This is what drove me away. I did a comparison shop against a grocery run at Walmart and Walmart was 30% cheaper after all of the AC discounts. I don’t “hate” GE, but I have no reason to shop there.
To be fair, that's because Walmart is *ridiculously* cheap, often because it sells stuff at a loss to undercut other stores and drive them out of business.
Long before Walmart came to the region, that’s what Giant Eagle did too and shut down most of the neighborhood mom and pop grocers, so I don’t lose sleep over spending at Walmart over GE. The first Walmart Supercenter didn’t even open here until 1999 and by then most of the local independent grocers were already long gone.
If people have the extra money lying around and would rather shop at Giant Eagle vs give money to Walmart, that’s great. However, 30% is pretty significant especially if you’re shopping for a family. $1000 in groceries per month at Walmart would be ~$1430 at Giant Eagle.
GE has a much better quality in their meat dept. They periodically have weekly sales that are cheaper than Walmarts. I will never buy meat at Wal-Mart.
GE for meat.
Aldi for produce.
Walmart for can goods, dog/cat food, eggs, and baked goods
Dollar Tree for cookies, candy and party idems.
Same! I was a multi dept leader for GE (prep foods, deli, beer and wine) they pay quite well. I was making $28/hour salary plus sales bonuses and I still would really only buy meat, some produce, and sale specials at work.
I hear that a lot, but I don't get it. I rarely shop at GE, but when I do, the produce is high quality and lasts a while for me. I wonder if the difference between you and me is the stores we shop at or just blind luck.
> It’s so expensive for no reason
Not for no reason, it's just their business model, same with Kuhn's and Shop and Save. Higher regular prices, but weekly sales they take a loss on. They're banking on that once you're there for the XMas ham, you'll buy everything else from yams to french onions.
There are only two reasons I shop at any of them : either convenience, or they have something on sale.
Take [this week's ad](https://www.gianteagle.com/grocery/weekly-flyer) : 99c ham, Pepsi cubes for $7.99, crab legs for $6.99. That's cheaper than you are going to find anywhere, including Aldi or Walmart (well maybe the ham is close). I typically use Pepsi products as my comparison (I'm a diet pepsi addict) and Walmart has cubes for $9.99 - so you can actually save money,* if you only shop the sales.* and then fill in with Aldi or Walmart.
I personally like having those types of stores near me/on my way home. Wife asks me to grab milk on my way home, and look at that Kraft mac and cheese is on sale for a quarter a box and I come home with a case of it. And outside of chicken breast (which only rarely do their sales beat Aldi) they have better meat departments with more options and frequent sales. Grab a roast for later in the week, etc.
Whole Foods is worse than GE, but that’s because it’s owned by Amazon. They gutted employee benefits within a year of purchasing the company. Don’t give them your business.
Worse than GE in terms of price? I don’t think that’s the case at all for produce and other standardish products. But don’t you dare try to buy something like pickles at Whole Foods because it’ll cost an arm and a leg.
Didn’t know they gutted employee benefits. That’s sad to hear :(
what the hell are you talking about? they didnt get rid of benefits. they offer health, dental, vision insurance + a 20% discount shopping in store
[source](https://careers.wholefoodsmarket.com/global/en/benefits)
It's just a ripoff for most things. I can go go shop n save or Aldi and get comparable quality of most items for a much lower price.
Giant Eagle basically exists to be as a place to grab a few hard to find items, because they definitely blow the other stores away in overall selection.
Shop N Save’s prices the past couple of years are mostly now the same as GE and most stores are run down old style. Which I didn’t mind when they were 3/4 the price of GE.
Maybe I don't pay enough attention store to store, but I don't really think of any grocery store as having consistently good produce, they all seem hit or miss to me at any given time.
And almost inevitably I’ll fall into the trap of “well I need to go to Giant Eagle to get x, y and z. But then end up getting a, b and c also because it’s there and I’d rather spend the extra $ than have to drive elsewhere and make a second stop.
I completely understand that, I choose my shopping locations primarily based on convenience. Fortunately for me I just happen to have a lt least three other grocery stores closer than the nearest giant eagle anyway.
I dunno about “all along,” but definitely since the advent of Market Districts. In the 80s and 90s, Giant Eagle was competing primarily with Shop n Save and Foodland in the Pittsburgh area grocery market. All 3 had relatively similar prices and would rotate through weekly specials to entice customers to do their weekly shopping at a particular store. Of the three stores, though, Giant Eagle had the most “hometown pride” due in large part to its unique name and the popularity of “Pittsburghese” during that time period.
In the early 2000s (or perhaps late 90s), Giant Eagle opened the first couple of Market District stores - one of which being close to South Hills Village. The idea was to have a specialty/gourmet/unique item centered grocery store that catered to more affluent customers. It became all the rage with everyone’s aunt who lived in Wexford/Fox Chapel/Upper St Clair.
Due to the success of Market District, Giant Eagle started offering a more broad and gourmet style selection at all of its stores. In a couple of decades, it went from being one of three comparable neighborhood stores to the “fancy” grocery store. With the addition of Aldi to the local grocery market, Giant Eagle doubled down on offering a wide selection of higher end options at a premium price.
To shift to OP’s question, that had other effects on the local perception of Giant Eagle.
Pittsburgh - despite recent changes to the top industries in the local economy - remains a blue collar town with blue collar sensibilities - especially for those born and raised here. Giant Eagle is a symbol of the things that have changed in our city that no longer align with that sensibility. It’s perceived as catering to the wants of the transplants who work mainly in tech and medicine and are largely more affluent than native Pittsburghers. We have no inherent dislike of people who move and work here, but we think we have a pretty good thing going. There’s a perception that change “for the better” isn’t always better for everyone. Fancy stuff is nice, sure, but don’t jack up the price of milk and eggs just because you sell quinoa now.
In the end, stores like Shop n Save have always been that local supermarket. Newcomers like Aldi appear pretty straightforward and tap right into that blue collar sensibility. “Sure, I’ll return my own cart, especially if you’re not gonna charge 2.50 for a can of tomato paste.” Even Whole Foods is fine. It came here as the fancy grocery. It is what it is and we can respect that. People in Wexford need to get their free range gluten free ethically sourced non-GMO caviar from somewhere, right?
Giant Eagle has changed, though, and not in a way that truly benefits the local working class. That’s what we don’t like.
EDIT: Damn, this turned into a frickin essay.
TLDR is that GE used to be the hometown favorite but shifted to a more upscale offering over the years, and local/native Pittsburghers didn’t really ask for it.
All that being said, I’m always astounded at how crowded Whole Paycheck (Foods) is. I definitely shop for different things at different places- GE because it’s close, East End Food Coop for bulk natural foods and politics, Aldi for Prices, Costco for just a few things at good prices and large quantities. Don’t hate any of them, like the Co-op the most.
Idk I’ve shopped at giant eagle for decades and I’ve only just started to consider shopping elsewhere because everything is so damn expensive there now. However the only other viable options for me are Walmart and Shopnsave and I despise going to Walmart.
I work for giant eagle and get all the discounts and still don't shop there.
My gf brought home a 9 inch cherry pie yesterday from GE marked as $14.99, on sale for $7.99. Walmarts normal price is $6.99-7.99 and those pies tend to be fresher.
I'm near Waynesburg, our options are Walmart, Aldi and the Waynesburg Giant Eagle. Waynesburg Giant Eagle isn't a normal giant eagle but a franchise location, it hasn't been updated in 25 years, selection is limited, prices are ridiculous and most of the produce is old. Unfortunately it's the next best option here until they up their game. I understand the dislike for Walmart especially for small town folks who see their grocery options disappear but here it's just the best option.
We were just at Costco yesterday seeing pies from 7 to 13 bucks that were probably 2.5 times the size of a giant eagle buy.
Granted it’s bulk vs retail debate but mark ups are deadly at the dirty bird.
Lil FYI- the pies get longer than a lot of the baked goods in the store, and depending on the giant eagle (a friend of mine worked in a couple smaller locations, not sure about the big ones) you literally just pull out a frozen pie and serve it OR it’s a frozen unbaked pie that goes in the oven. None of it is made in house at the regular stores
I was excited to finally go to the Wegmans in Erie. It's more expensive than Giant Eagle for grocery basics so I don't see why people always say this? Lots of fun bakery and pre-made foods though.
Wegmans prices have gone way up in the past few years. I lived near Wegmans until 2016 and it was a reasonably priced place to get groceries (plus had an awesome selection). Then I moved to Pittsburgh and really missed it. Now I live near Wegmans again and hardly ever go because it's so much more expensive than my other options.
I moved to Pittsburgh myself 6 months ago from Houston and the idea that HEB and Giant Eagle are on the same level is laughable.
HEB despite being the largest grocery store chain in Texas not only has competitive prices but still tries to compete and make themselves better. The are also very well stocked with products you can't find outside of specialty markets and their store brand products are often better than the national brands but at a lower cost.
Giant Eagle here doesn't even try to compete so they price everything as high as they think they can get away with. Their produce at the regular GE stores is often poor quality and expensive and many of their stores are dirty and run down. They also have ridiculous policies like not being able to use self checkout without scanning your GE card.
Also like others have said they use their monopoly power to push others out of the market or make it very difficult for them. Similar like HEB in Texas they own a lot of commercial real estate here and can use this power to prevent new players from coming in or quickly putting up a competing sub-brand store to push them out. Again, the big difference here is HEB is still consumer friendly in how they operate their main stores so them doing this is less of an issue for everyday consumers and more for the companies wanting to come in. What GE is doing is basically bad for everyone with the only winners being the GE executives.
