Giant Eagle Opens New Express Format

WENDY TOTH

PITTSBURGH — Giant Eagle opened the first of a new format, Giant Eagle Express, late last week. The Express format, located in the Harmar Township area outside Pittsburgh, is 14,000 square feet, about the size of an average chain drug store, and features a full pharmacy with drive-through window, 16 fuel pumps, and a small but adequate selection of grocery items including fresh produce and meat, an in-store bakery, a service deli counter and a large prepared foods cafe area, according to Brett Merrell, vice president, marketing, Giant Eagle. “We think we have a very full complement of services and products to help satisfy time-starved shoppers,” he said. Falling between the size of a traditional Giant Eagle grocery store and that of Giant Eagle’s GetGo convenience stores, this new format is meant to serve as a “local community supermarket,” he said. The company is at the forefront of implementing a smaller-format supermaket in the U.S., and the new model serves as a roadblock against key competition such as the U.K.'s Tesco, which will open convenience-oriented stores in California this year, Walgreens and the convenience store chain Sheetz, according to Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a business consulting firm based in New York.