Thursday, November 15, 2007

Reduced selection

Marlow Heights, 15 Nov 2007, 10:15 am

Since Giant advertised Marie Callender's dinners as being on sale, I had planned to stock up today on one of my favorites; the 16.5 oz. Creamy Parmesan Chicken Pot Pie.

Your Marlow Heights store didn't have any. In fact, there was no place for them in the freezer section even though they were there just a couple of weeks ago.

Also, my wife very much likes Bob Evans Bacon and Potatoes Brunch Bowls. Since she had a coupon, she was going to buy a couple today. But we couldn't find any, or any space for them, either where where they were last week, or where similar products seem to be this week.

Last week the frozen food department was being reorganized.

Did you take away these items we buy as part of that reorganization?

What's next? Will you keep on discontinuing items until there is nothing left in the store we want to buy?

You will not keep our business by lowering prices on items we don't buy, and getting rid of items we do want.

As I've mentioned before, and told one of your representatives recently, we have shopped at this store for 42 years.

Until the last few years, Giant got over 99% of our grocery dollar. That is no longer the case.

A few years ago we were spending over $100 per week on average at this store. Recently that has dropped to roughly $50-$60 a week.

Giant seems to be determined to drive their share of our grocery dollar down, down, down. I don't know whose business Giant or Ahold wants, but they certainly don't seem to want all, or even a majority, of our business anymore. From our viewpoint, Giant's declining market share seems to be self-inflicted and well-deserved. And that is a shame.

Posted 11/15/2007

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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.