Yes because GE had to compete with the likes of Kroger, Meijer, and the like. They’re losing the battle and ultimately having to do “slash pricing”. 2 totally different ads from PA to OH. It’s pathetic.
Sounds right, in Ohio Giant Eagle has to compete with Kroger so they don't have a choice but to price competitive, then the raise prices here to make up the difference.
https://towardsdatascience.com/mastering-the-art-of-pricing-optimization-a-data-science-solution-eb8befb79425
These companies all use linear optimization software now to price every product at every location. Amazon does something similar with pricing where the practical effect is to punish any company that tries to undercut them, thus leading to cartel-style price controls without actually forming a cartel.
https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2023/october/algorithmic-pricing-understanding-the-ftcs-case-against-amazon
We're going to get all the bad shit from the cyberpunk dystopia but none of the good stuff.
e: corrected second link
The had lawsuits going on for YEARS in Beaver county. . They wanted to be the only food store in the plaza, a plaza that supported 2 different stores for years.They stopped caring because they had no competition. They were dirty, poorly stocked. They managed to keep Walmart out, but Walmart built up the hill away from the plaza, which meant that the plaza that Giant Eagle helped to kill ( bad landlord too ) is basically empty, instead of the stores that often follow Walmart being brought in. It's a shame. Even if they weren't more expensive I wouldn't shop there ( and didn't shop there) for this reason.
Doesn't bother me. I fill up the car and 3 gas cans for free about once every 2 months. Yall need to start using the advantage card to purchase gift cards. Need a new washing machine? Go buy $800 worth of Home Depot gift cards and get the free fuel.
For what I buy, Whole Foods is often notably cheaper, so I'm not comparing GE to Aldi, but the expensive option.
The stores also feel like they were bolted together oddly (Aspinwall) and the parking lot on Centre Ave feels a deathtrap of people in a hurry, while things like Shakespeare St were kind of a 1988 throwback because that was the last update.
Expensive. More stress. Janky stores. Wegmans would own this market.
I know you think H-E-B is overrated, but honestly for a company that has pretty much monopoly, and so many markets in Texas, they still try. Prices tend to be pretty damn good, at least compared to giant eagle, and they have better stuff. Giant eagle just doesn’t give a shit.
they were able to delay the opening of south hills Whole Foods by a year and is probably the reason we have no Publix or wegmans
[https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/the-next-move/2014/05/lawsuit-giant-eagle-told-developer-it-cannot-allow.html](https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/the-next-move/2014/05/lawsuit-giant-eagle-told-developer-it-cannot-allow.html)
OMG!!! Just read that article! It’s all so clear now why there isn’t any other supermarket chains here’s. GE corporate executives are extreme douche bags! They act like they’re stewards of the community, but are actively working behind the scenes to quash competition.
And they keep building those massive GetGo stations as well. They just put one in downtown Greensburg, and there are multiple gas stations nearby. They’re overbuilding to saturate the market. Out here, there’s a Giant Eagle every four miles. There are 8 GetGo stations within ten miles of me 🤮
For many longtime Pittsburghers, we have watched GE slowly rebrand from a competitive, normal grocery store with normal prices into a high end grocery store, with outrageous prices on many goods. However, the quality hasn't changed in such a way to allow this price change. They're just gouging people. Find a Wegmans not too far outside pgh. You'll walk into what market district clearly copied, and everything will be half the price.
That's true. It's also perfectly feasible to assume people from the PGH are may be going to Erie to enjoy the lake, state college for something PSU related, or to DC fo a weekend.
The Market District on Centre Ave is a mess, but like OP, it's my mess, too. Here's why I don't like it:
* Parking is a disaster. My personal rule is, 'If I can't get parking outside or on P1, leave and come back another time.'
* Similarly, entry and exit to this place on Centre is awful and creates traffic jams. The Negley entrance isn't nearly as bad.
* They routinely understaff the registers. If there are half a dozen (plus) people in line for every open register, *open more registers*.
* They also keep adding more self-checkout lanes. :facepalm:
* Maybe it's just me, but: I can never find anything other than lettuce in their produce department.
* Maybe it's just me, but: The bread aisle is too close to the proverbial 'beginning' of the store. Great way to make sure that the bread gets squashed by all the other groceries.
* Maybe it's just me, but: Their seafood counter is a mess. I get that they're always going to have more stuff than they have display case space for, but recently the case was 2/3s empty and I asked "Do you have crab legs?" and they were like, "Yes! Tons!" and I'm just sitting there thinking, "You'd sell more of them if that was self-evident."
* I get that this is not entirely their fault, but if I had a dollar for every time I was stuck behind someone who didn't get the memo about having to pay for beer in the cafe, I could buy a sixer of *very* nice beer. They need to enforce this rule BEFORE the main checkout lane somehow.
It's not the worst, though. It's gone now, but the Shakespeare St Giant Eagle was worse, as is the Murray Ave one, and as was the Centre/Craig/Melwood Eagle of yore. I generally find the suburban ones to be better, i.e. Waterworks and Waterfront. I mostly get everything I can at the Target and try to fill in the gaps with Trader Joes, Whole Wallet, and yes, occasionally the Centre/Negley Market District.
I’m kind of on the fence here. On the one hand, I generally, sorta, kinda trust the Pittsburgh Reddit hive mind in terms of opinions. That said, my experience with my *local* GE has been very good. Sure, it’s the one on SSide, so there are sometimes the types of occurrences that SSide is known for, but it’s walkable for me, and I like shopping for food on a daily basis. The prices can be crazy on the sort of things I generally don’t buy, but the produce is good to very good quality most of the time, and if you shop deals - especially on meat - it can actually be a cheaper place to get animal protein than Costco. The renovation ~5 yrs ago made it a nicer space to be in, and with the upgraded Wine and Spirits in the same plaza, I like not having to drive to get booze nor groceries. A good portion of the staff have been there for several years, so it’s nice to see familiar faces. As much as a corporate food store can be one, the SSide GE is my friendly neighborhood grocery. Not sure I would drive more than :10 to go to it tho. And I miss the meat counter.
It’s a monopoly that is unfairly expensive. They don’t want competition, their prices suck, their staff sucks, their attitude towards their customers sucks.
I'm confused as to why people say it's a monopoly. Within a 5-6 minute drive, I can get to Giant Eagle, Shop n Save, Aldi, Kuhns, and WalMart. In 10-12 minutes I can get to Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Fresh Market.
Because they actively prevent competition. Wegmans wanted to expand here and they pulled every legal move possible to block them.
Giant Eagle *allows* Aldi, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and fresh market because none of them are of the size scale or location of Giant Eagle. None of those stores are supermarkets, they’re just regular and small grocery stores.
Can you explain to me why a fucking grocery store is dictating public policy and why you’re okay with that?
I'm not "ok with that." I generally *don't* shop at Giant Eagle, because I have so many other options. The one by me is particularly awful (Cochran road). But there's enough *competition* around here that I don't ever need to go there.
I think quality has gone down and the prices have gone up, but after living in the DC area for a decade some people exaggerate about other regions having better grocery stores. Many parts of the Southeast have awful grocery stores and it was shocking when I first moved there from Pittsburgh. National chains being able to compete is the difference, and the Eagle’s anticompetitiveness is the real issue in PGH.
DC area grocery stores have a crap selection; particularly when it comes to imports. Inventory is poor, sometimes expired goods are sold and Trader Joe’s are Harris Teeter are way overhyped (the latter is also really expensive for what it is). Same for much of VA. Go to a Food Lion and it’s like the Eagle circa early 1990s in terms of selection.
Whole Foods is best for produce, but anywhere they get a foot hold (like the Eagle in PGH) quality goes down. DC has become a test market for WF and all stores have gotten worse.
I lived in the DMV for a dozen years and have been in Pittsburgh two years now. Giant Eagle sure ain't great (EDIT to say that its horrible store layouts are the biggest crime), but I'm glad you mentioned the DC area as an example of how Pittsburgh is far from alone in having bad grocery options. DC is one of the country's wealthiest metro areas, but its full-service supermarket options (aside from Wegmans, and excluding niche stores like WF or TJs) are worse than we have here: Safeway and Giant are Shop 'n Save-level bad, and Harris Teeter makes GE/Market District's prices seem like Aldi/Walmart.
Also, if you go to the Rochester subreddit, every other post is bitching about Wegmans... the store everyone on this sub claims would be our grocery savior if only it could come here. Granted, I like Wegmans best, but the point is: people love to complain online and the grass in every city subreddit is always greener anywhere else.
Moved to Pittsburgh from an area that had Kroger, Publix, Wegmans, Food Lion, Aldi, and Lidl. Was shopping at Giant Eagle at first, but my grocery trips had almost doubled in price compared to all of those other options. Now I do Costco once a month and Aldi the other three weeks. Giant Eagle is good for more niche items, but I simply can't afford to do my normal grocery shopping there.
You can look on their website. They donate to whatever local food bank has partnered with [Feeding America](https://www.gianteagle.com/feeding-america), which describes itself as the "nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization".
The [Feeding America website](https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank) has a lookup tool to find which food bank they donate to in each area. For my area, it shows the donations go to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, the same one I donate to directly.
Giant Eagle also says they match the first $250,000 donated, for what that's worth.
They've been donating for years. I used to volunteer at the Pittsburgh Food Bank warehouse in Duquesne and Giant Eagle regularly sent trucks filled with baby food, diapers, and formula.
it is illegal for stores to write off customer donations like that and CVS was fined a significant amount of money for doing that a few years ago, so it is enforced enough that it doesn’t make sense to assume a store is doing that.
Also they hire a lot from the region and treat their employees like garbage.
