Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Giant and your Marlow Heights store keep going downhill!

Marlow Heights, 24 Oct 2007

Giant and your Marlow Heights store keep going downhill!

Marlow Heights circular falsely claims you have bagged frozen Green Giant vegetables, 10 for $10. Sign on door says not the advertised vegetables are not available at Marlow Heights.

Marlow Heights circular says Pepsodent toothpast, 2 for $1. Store doesn't have any.

Asked about Formula 409 cleaner. "Not carried in this store."

I could list several other items I would have purchased if you actually still offered them for sale.

I talked to the manager. He said call the central office and gave me a phone number. I dialed that number at 9:35 am--and gave up after a dozen rings without an answer.

I've been shopping at this Giant for over 42 years--exclusively at this Giant until a few years ago when you started trying to run it into the ground by cutting hours and the merchandise I buy (or did buy).

Now, and despite the misleading commercial Giant is now running, the store is nothing like what it once was. Musical managers, advertised items not sold here, discontinued items, merchandise moved around from aisle to aisle almost weekly.

What's going on? Are you trying to kill the store? Or is this part of an Ahold plan to drive customers away from the Giant chain?

I suppose I could run all over the county looking for a Giant that actually sells the merchandise you advertise, or actually carries the items I used to buy at your Marlow Heights store, but I'm finding much of what the Marlow Heights Giant no longer carried at nearby Safeway and Shoppers stores that are much more convenient than the next nearest Giant.

Do you really want me to shop more at Safeway or Shoppers than at Giant? It certainly seems that way.

Having seen well-stocked Super Targets in the midwest, I'm beginning to hope that they will expand into the area near Marlow Heights. Their selection and well-stocked shelves certainly would be an improvement over what your once great Marlow Heights store has become.

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Selected links about Giant Food

Wikipedia's history of Giant Food Includes the following statement about the once successful culture Giant has abandoned:
There were several reasons for Giant's market domination during Danzansky's 13-year tenure as president. First and most important were the principles laid down by founder N.M. Cohen. Companies often have paper principles but Cohen enforced them. The first principle was uncompromising quality. In the upscale Washington Metro Area, this was a competitive advantage Giant's competitors were slow to emulate until the advent of Whole Foods Market many years later. The second principle was value. Cohen believed that shoppers wouldn't mind paying a bit more if they got their money's worth in consistent quality. The third principle was service. Cohen was rarely in his office. He tirelessly spent his days dropping in unannounced at his store and making sure that every customer was treated as a welcome friend. He would be known to bawl out an employee for refusing to give a customer a refund for a spoiled competitor's product.