Saturday, November 17, 2007

History

Well, I know you probably don't want to hear any more from me, but I thought it might be useful for both of us if I quantified how Giant's share of our grocery dollar has shrunk in recent years.

For almost 40 years, Giant received over 99 cents out of every dollar we spent on groceries. Just a few years ago, that was an average of over $100 a week.

This past week, Giant's share was just under 60 cents out of a dollar--$64.19 out of $107.57.

The other $43.38 went to Shoppers Food Warehouse. The vast majority of items we bought at Shoppers are things we could not buy at Giant. Items once sold at your Marlow Heights store, but discontinued there within the past few years.

When I wrote and complained the last few times, I had not added up the numbers and did not realize just how bad the situation has become--how much Giant has cut back.

It now appears that Shoppers is likely to stock a significantly higher percentage of what we buy than Giant. Even though Giant's Marlow Heights store is more convenient than the nearest Shoppers, it would seem to make more sense to start at Shoppers and only go to Giant for items Shoppers may not have, if any.

Posted 11/17/2007

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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.