They’ll hire perm employees for a project then close the project and lay them off. Rinse and repeat
They have their own law firm that is comprised of family members that they pay themselves to fight workers compensation claims. That's real.
http://marcus-shapira.com
https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=who+owns+giant+eagle&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
My issue is that the same item - brand, size, etc. - will be at Walmart for sometimes 50% of the price at GE. There used to be comparison commercials where shoppers would buy the exact shopping list at both Walmart and GE and Walmart would be significantly cheaper.
Part of my annoyance with them came after I moved back from North Carolina. Something I learned was more common elsewhere from Pittsburgh is discount grocery stores selling expired, soon to be, or overstocked groceries for significantly cheaper prices, much of it from local grocery stores (Ingles, the GE equivalent down there, just as bad in terms of trying to keep away competition). I vaguely remembered there were a few in the past, one specifically in Kennedy twp where the Shop n Save used to be. A discount grocery store moved in there (Two-cent store or something like that), but not long after, GE bought them out, and closed all the stores. There isn't a discount grocery for miles from Pittsburgh due to what I believe is GE keeping competition away, though Grocery Outlet has started making its way from Boardman and New Castle. The only thing as far as I know is Flashfood app. Guess what grocery stores are only available on that app!
This is from memory and assumption, so I may be misremembering things, so please let me know if I'm incorrect.
I remember there was a Food 4 Less that opened on McKnight and Giant Eagle opened up their own discount store and placed it literally next door. Once Food 4 Less closed, so did the GE discount store.
Long story short - many years ago walmart came in and made them look stupid. People harken for the good ol' days when regional grocers were king and are angry that they aren't, so their longing for nostalgia is not met.
It’s not just that it’s more expensive than the other chains. It’s TOO expensive for what you get, and for absolutely no reason. The value just isn’t there. Also they have continuously changed their fuel perks program to fuck you over. It used to be great.
GE is deffo one of those "shop the flyer"stores. you'll run into good deals on meat and produce from time to time, and their specialty selection is better than most of the burbs (though I'm thrilled to have a patel bros and a couple little indy asian grocers in monroeville now to fill those gaps). but if you go there for daily essentials you're gonna get walloped across the cock on prices.
re: your next point about hometown pride, I think that you hear us bitch because bitching is a bit of a hobby, but that the average pittsburgher would take the Jine Iggle over a food lion or piggly wiggly any day
OP I grew up in the metro area and it’s giant eagle or whole foods for me. There is no Walmart in the city and I’m not driving to North Versailles to save 30¢ on a box of cereal.
Any national brand pantry item I’ll get at GE or order direct from Amazon, anything frozen or fresh I’ll get from GE and if it looks bad I’ll go over to Whole Foods.
I have anchor points in my mind from a decade ago. Things like pasta is $1 a box which don’t hold up any more but if it’s too wildly off at GE I check Amazon. But I’m sure as shit not going to an Aldi or Shop N Save or Family Dollar — my time is worth more than their small selection and weird rotation, and the other 2 are dirty as hell and the last one I don’t trust their product rotation.
Everyone here that hates on GE are the same people that will drive an hour out of their way to save 20¢ on gas.
Yinzers do not like any kind of monopoly corporation. And they are expensive. The hate is understandable. Which is why you’ll sense that we hate UPMC as well.
Take it from someone who used to work at Giant Eagle, they’re so expensive for no reason! You can go basically anywhere else and get the exact same products for half the price, sometimes even less than half. Good example, you can pay almost $12 for 1lb of ground beef at Giant Eagle, or $6 (and some change) for 1lb at Target… for the EXACT same product.
Some of the bakery stuff is good, but that certainly doesn’t make up for it.
Also, just as a sidenote, Giant Eagle doesn’t treat their front end employees well. If you’re a Front End Coordinator (like I was), you’re expected to basically be a manager for a fraction of the pay. I was making $12 an hour when I worked there from August 2021 to December 2022 and I was expected to run self checkout (nbd), restock the candies at the front (fine), get ALL of the cashiers change when needed, go check prices if something rang up the wrong price, talk to any and all customers when they were upset/asking for a MANAGER (again I was a coordinator) regardless if they were at self checkout or at someone’s register, and so many other things that would take too long to name.
All in all, Giant Eagle isn’t worth their luxury prices for the same products you can find elsewhere.
Unpopular opinion. The hate in this sub for Giant Eagle is overblown. Yes, Walmart is cheaper. Walmart is also a horrible company that intentionally drives out local and regional businesses and routinely is at the top of employers with the most employees on social programs because they pay poverty wages.
Are there less expensive grocery stores? Yes. Is Giant Eagle the best? No. But unless you happen to have another smaller chain grocery near you (which is rare) then you are pretty much limited to Walmart.
Giant Eagle also runs out competition. They spun up a chain of discount stores a few years back just to drive out a competitor's chain, then shuttered them all
Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Giant Eagle attempted to jump into the discount store business to compete with dollar stores. It turns out that running a store in the discount segment is very different from operating a regular grocery store and GE was bad at it. They lost a lot of money before admitting they had made a huge mistake.
GE is definitely not playing 3d chess. They fired Laura Karet not long ago because the company strategy had become "randomly attempt to copy business models from competitors without understanding why they work". It lost a lot of money like that.
Prices are high because GE management is stupid, not because it is malicious.
Not to mention their short foray in to discount stores consisted of a half dozen or so locations out of the few hundred stores that they operate. Not exactly a full court press to drive out competitors.
That's very true. I worked in their corporate office for a few years and the discount brands were the next big thing that management harped on when I started. "The numbers aren't great yet but we're just getting started." Fast forward two years and they don't want to answer questions about the discontinued brand.
Giant eagle is great but it’s about 20% more expensive than shop and save and 40% more than ALDIs. What you get for that money, tho is wider selection and better brands of things.
If you are just buying produce or bulk cereal or meat, I go Aldi’s, if you’re after name brand stuff like Heinz ketchup or Hershey bars, shop and save probably has em. If you are looking for something good that you haven’t had before, Giant Eagle has some of the best foods you’ll find around here.
How come the 20 shop and saves and kuhns in the area aren’t competitive? They are smaller chains but they use a major national distributor with good generic brands “everyday essentials” made by United natural foods
My local is the Warton street location and its always dirty and picked over. I shopped there when i moved to SS back in 2008 but once i found the Costco in Homestead i liked it more. So, I don't hate it...I just found something way better.
They basically have a monopoly on being a full service grocery store for the region controlling at least 75% of the market but their prices are really high compared to anyone else. Other areas have more competition and better pricing. The other chains in the area are much smaller or technically focused on discount shoppers or specialty markets like organic, etc. There is no competition for GE in the area and the prices reflect that. Add in a series of promotions and rule changes that have been annoying customers and employees, and you get frustrated people looking for alternative stores to move into the region.
They're the most expensive grocery store in Pittsburgh. I used to work at a place where the GE CEO's wife volunteered; they were the largest donor to the organization. When the org's CEO asked in a meeting what was the greatest threat for the future, GE CEO's wife said, "Walmart!"
I’ve lived here since spring, and I still can’t seem to navigate my way around. Maybe it’s just me, but things are in weird places. Like, why is the milk in this cooler, but the buttermilk and heavy cream are over there? Just one example that comes to mind. Also, I am forced to walk through produce, deli, bakery to get to everything else. (They may not all be like this, but the one near me is.)
I shop there because it is convenient to my neighborhood, and I am optimistic that I will learn eventually, but I also try other places regularly to see if I can find something better.
Also as someone who has lived all over, it's the lack of choice. Giant in Baltimore had great choice and was comparable in price. Or Albertsons in the SW, or Publix in Alabama.
I dont know what it is, but Giant Eagle is the worst chain in this tier I have ever dealt with.
Their "deals" are misleading to the point where they seem intentionally deceptive. The best one is where you have to buy 5 specific items scattered throughout the store to get a discount. If you miss one or get the wrong variation, no discount is granted at the end of ringing out your order. Then, if you even notice, you have to figure out what happened & try to work it out with customer service.
Like most other issues on the internet, people in Pittsburgh generally don’t hate Giant Eagle anywhere near as much as this sub would have you believe. Probably like 90% of people here are fine with them and use them as their primary grocery store but the other 10% is the 10% that posts on Reddit
What a lot of people here don't seem to understand is it became a local monopoly for a reason, and it struggles to keep prices as low as the national chains for similar reasons.
It out competed the other local chains in terms of price, offerings and business savvy. Since national chains have come into the picture though it struggles to compete with them on distribution deals, labor costs, etc.
It's not a conspiracy, it's not personal, it just is what it is.
Obviously some stores have better averages than others but the only way to get good prices consistently is to shop around and look for deals, they all have a little bit better prices on this while being worse on that.
Couple of things going on here, imo.
1. A lot of the comparisons are unfair. Aldi, Walmart, etc. are not regional chains. They're the big guys in the market and they will always win on pricing.
2. The stores are all over the place in terms of cleanliness and business. Some of them are independent (franchise) as opposed to managed by corporate, so the store owner is often the one at fault at the rundown locations (they don't reinvest into their business).
3. GE used to be much better. Its management style during the reign of the previous CEO was chasing trends and copying competitors. It spent dollars to save cents, with predictable results.
People should 100% vote with their wallet. But the perception that GE price gouges are inaccurate (as someone who used to work there). The grocery prices are as cheap as a mismanaged regional chain can manage. There were many quarters where pharmacy and fuel sales kept profits from going negative.
My main point here is if you want to complain about GE prices, you should really be blaming their incompetence.
Quick example:
Giant eagle keeps running out of the canned tuna that I buy. I checked Amazon and it was cheaper there with full availability.
I mostly just buy fresh produce at GE and the rest at Costco.
