Giant Eagle to Open New Tech Hub

Giant Eagle will open a 23,000-square-foot space technology hub in its hometown early next year to house its 150 current and new team members in a modern and collaborative workspace.

The multiformat food, fuel and pharmacy retailer said it anticipates the new space within the TechMill 41 development in Pittsburgh’s hipster Lawrenceville neighborhood will be up and running by early 2020.

The move to the new digs will provide a new home for Giant Eagle’s digital-focused workforce—which at present is located between its Fox Chapel headquarters and its satellite tech hub in San Francisco—to enhance its current digital offerings while expanding and developing new technologies.

“As the retail industry continues through this amazing period of technological change, we are extremely fortunate to call Pittsburgh—a city with a deep and growing tech talent pool—home,” Giant Eagle President and CEO Laura Shapira Karet said in a statement.

Karet said the new space reaffirms Giant Eagle’s commitment to attracting and retaining top technology talent to bolster the retailer’s ongoing digital transformation. “Our new office space in the heart of Lawrenceville will provide us with a geographic advantage to compete with regional, national and global companies that are vying for this unique expertise.”

The retailer’s evolving digital offerings will build on its existing platforms, which include Curbside Express online grocery ordering, Scan Pay & Go scan-as-you-go in-store technology and the Giant Eagle mobile app.

The company said its investment in the new tech hub will bring even more convenient innovation to its customers, who continue to embrace technology that enhances their shopping experience.

With about $9 billion in annual sales, Giant Eagle is ranked No. 24 on WGB’s and Kantar’s annual register of the nation’s Power 25 top food retailers. It has 460 stores throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, northern West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana.