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.

Reply from Giant Food - Dissatisfaction

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry to hear that you continue to be dissatisfied with Giant because we are discontinuing products that you regularly buy. I know that our customer care representative and store manager have provided you with the explanation of what we are doing and I understand that you do not find this approach works for your shopping needs.

I want to assure you that your comments have been shared with our merchandisers and management so they will know that you would prefer having a wider variety of products to having lower every day prices.

Thank you again for sending us your feedback.

Sincerely,

Eileen Katz
Manager, Consumer Affairs

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.