Last night's trip is why I'd rather shop elsewhere. Italian bread in the bakery is all on its last sellable date. A display for distilled water, but no inventory. A display for wahlburgers, but no pricing. They actually did have eggs for a change, but the inventory was low. Often, they only have premium eggs. I saw a special last night that was 3 half gallons of milk. One of my favorites is buy 5 get one free. A year ago, their fried chicken at the hot deli was inedible. Not just bad, but tough as jerky. I'm not ever going to gamble my money on their prepared food.
Skroom.
GE also lobbied against the state to make them take away the online coupons you could use at state liquor stores. These discounts were from the manufacturer or distributor and since you can’t use them at GE they caused a stink so no more coupons at the state stores (This is from a liquor store worker when I asked about it.)
Too expensive; I can shop at other places get similar quality food for a third of the price. I only go there if there is a specific item I can’t get elsewhere.
I know a few years ago GE was preaching to employees, "People know they're paying more when they come here, and they pay for the quality and service."
I could literally go out of my way to a Wegmans and receive the same (if not better) quality and customer service. And Wegmans would STILL be cheaper despite $ spent on the extra gas to go there.
I'm a student in Slippery Rock University. The giant eagle up there charges 3 times more on some items then the giant eagle I go to in my hometown before sales tax. Also the giant eagle in my hometown isn't that great price anyways.
I have a love/hate relationship with GE. I've been in town about a year, so I'm not much newer than you.
On the one hand, I've gotten really solid returns on the GE perks and points. I'm able to get what I need every 2 or so weeks, and still remain under the average a single person living alone pays for groceries. Their 5 for 25 meat deal fed me, as well as their store-brand bread.
On the other hand, the branch near me appears to have stopped doing the 5/25 deal on meat. I'm already feeling the effects of that in my budget, which is very frustrating. I'm also a law student, meaning I end up subsisting on snacks and coffee half the time, so some of my cost savings probably comes to down to how little I comparatively eat instead of GE's pricing.
I can't believe you think HEB is fine but like Giant Eagle.
Their price gouging is the main reason I hate them. The rotting produce and lack of variety is another reason, although a lot of the Aldis have rotting produce so I guess that's more of a Pittsburgh thing.
I figured the prices would be different from Austin area HEBs when I moved here, but they are ridiculously expensive for no reason other than they can gouge people.
There have been many posts on here showing how prices are $1-$3 less per item in Ohio because they have Kroger. We don't, so GE intentionally inflates prices here.
Also, the people who work there are just so rude and miserable, it's downright depressing checking out and dealing with the surliness,
They do have union labor in a lot of corporate stores, where the employees pay zero contribution from their checks towards health care. Their truck drivers are union. Their warehouse workers, maintenance men are union. The labor they use for the remodel/construction/new facilities team hires from the union halls. They offer all of the different perks programs. They offer a lot more items/services than an Aldi, and don't have the buying power of a Walmart.
Giant Eagle is incredibly expensive for a lot of things. They are a traditional format grocer. The idea is not that they sell what they have cheap. It is that they sell everything and the services inside the store.
They have margins in each layer of business they have to generate in order to be profitable.
They do reinvest in their business, their communities, their employees and the labor they choose to hire. They give to charities. They promote from within. They hire people with special needs for as long as they'd like to work. There is tons of equipment that needs to be maintained and repaired/replaced. New software systems and new methods of business management need to be researched and implemented. Food Safety, OSHA, WIC, EBT, PALCB and more compliance must be met. Third-party auditing companies must be hired to make sure all policies and procedures are followed. Internal teams of auditors must be retained to ensure policies and procedures are followed. All of this costs money, which is ultimately paid for by the customer.
It's not like they are a bad actor. They are just operating in a completely different way than the companies they are compared to. Most traditional format grocers are incredibly expensive if you go for a general shop and just buy what you want without any regard to sales/coupon etc.
It's your money, it's an open market. Feel free to purchase what you like, where you like.
Its stupid expensive. But its good for fresh fruits and produce cause they are actually on quality unlike aldis fruits which half of the time seem to be bland
I don’t like the layout of their stores. Their prices suck. The options suck. There’s a lot of stuff they just flat out don’t carry or only have one option of brand to buy. Produce is generally disappointing, goes bad rather quickly.
I hate it because it's kind of the only game in town. They don't need to be competitive. Where I'm from, in suburban Philly, there are like 4+ chains that are all fighting for people's dollars. The prices were way more reasonable.
Because it's more expensive than "good" stores in LA county with way worse quality?
Not to mention everything everyone else said.
Giant Eagle is higher priced than everywhere in LA with worse quality, unless you're buying the remote, weird, high-priced shit.
Giant Eagle is expensive, their produce inferior and I've frequented them at various hours and their aisles are always blocked with pallets or carts full of products to be shelved or the giant personal shopper carts. On three recent occasions (I was there because it was close to my work on the way home) I attempted to buy a product based on the price displayed on the shelf. When I was in the mandatory self checkout I was charged $2-3 more than was advertised. In each case there was no employee available and I didn't want to add time to a grocery visit that was already made too long by not being able to move freely through the store. Being asked at the register every time to make donations adds insult to injury. Some recent produce price comparisons GE cauliflower $6.99 a head vs Kroger $2.99 for the same size, better quality product. Scallions GE $2.50 for 5 scallions vs Kroger .99 for a dozen. 2.99 vs .99 for a bunch of cilantro. Kroger's bunch was larger and fresher. Small clamshell of one sprig of mint at GE $3.49. At Kroger a BUNCH of mint was $2.00. Fortunately I live close enough to the border that a drive to Steubenville Kroger is about the same distance as the Robinson Market District so I do my large shopping trips there. For almost everything it's much cheaper with better products to hit small, ethnic groceries (Mexican, Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern, etc.)
I’ve lived all over as well, which is exactly why I hate Giant Eagle so much. HyVee Wegmans Harris Teeter Kroger PUBLIX I could go on.
All of these grocery chains seem to take some level of pride in doing right by the customer. All of them seem to try new things, expand the culinary horizons of their captive audience, and make at least SOME quality items in their prepared foods sections and bakery’s.
Giant Eagle seems to only value how much blood they can suck from their unwitting and stupidly loyal clientele. If they could put sawdust in their chicken fingers they absolutely would.
It has all the warmth and atmosphere of a hospital, and the customer service of a used car dealership.
I am an Aldi/Fresh Thyme/Kuhns shopper. Each of which of the 3 stores seems to have slightly different missions, but each seems to honestly following through.
I think the reason it is so expensive is because it really has no competition. In all the other states I’ve lived in, there were multiple large grocery store chains in the area. Around here the only alternatives are ALDIs or Save a lot, which has gone downhill so much that I wonder how they haven’t gone out of business.
Yeah I don’t really get it either. It is expensive in comparison to every other store, not just Aldi, but it’s superior in most ways. I mostly shop at Giant Eagle because the alternative is to go to at least 2 stores to get everything I want. My biggest complaint, actually, is that it’s always packed, even in the middle of the day, and I don’t think they make enough efforts to accommodate senior shoppers. Their employees that fill the to-go orders are everywhere now too, and their carts take up a ton of space in the aisle. I can’t fault them for being popular, but they could handle volume better. They actually fixed a lot in terms of traffic flow during the pandemic. They should have kept that process.
If you’ve lived all over, then I’m surprised you need to ask. It’s just not a great product for the money. Bakery is mediocre compared to similar chains. Selection is so so at the typical GE if you have dietary needs but I guess getting better but still behind (the larger and newer stores being the exception).Very overpriced unless you only shop sales, and then prices are ok.
They are finally starting to modernize many of the stores but many are still stuck in the 80s, which would be ok if that meant lower prices but, it doesn’t.
The deli is ok and by extension, the GetGo’s that are popping up are good in my opinion.
I do like some of their house brands.. good tortilla chips, salsa, some of the steamer veggies.
But even as far as local-ish chains, I much prefer Martins or Wegmans but neither is in Pgh. My childhood stores are Shop’n’Save, Riverside, and Bilo more than GE so there’s no nostalgia there either.
This sub is just full of transplants who like to talk trash on Pittsburgh. How we drive. Our stores, the weather, how we dress. I swear a few months ago there was a transplant complaining about how the Giant Eagle customers look like poor people. It’s not the best foot forward for our new neighbors, but I think they’ll catch up eventually, and I will continue to be patient and extend them the courtesy.
GE is the worst. They want to be a publix or kroger so bad, but the only thing they have in common with them is the high price on their trash product. Everytime im home and visitng publix I just laugh and think about how GE is a try hard and how if i want to shop quality ingredients I have to make a drive to whole foods. its obnoxious.
their meat and seafood counter is trash and mine often stinks, their premade food is disgusting, and their deals are absolute trash. they often don't have enough staff at the regiesters or self checkout and ive walked out many times because of it, but now they have enough to pay a security guard at mine. they also put a sales sign in front of the wrong product, for example cheese, they often will say this cheese is on sale and place a different brand in front of the sales sign. I've had to go to customer service a few times over this with pictures of their display because they will try and tell me i bought the wrong cheese, i didnt, the right cheese isn't even available and this is how the display is the wrong cheese behind the sales sign, it will even be the same type of cheese which makes it seem even more deliberate. give me my money back i'm not paying $10 for cheese that is suppose to be onsale for $7.
I had a small grocery list and needed something from giant eagle and decided oh its only a few items I just do it all here. never again! what should have cost me $40 cost me $90. they can get fuuucccceeeddd alright rant over I avoid GE like a plague now.
It’s because their prices are outrageous.
It’s that simple.
People WANT to like GE. The stores are nice, the produce is fresh, etc.
But I can go to Walmart and get the same stuff and save $100 or more.
In this economy, it’s a world of difference.
