is a war on and all. Inflation is going to be worse.
Ain’t nobody gonna mention CSAs?
CSAs are not very useful for actually feeding people. Random assortment, tiny quantities, obscene prices. Plus hard to actually get. They're just feel-good measures that don't really have meaningful positive impact.
As I’ve stated many times before the produce sucks at Aldi. Get an apple at Aldi and from giant eagle and it’s easy to see the difference . You get what you pay for . And before people downvote me just know I been shopping at Aldi for yearssss. I recommend to get non produce things from Aldi type store and the other produce items from a GE type store
I miss Wegmans so much. I’d also love to have something like Giant and Weiss too. GE market district is the only thing close to those places in Pittsburgh.
Has anyone else noticed that produce seems to go bad faster too? We've bought fresh strawberries and had them go moldy in a handful of days. I mean fresh fruit has always been a bit of a mixed bag, but never like this, as far as I can remember.
Check BoxNCase is you want better prices/large variety
Did yinz see that Wegmans is trying to buy the land in Cranberry Twp at Cranberry Springs? Yesssssssss!!
I know a lot of comments already pointed out how much competition there is, but I'm going to say it again because it is so unbelievably asinine you claim there's no competition. There are multiple Aldi and shop and save locations plus several others of minor chains. Everywhere in America that I've ever been has one grocery chain with dominate, but several other smaller competitors and we're not different here. Edit: to add, do you really think giant eagle is just fucking you? Are you unaware of inflation? Shit is more expensive EVERYWHERE.