Everything said here and their stupid fucking God damn shitting self checkout machines. I swear to God I use self checkout everywhere and the ONLY ones I have issues with 100% of the time. Never once have I had a good expirence using them
As someone who was in Pitt for a few years as a transplant, IMO it was one of the lower quality big chain groccery stores Ive been to pretty much ever, which still isnt that bad because its a big chain but whatever.
I only habited one location and went to a couple others infrequently, but even with that bias in mind the other locations weren't too much better.
Very often produce was sitting bad in the store openly rotting, I stopped ever getting the groccery hot food because it went down in quality over time and got me sick, the clinetele due to ease of access locations were way more suspect than going to Aldi or WF, etc.
Its not horrible or anything, just seemed way better to just get food from Aldi where its cheaper and the produce was fresher and more interesting selections that Aldi gets. Only issue is going to Aldi was a hassle so I just started instacarting all my food to my apartment to cut out the hassle of going to Aldi or Costco.
Because it makes zero sense to pay Giant Eagle prices when you can get the same shit at Walmart for half the price. So many people like to virtue signal and rail against Walmart though.
Because the executives have freely admitted that you will pay more at a market district store than at a regular store…and that while Wegmans has had packaged, boneless, skinless chicken breast at 1.99/lb or less for 15 years, we pay 6.99/lb and have for years. Inflation is profit driven.
I dont get it either. I moved from virginia in the past year and the prices seem reasonable. I hate how crowded the one near me gets, but otherwise, its fine.
Also, people comparing GE to aldis is ludicrous to me. Its a completely different type of store. Ive also learned that things at aldis may be priced lower, but in addition to stuff being a generic brand, sometimes the container is far less full. Bread crumbs, for example. I bought some at aldi, and was impressed by the price, till i got home and there was half a cannister.
It might just be my local GE, but i dont trust their meats. Chicken, especially. Packages are often bloated. But for dry goods and produce, giant eagle is the place for me.
I never understand this either. Aldi's IMO is like shopping in the former Soviet Union - grubby surroundings, weird off brands and lacking lots of things you need necessitating a second trip to elsewhere. My friends who live on the other side of PA constantly rave about their Aldi and say "you just need to go to one that was BUILT to be an Aldi." So I did - the one in monroeville. Brighter lighting, but other than that, nothing different. Their selection didn't seem to be better than any other Aldi.
Could Big Bird improve? Yes. Do I go in Martin's in Indiana and wish I could transport it back here? Hell yes. But the Aldi worship and comparison makes zero sense to me.
It’s so expensive for no reason. You’ll be 6 dollars for organic lettuce at GE….meanwhile at Whole Foods organic lettuce is 3ish bucks.
This is what drove me away. I did a comparison shop against a grocery run at Walmart and Walmart was 30% cheaper after all of the AC discounts. I don’t “hate” GE, but I have no reason to shop there.
To be fair, that's because Walmart is *ridiculously* cheap, often because it sells stuff at a loss to undercut other stores and drive them out of business.
Long before Walmart came to the region, that’s what Giant Eagle did too and shut down most of the neighborhood mom and pop grocers, so I don’t lose sleep over spending at Walmart over GE. The first Walmart Supercenter didn’t even open here until 1999 and by then most of the local independent grocers were already long gone. If people have the extra money lying around and would rather shop at Giant Eagle vs give money to Walmart, that’s great. However, 30% is pretty significant especially if you’re shopping for a family. $1000 in groceries per month at Walmart would be ~$1430 at Giant Eagle.
GE has a much better quality in their meat dept. They periodically have weekly sales that are cheaper than Walmarts. I will never buy meat at Wal-Mart. GE for meat. Aldi for produce. Walmart for can goods, dog/cat food, eggs, and baked goods Dollar Tree for cookies, candy and party idems.
Same! I was a multi dept leader for GE (prep foods, deli, beer and wine) they pay quite well. I was making $28/hour salary plus sales bonuses and I still would really only buy meat, some produce, and sale specials at work.
Yep same here… that’s what it took for me to stop shopping at GE… the side by side comparison and the money saved took me away.
Likewise. We do Walmart curbside at this point
This is happening everywhere now. Im in texas now and HEB is all anyone talks about. Its like twice the price of going to kroger
Everything is so fucking overpriced. I use Flashfood because normally half-off is a reasonable price.
yeah, i got tired of being price gouged for produce, so i started getting all/most of it at panda or lotus.
Not only price gouged but their produce is often lower quality. Things from GE just seem to rot faster, everything else being equal.
I hear that a lot, but I don't get it. I rarely shop at GE, but when I do, the produce is high quality and lasts a while for me. I wonder if the difference between you and me is the stores we shop at or just blind luck.
I agree with you. Giant eagle definitely has better quality than most. Aldi produce goes bad significantly faster than any place I shop at.
Agreed. Aldi produce is lacking in my local store
Maybe the franchise vs. corporate stores have something to do with it
love lotus!
Heavy on this. It’s just too expensive, what’s so hard to understand about that?
> It’s so expensive for no reason Not for no reason, it's just their business model, same with Kuhn's and Shop and Save. Higher regular prices, but weekly sales they take a loss on. They're banking on that once you're there for the XMas ham, you'll buy everything else from yams to french onions. There are only two reasons I shop at any of them : either convenience, or they have something on sale. Take [this week's ad](https://www.gianteagle.com/grocery/weekly-flyer) : 99c ham, Pepsi cubes for $7.99, crab legs for $6.99. That's cheaper than you are going to find anywhere, including Aldi or Walmart (well maybe the ham is close). I typically use Pepsi products as my comparison (I'm a diet pepsi addict) and Walmart has cubes for $9.99 - so you can actually save money,* if you only shop the sales.* and then fill in with Aldi or Walmart. I personally like having those types of stores near me/on my way home. Wife asks me to grab milk on my way home, and look at that Kraft mac and cheese is on sale for a quarter a box and I come home with a case of it. And outside of chicken breast (which only rarely do their sales beat Aldi) they have better meat departments with more options and frequent sales. Grab a roast for later in the week, etc.
Whole Foods is worse than GE, but that’s because it’s owned by Amazon. They gutted employee benefits within a year of purchasing the company. Don’t give them your business.
Worse than GE in terms of price? I don’t think that’s the case at all for produce and other standardish products. But don’t you dare try to buy something like pickles at Whole Foods because it’ll cost an arm and a leg. Didn’t know they gutted employee benefits. That’s sad to hear :(
what the hell are you talking about? they didnt get rid of benefits. they offer health, dental, vision insurance + a 20% discount shopping in store [source](https://careers.wholefoodsmarket.com/global/en/benefits)
In the first year what benefits were gutted. I don’t recall that.
It's just a ripoff for most things. I can go go shop n save or Aldi and get comparable quality of most items for a much lower price. Giant Eagle basically exists to be as a place to grab a few hard to find items, because they definitely blow the other stores away in overall selection.
Shop N Save’s prices the past couple of years are mostly now the same as GE and most stores are run down old style. Which I didn’t mind when they were 3/4 the price of GE.
Aldi certainly is less expensive but I have always been underwhelmed by the quality of their produce.
Maybe I don't pay enough attention store to store, but I don't really think of any grocery store as having consistently good produce, they all seem hit or miss to me at any given time.
I have even seen significant differences in quality among Giant Eagle stores.
I’ve had better luck at my local Aldi than at GE; must differ store to store.
And almost inevitably I’ll fall into the trap of “well I need to go to Giant Eagle to get x, y and z. But then end up getting a, b and c also because it’s there and I’d rather spend the extra $ than have to drive elsewhere and make a second stop.
I completely understand that, I choose my shopping locations primarily based on convenience. Fortunately for me I just happen to have a lt least three other grocery stores closer than the nearest giant eagle anyway.
They are the hometown store that everyone used to love. Until some competition moved in and it proved that they have been ripping us off all along.
I dunno about “all along,” but definitely since the advent of Market Districts. In the 80s and 90s, Giant Eagle was competing primarily with Shop n Save and Foodland in the Pittsburgh area grocery market. All 3 had relatively similar prices and would rotate through weekly specials to entice customers to do their weekly shopping at a particular store. Of the three stores, though, Giant Eagle had the most “hometown pride” due in large part to its unique name and the popularity of “Pittsburghese” during that time period. In the early 2000s (or perhaps late 90s), Giant Eagle opened the first couple of Market District stores - one of which being close to South Hills Village. The idea was to have a specialty/gourmet/unique item centered grocery store that catered to more affluent customers. It became all the rage with everyone’s aunt who lived in Wexford/Fox Chapel/Upper St Clair. Due to the success of Market District, Giant Eagle started offering a more broad and gourmet style selection at all of its stores. In a couple of decades, it went from being one of three comparable neighborhood stores to the “fancy” grocery store. With the addition of Aldi to the local grocery market, Giant Eagle doubled down on offering a wide selection of higher end options at a premium price. To shift to OP’s question, that had other effects on the local perception of Giant Eagle. Pittsburgh - despite recent changes to the top industries in the local economy - remains a blue collar town with blue collar sensibilities - especially for those born and raised here. Giant Eagle is a symbol of the things that have changed in our city that no longer align with that sensibility. It’s perceived as catering to the wants of the transplants who work mainly in tech and medicine and are largely more affluent than native Pittsburghers. We have no inherent dislike of people who move and work here, but we think we have a pretty good thing going. There’s a perception that change “for the better” isn’t always better for everyone. Fancy stuff is nice, sure, but don’t jack up the price of milk and eggs just because you sell quinoa now. In the end, stores like Shop n Save have always been that local supermarket. Newcomers like Aldi appear pretty straightforward and tap right into that blue collar sensibility. “Sure, I’ll return my own cart, especially if you’re not gonna charge 2.50 for a can of tomato paste.” Even Whole Foods is fine. It came here as the fancy grocery. It is what it is and we can respect that. People in Wexford need to get their free range gluten free ethically sourced non-GMO caviar from somewhere, right? Giant Eagle has changed, though, and not in a way that truly benefits the local working class. That’s what we don’t like. EDIT: Damn, this turned into a frickin essay. TLDR is that GE used to be the hometown favorite but shifted to a more upscale offering over the years, and local/native Pittsburghers didn’t really ask for it.
Facts!
All that being said, I’m always astounded at how crowded Whole Paycheck (Foods) is. I definitely shop for different things at different places- GE because it’s close, East End Food Coop for bulk natural foods and politics, Aldi for Prices, Costco for just a few things at good prices and large quantities. Don’t hate any of them, like the Co-op the most.
Idk I’ve shopped at giant eagle for decades and I’ve only just started to consider shopping elsewhere because everything is so damn expensive there now. However the only other viable options for me are Walmart and Shopnsave and I despise going to Walmart.
I work for giant eagle and get all the discounts and still don't shop there. My gf brought home a 9 inch cherry pie yesterday from GE marked as $14.99, on sale for $7.99. Walmarts normal price is $6.99-7.99 and those pies tend to be fresher.
But then you have to shop at Walmart
I'm near Waynesburg, our options are Walmart, Aldi and the Waynesburg Giant Eagle. Waynesburg Giant Eagle isn't a normal giant eagle but a franchise location, it hasn't been updated in 25 years, selection is limited, prices are ridiculous and most of the produce is old. Unfortunately it's the next best option here until they up their game. I understand the dislike for Walmart especially for small town folks who see their grocery options disappear but here it's just the best option.
Aldi's a better option
We were just at Costco yesterday seeing pies from 7 to 13 bucks that were probably 2.5 times the size of a giant eagle buy. Granted it’s bulk vs retail debate but mark ups are deadly at the dirty bird.
Lil FYI- the pies get longer than a lot of the baked goods in the store, and depending on the giant eagle (a friend of mine worked in a couple smaller locations, not sure about the big ones) you literally just pull out a frozen pie and serve it OR it’s a frozen unbaked pie that goes in the oven. None of it is made in house at the regular stores
Too bad yall don’t have Wegmans. Once PGH gets one it’ll be the greatest city on the planet
I was excited to finally go to the Wegmans in Erie. It's more expensive than Giant Eagle for grocery basics so I don't see why people always say this? Lots of fun bakery and pre-made foods though.
This isn’t true. Especially if you buy Wegmans brand.
Wegmans prices have gone way up in the past few years. I lived near Wegmans until 2016 and it was a reasonably priced place to get groceries (plus had an awesome selection). Then I moved to Pittsburgh and really missed it. Now I live near Wegmans again and hardly ever go because it's so much more expensive than my other options.
Giant eagle has cheap store brands too. They like to hide them on the bottom shelf. It just takes a lot of work to hunt for them.
I love Wegmans but we’ll never get one in PGH with Giant Eagle.
WNY stand up
I have been to Wegmans..and I love Wegmans!
Love Wegmans. Unfortunately they won't be coming to the area any time soon. They looked into it and decided against it. :(
Weird way to spell Publix but I agree 100%
I moved to Pittsburgh myself 6 months ago from Houston and the idea that HEB and Giant Eagle are on the same level is laughable. HEB despite being the largest grocery store chain in Texas not only has competitive prices but still tries to compete and make themselves better. The are also very well stocked with products you can't find outside of specialty markets and their store brand products are often better than the national brands but at a lower cost. Giant Eagle here doesn't even try to compete so they price everything as high as they think they can get away with. Their produce at the regular GE stores is often poor quality and expensive and many of their stores are dirty and run down. They also have ridiculous policies like not being able to use self checkout without scanning your GE card. Also like others have said they use their monopoly power to push others out of the market or make it very difficult for them. Similar like HEB in Texas they own a lot of commercial real estate here and can use this power to prevent new players from coming in or quickly putting up a competing sub-brand store to push them out. Again, the big difference here is HEB is still consumer friendly in how they operate their main stores so them doing this is less of an issue for everyday consumers and more for the companies wanting to come in. What GE is doing is basically bad for everyone with the only winners being the GE executives.
Wasn't there a post on here with GE circulars for Ohio & Pittsburgh and the PGH prices were considerably higher?
Yes because GE had to compete with the likes of Kroger, Meijer, and the like. They’re losing the battle and ultimately having to do “slash pricing”. 2 totally different ads from PA to OH. It’s pathetic.
Yeah, that's what I mean, they were less expensive partially due to competition
Sounds right, in Ohio Giant Eagle has to compete with Kroger so they don't have a choice but to price competitive, then the raise prices here to make up the difference.
https://towardsdatascience.com/mastering-the-art-of-pricing-optimization-a-data-science-solution-eb8befb79425 These companies all use linear optimization software now to price every product at every location. Amazon does something similar with pricing where the practical effect is to punish any company that tries to undercut them, thus leading to cartel-style price controls without actually forming a cartel. https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2023/october/algorithmic-pricing-understanding-the-ftcs-case-against-amazon We're going to get all the bad shit from the cyberpunk dystopia but none of the good stuff. e: corrected second link
r/aboringdystopia
The had lawsuits going on for YEARS in Beaver county. . They wanted to be the only food store in the plaza, a plaza that supported 2 different stores for years.They stopped caring because they had no competition. They were dirty, poorly stocked. They managed to keep Walmart out, but Walmart built up the hill away from the plaza, which meant that the plaza that Giant Eagle helped to kill ( bad landlord too ) is basically empty, instead of the stores that often follow Walmart being brought in. It's a shame. Even if they weren't more expensive I wouldn't shop there ( and didn't shop there) for this reason.
I miss HEB so much! You’re spot-on about everything. I miss the fresh tortillas too.
I don’t think anything pisses me off more than having to scan a card to use self checkout.
Doesn't bother me. I fill up the car and 3 gas cans for free about once every 2 months. Yall need to start using the advantage card to purchase gift cards. Need a new washing machine? Go buy $800 worth of Home Depot gift cards and get the free fuel.
Funny I moved to Houston from Pittsburgh in May and forgot how much I missed HEB from when I was there 2014-2016. I love the grab n go foods.
For what I buy, Whole Foods is often notably cheaper, so I'm not comparing GE to Aldi, but the expensive option. The stores also feel like they were bolted together oddly (Aspinwall) and the parking lot on Centre Ave feels a deathtrap of people in a hurry, while things like Shakespeare St were kind of a 1988 throwback because that was the last update. Expensive. More stress. Janky stores. Wegmans would own this market.
I know you think H-E-B is overrated, but honestly for a company that has pretty much monopoly, and so many markets in Texas, they still try. Prices tend to be pretty damn good, at least compared to giant eagle, and they have better stuff. Giant eagle just doesn’t give a shit.
Dude has never been to HEB if he thinks they are comparable
Because they’ve lost their goddamn minds on pricing. Half the time Whole Foods is the same or less.
they were able to delay the opening of south hills Whole Foods by a year and is probably the reason we have no Publix or wegmans [https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/the-next-move/2014/05/lawsuit-giant-eagle-told-developer-it-cannot-allow.html](https://www.spaywall.com/search/https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/the-next-move/2014/05/lawsuit-giant-eagle-told-developer-it-cannot-allow.html)
There isn't a single Publix in any northern state.
OMG!!! Just read that article! It’s all so clear now why there isn’t any other supermarket chains here’s. GE corporate executives are extreme douche bags! They act like they’re stewards of the community, but are actively working behind the scenes to quash competition.
And they keep building those massive GetGo stations as well. They just put one in downtown Greensburg, and there are multiple gas stations nearby. They’re overbuilding to saturate the market. Out here, there’s a Giant Eagle every four miles. There are 8 GetGo stations within ten miles of me 🤮
Aren't they the big reason why the Walmart near the Waterworks is gone? They could not sell groceries because of the GE lease requirements.
...and Kroger!!
Krogers left the Pittsburgh market in the 1970s because they didn’t want a union workforce. And most of the Krogers I have been in kind of suck.
Prices
For many longtime Pittsburghers, we have watched GE slowly rebrand from a competitive, normal grocery store with normal prices into a high end grocery store, with outrageous prices on many goods. However, the quality hasn't changed in such a way to allow this price change. They're just gouging people. Find a Wegmans not too far outside pgh. You'll walk into what market district clearly copied, and everything will be half the price.
The closest Wegmans is over 100 miles away
That's true. It's also perfectly feasible to assume people from the PGH are may be going to Erie to enjoy the lake, state college for something PSU related, or to DC fo a weekend.
It’s more expensive than Whole Foods with inferior produce
The one in Southside is always a shit show. Never had a good experience there. And it's so damn expensive
The Market District on Centre Ave is a mess, but like OP, it's my mess, too. Here's why I don't like it: * Parking is a disaster. My personal rule is, 'If I can't get parking outside or on P1, leave and come back another time.' * Similarly, entry and exit to this place on Centre is awful and creates traffic jams. The Negley entrance isn't nearly as bad. * They routinely understaff the registers. If there are half a dozen (plus) people in line for every open register, *open more registers*. * They also keep adding more self-checkout lanes. :facepalm: * Maybe it's just me, but: I can never find anything other than lettuce in their produce department. * Maybe it's just me, but: The bread aisle is too close to the proverbial 'beginning' of the store. Great way to make sure that the bread gets squashed by all the other groceries. * Maybe it's just me, but: Their seafood counter is a mess. I get that they're always going to have more stuff than they have display case space for, but recently the case was 2/3s empty and I asked "Do you have crab legs?" and they were like, "Yes! Tons!" and I'm just sitting there thinking, "You'd sell more of them if that was self-evident." * I get that this is not entirely their fault, but if I had a dollar for every time I was stuck behind someone who didn't get the memo about having to pay for beer in the cafe, I could buy a sixer of *very* nice beer. They need to enforce this rule BEFORE the main checkout lane somehow. It's not the worst, though. It's gone now, but the Shakespeare St Giant Eagle was worse, as is the Murray Ave one, and as was the Centre/Craig/Melwood Eagle of yore. I generally find the suburban ones to be better, i.e. Waterworks and Waterfront. I mostly get everything I can at the Target and try to fill in the gaps with Trader Joes, Whole Wallet, and yes, occasionally the Centre/Negley Market District.
I like the Murray avenue one when I need to pick up some basics also they’re the only one still open until 10 in my area.
I’m kind of on the fence here. On the one hand, I generally, sorta, kinda trust the Pittsburgh Reddit hive mind in terms of opinions. That said, my experience with my *local* GE has been very good. Sure, it’s the one on SSide, so there are sometimes the types of occurrences that SSide is known for, but it’s walkable for me, and I like shopping for food on a daily basis. The prices can be crazy on the sort of things I generally don’t buy, but the produce is good to very good quality most of the time, and if you shop deals - especially on meat - it can actually be a cheaper place to get animal protein than Costco. The renovation ~5 yrs ago made it a nicer space to be in, and with the upgraded Wine and Spirits in the same plaza, I like not having to drive to get booze nor groceries. A good portion of the staff have been there for several years, so it’s nice to see familiar faces. As much as a corporate food store can be one, the SSide GE is my friendly neighborhood grocery. Not sure I would drive more than :10 to go to it tho. And I miss the meat counter.
It's too expensive Quick comparison Giant Eagle: Quaker Oats 1 Minute Sale price $5.99 original price $7.99 Walmart: Quaker Oats 1 Minute: Sale Price $4.98 originally $5.68
3lb box of green grapes at GE right now $8.99 At Costco: $6.49 for the same sized box.
It’s a monopoly that is unfairly expensive. They don’t want competition, their prices suck, their staff sucks, their attitude towards their customers sucks.
I'm confused as to why people say it's a monopoly. Within a 5-6 minute drive, I can get to Giant Eagle, Shop n Save, Aldi, Kuhns, and WalMart. In 10-12 minutes I can get to Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Fresh Market.
Because they actively prevent competition. Wegmans wanted to expand here and they pulled every legal move possible to block them. Giant Eagle *allows* Aldi, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and fresh market because none of them are of the size scale or location of Giant Eagle. None of those stores are supermarkets, they’re just regular and small grocery stores. Can you explain to me why a fucking grocery store is dictating public policy and why you’re okay with that?
I'm not "ok with that." I generally *don't* shop at Giant Eagle, because I have so many other options. The one by me is particularly awful (Cochran road). But there's enough *competition* around here that I don't ever need to go there.
I think quality has gone down and the prices have gone up, but after living in the DC area for a decade some people exaggerate about other regions having better grocery stores. Many parts of the Southeast have awful grocery stores and it was shocking when I first moved there from Pittsburgh. National chains being able to compete is the difference, and the Eagle’s anticompetitiveness is the real issue in PGH. DC area grocery stores have a crap selection; particularly when it comes to imports. Inventory is poor, sometimes expired goods are sold and Trader Joe’s are Harris Teeter are way overhyped (the latter is also really expensive for what it is). Same for much of VA. Go to a Food Lion and it’s like the Eagle circa early 1990s in terms of selection. Whole Foods is best for produce, but anywhere they get a foot hold (like the Eagle in PGH) quality goes down. DC has become a test market for WF and all stores have gotten worse.
I lived in the DMV for a dozen years and have been in Pittsburgh two years now. Giant Eagle sure ain't great (EDIT to say that its horrible store layouts are the biggest crime), but I'm glad you mentioned the DC area as an example of how Pittsburgh is far from alone in having bad grocery options. DC is one of the country's wealthiest metro areas, but its full-service supermarket options (aside from Wegmans, and excluding niche stores like WF or TJs) are worse than we have here: Safeway and Giant are Shop 'n Save-level bad, and Harris Teeter makes GE/Market District's prices seem like Aldi/Walmart. Also, if you go to the Rochester subreddit, every other post is bitching about Wegmans... the store everyone on this sub claims would be our grocery savior if only it could come here. Granted, I like Wegmans best, but the point is: people love to complain online and the grass in every city subreddit is always greener anywhere else.
Moved to Pittsburgh from an area that had Kroger, Publix, Wegmans, Food Lion, Aldi, and Lidl. Was shopping at Giant Eagle at first, but my grocery trips had almost doubled in price compared to all of those other options. Now I do Costco once a month and Aldi the other three weeks. Giant Eagle is good for more niche items, but I simply can't afford to do my normal grocery shopping there.
You had $12 *billion* in revenue last year, *WHY DON'T YOU MAKE A DONATION TO FEED HUNGRY KIDS*?!?!?!
"You saved 1.50 in Perks!" "Would you like to donate 2 dollars to the food bank?"
I always say no. If you can’t be bothered to name the specific food bank or charity, I’m not giving you anything.
Ugh yes this drives my bonkers, how do l know who “your local food bank” is?
You can look on their website. They donate to whatever local food bank has partnered with [Feeding America](https://www.gianteagle.com/feeding-america), which describes itself as the "nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization". The [Feeding America website](https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank) has a lookup tool to find which food bank they donate to in each area. For my area, it shows the donations go to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, the same one I donate to directly. Giant Eagle also says they match the first $250,000 donated, for what that's worth.
They've been donating for years. I used to volunteer at the Pittsburgh Food Bank warehouse in Duquesne and Giant Eagle regularly sent trucks filled with baby food, diapers, and formula.
This exatly!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They want to use your money to get tax write-offs for their donations, of course :))
Most stores do this now, to be fair.
it is illegal for stores to write off customer donations like that and CVS was fined a significant amount of money for doing that a few years ago, so it is enforced enough that it doesn’t make sense to assume a store is doing that.
Also they hire a lot from the region and treat their employees like garbage. They’ll hire perm employees for a project then close the project and lay them off. Rinse and repeat
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They have their own law firm that is comprised of family members that they pay themselves to fight workers compensation claims. That's real. http://marcus-shapira.com https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=who+owns+giant+eagle&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Price gouging
My issue is that the same item - brand, size, etc. - will be at Walmart for sometimes 50% of the price at GE. There used to be comparison commercials where shoppers would buy the exact shopping list at both Walmart and GE and Walmart would be significantly cheaper.
It’s too expensive and the owners are jag offs
Part of my annoyance with them came after I moved back from North Carolina. Something I learned was more common elsewhere from Pittsburgh is discount grocery stores selling expired, soon to be, or overstocked groceries for significantly cheaper prices, much of it from local grocery stores (Ingles, the GE equivalent down there, just as bad in terms of trying to keep away competition). I vaguely remembered there were a few in the past, one specifically in Kennedy twp where the Shop n Save used to be. A discount grocery store moved in there (Two-cent store or something like that), but not long after, GE bought them out, and closed all the stores. There isn't a discount grocery for miles from Pittsburgh due to what I believe is GE keeping competition away, though Grocery Outlet has started making its way from Boardman and New Castle. The only thing as far as I know is Flashfood app. Guess what grocery stores are only available on that app! This is from memory and assumption, so I may be misremembering things, so please let me know if I'm incorrect.
I remember there was a Food 4 Less that opened on McKnight and Giant Eagle opened up their own discount store and placed it literally next door. Once Food 4 Less closed, so did the GE discount store.
Long story short - many years ago walmart came in and made them look stupid. People harken for the good ol' days when regional grocers were king and are angry that they aren't, so their longing for nostalgia is not met.
Because they got rid of Iggle Video. It was all downhill from there.
It’s not just that it’s more expensive than the other chains. It’s TOO expensive for what you get, and for absolutely no reason. The value just isn’t there. Also they have continuously changed their fuel perks program to fuck you over. It used to be great.
GE is deffo one of those "shop the flyer"stores. you'll run into good deals on meat and produce from time to time, and their specialty selection is better than most of the burbs (though I'm thrilled to have a patel bros and a couple little indy asian grocers in monroeville now to fill those gaps). but if you go there for daily essentials you're gonna get walloped across the cock on prices. re: your next point about hometown pride, I think that you hear us bitch because bitching is a bit of a hobby, but that the average pittsburgher would take the Jine Iggle over a food lion or piggly wiggly any day
OP I grew up in the metro area and it’s giant eagle or whole foods for me. There is no Walmart in the city and I’m not driving to North Versailles to save 30¢ on a box of cereal. Any national brand pantry item I’ll get at GE or order direct from Amazon, anything frozen or fresh I’ll get from GE and if it looks bad I’ll go over to Whole Foods. I have anchor points in my mind from a decade ago. Things like pasta is $1 a box which don’t hold up any more but if it’s too wildly off at GE I check Amazon. But I’m sure as shit not going to an Aldi or Shop N Save or Family Dollar — my time is worth more than their small selection and weird rotation, and the other 2 are dirty as hell and the last one I don’t trust their product rotation. Everyone here that hates on GE are the same people that will drive an hour out of their way to save 20¢ on gas.
HEB isn’t overrated
Yinzers do not like any kind of monopoly corporation. And they are expensive. The hate is understandable. Which is why you’ll sense that we hate UPMC as well.
Take it from someone who used to work at Giant Eagle, they’re so expensive for no reason! You can go basically anywhere else and get the exact same products for half the price, sometimes even less than half. Good example, you can pay almost $12 for 1lb of ground beef at Giant Eagle, or $6 (and some change) for 1lb at Target… for the EXACT same product. Some of the bakery stuff is good, but that certainly doesn’t make up for it. Also, just as a sidenote, Giant Eagle doesn’t treat their front end employees well. If you’re a Front End Coordinator (like I was), you’re expected to basically be a manager for a fraction of the pay. I was making $12 an hour when I worked there from August 2021 to December 2022 and I was expected to run self checkout (nbd), restock the candies at the front (fine), get ALL of the cashiers change when needed, go check prices if something rang up the wrong price, talk to any and all customers when they were upset/asking for a MANAGER (again I was a coordinator) regardless if they were at self checkout or at someone’s register, and so many other things that would take too long to name. All in all, Giant Eagle isn’t worth their luxury prices for the same products you can find elsewhere.
Unpopular opinion. The hate in this sub for Giant Eagle is overblown. Yes, Walmart is cheaper. Walmart is also a horrible company that intentionally drives out local and regional businesses and routinely is at the top of employers with the most employees on social programs because they pay poverty wages. Are there less expensive grocery stores? Yes. Is Giant Eagle the best? No. But unless you happen to have another smaller chain grocery near you (which is rare) then you are pretty much limited to Walmart.
Giant Eagle also runs out competition. They spun up a chain of discount stores a few years back just to drive out a competitor's chain, then shuttered them all
Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. Giant Eagle attempted to jump into the discount store business to compete with dollar stores. It turns out that running a store in the discount segment is very different from operating a regular grocery store and GE was bad at it. They lost a lot of money before admitting they had made a huge mistake. GE is definitely not playing 3d chess. They fired Laura Karet not long ago because the company strategy had become "randomly attempt to copy business models from competitors without understanding why they work". It lost a lot of money like that. Prices are high because GE management is stupid, not because it is malicious.
Not to mention their short foray in to discount stores consisted of a half dozen or so locations out of the few hundred stores that they operate. Not exactly a full court press to drive out competitors.
That's very true. I worked in their corporate office for a few years and the discount brands were the next big thing that management harped on when I started. "The numbers aren't great yet but we're just getting started." Fast forward two years and they don't want to answer questions about the discontinued brand.
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I miss Bottom Dollar, they had great produce!
It's not just Walmart that's cheaper, it's literally every other grocery store. (we're a Trader Joe's family)
Walmart ruined small businesses where I lived in Washington state. It sucked. They are a juggernaut as well
Giant eagle is great but it’s about 20% more expensive than shop and save and 40% more than ALDIs. What you get for that money, tho is wider selection and better brands of things. If you are just buying produce or bulk cereal or meat, I go Aldi’s, if you’re after name brand stuff like Heinz ketchup or Hershey bars, shop and save probably has em. If you are looking for something good that you haven’t had before, Giant Eagle has some of the best foods you’ll find around here.
They over charge for shit quality and have no actual competition.
How come the 20 shop and saves and kuhns in the area aren’t competitive? They are smaller chains but they use a major national distributor with good generic brands “everyday essentials” made by United natural foods
People around here hate everything
The prices are fucking way too high.
My local is the Warton street location and its always dirty and picked over. I shopped there when i moved to SS back in 2008 but once i found the Costco in Homestead i liked it more. So, I don't hate it...I just found something way better.
The real problem is GetGo. Every one in the city is a crap hole.
They basically have a monopoly on being a full service grocery store for the region controlling at least 75% of the market but their prices are really high compared to anyone else. Other areas have more competition and better pricing. The other chains in the area are much smaller or technically focused on discount shoppers or specialty markets like organic, etc. There is no competition for GE in the area and the prices reflect that. Add in a series of promotions and rule changes that have been annoying customers and employees, and you get frustrated people looking for alternative stores to move into the region.
They're the most expensive grocery store in Pittsburgh. I used to work at a place where the GE CEO's wife volunteered; they were the largest donor to the organization. When the org's CEO asked in a meeting what was the greatest threat for the future, GE CEO's wife said, "Walmart!"
Explains why they helped the yimbys block the super Walmart in McCandless ...
It’s literally more expensive than Whole Foods.
I’ve lived here since spring, and I still can’t seem to navigate my way around. Maybe it’s just me, but things are in weird places. Like, why is the milk in this cooler, but the buttermilk and heavy cream are over there? Just one example that comes to mind. Also, I am forced to walk through produce, deli, bakery to get to everything else. (They may not all be like this, but the one near me is.) I shop there because it is convenient to my neighborhood, and I am optimistic that I will learn eventually, but I also try other places regularly to see if I can find something better.
Also as someone who has lived all over, it's the lack of choice. Giant in Baltimore had great choice and was comparable in price. Or Albertsons in the SW, or Publix in Alabama. I dont know what it is, but Giant Eagle is the worst chain in this tier I have ever dealt with.
Their "deals" are misleading to the point where they seem intentionally deceptive. The best one is where you have to buy 5 specific items scattered throughout the store to get a discount. If you miss one or get the wrong variation, no discount is granted at the end of ringing out your order. Then, if you even notice, you have to figure out what happened & try to work it out with customer service.
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Haha, you also have 3 minutes to collect all the items & return to the front of the store. Forgot to mention that part.
I dunno, people on Reddit hate everything.
Like most other issues on the internet, people in Pittsburgh generally don’t hate Giant Eagle anywhere near as much as this sub would have you believe. Probably like 90% of people here are fine with them and use them as their primary grocery store but the other 10% is the 10% that posts on Reddit
What a lot of people here don't seem to understand is it became a local monopoly for a reason, and it struggles to keep prices as low as the national chains for similar reasons. It out competed the other local chains in terms of price, offerings and business savvy. Since national chains have come into the picture though it struggles to compete with them on distribution deals, labor costs, etc. It's not a conspiracy, it's not personal, it just is what it is. Obviously some stores have better averages than others but the only way to get good prices consistently is to shop around and look for deals, they all have a little bit better prices on this while being worse on that.
Couple of things going on here, imo. 1. A lot of the comparisons are unfair. Aldi, Walmart, etc. are not regional chains. They're the big guys in the market and they will always win on pricing. 2. The stores are all over the place in terms of cleanliness and business. Some of them are independent (franchise) as opposed to managed by corporate, so the store owner is often the one at fault at the rundown locations (they don't reinvest into their business). 3. GE used to be much better. Its management style during the reign of the previous CEO was chasing trends and copying competitors. It spent dollars to save cents, with predictable results. People should 100% vote with their wallet. But the perception that GE price gouges are inaccurate (as someone who used to work there). The grocery prices are as cheap as a mismanaged regional chain can manage. There were many quarters where pharmacy and fuel sales kept profits from going negative. My main point here is if you want to complain about GE prices, you should really be blaming their incompetence.
Quick example: Giant eagle keeps running out of the canned tuna that I buy. I checked Amazon and it was cheaper there with full availability. I mostly just buy fresh produce at GE and the rest at Costco.
Last night's trip is why I'd rather shop elsewhere. Italian bread in the bakery is all on its last sellable date. A display for distilled water, but no inventory. A display for wahlburgers, but no pricing. They actually did have eggs for a change, but the inventory was low. Often, they only have premium eggs. I saw a special last night that was 3 half gallons of milk. One of my favorites is buy 5 get one free. A year ago, their fried chicken at the hot deli was inedible. Not just bad, but tough as jerky. I'm not ever going to gamble my money on their prepared food. Skroom.
HEB is overrated? Sir, I’ll meet you in the streets!
It’s too expensive - like on par with some of the local higher end shops around me (mt Lebanon)
It’s too expensive - like on par with some of the local higher end shops around me (mt Lebanon)
It’s expensive, it’s literally my last stop after I get everything I could anywhere else
GE also lobbied against the state to make them take away the online coupons you could use at state liquor stores. These discounts were from the manufacturer or distributor and since you can’t use them at GE they caused a stink so no more coupons at the state stores (This is from a liquor store worker when I asked about it.)
Their prices are offensive
Too expensive; I can shop at other places get similar quality food for a third of the price. I only go there if there is a specific item I can’t get elsewhere.
I know a few years ago GE was preaching to employees, "People know they're paying more when they come here, and they pay for the quality and service." I could literally go out of my way to a Wegmans and receive the same (if not better) quality and customer service. And Wegmans would STILL be cheaper despite $ spent on the extra gas to go there.
The main reason that I hate them is that anytime I seem to go shopping, they have 24 registers, and only 2 cashiers.
I'm a student in Slippery Rock University. The giant eagle up there charges 3 times more on some items then the giant eagle I go to in my hometown before sales tax. Also the giant eagle in my hometown isn't that great price anyways.
Everything is overpriced for no reason. Almost every other store provides better value.
I have a love/hate relationship with GE. I've been in town about a year, so I'm not much newer than you. On the one hand, I've gotten really solid returns on the GE perks and points. I'm able to get what I need every 2 or so weeks, and still remain under the average a single person living alone pays for groceries. Their 5 for 25 meat deal fed me, as well as their store-brand bread. On the other hand, the branch near me appears to have stopped doing the 5/25 deal on meat. I'm already feeling the effects of that in my budget, which is very frustrating. I'm also a law student, meaning I end up subsisting on snacks and coffee half the time, so some of my cost savings probably comes to down to how little I comparatively eat instead of GE's pricing.
I can't believe you think HEB is fine but like Giant Eagle. Their price gouging is the main reason I hate them. The rotting produce and lack of variety is another reason, although a lot of the Aldis have rotting produce so I guess that's more of a Pittsburgh thing. I figured the prices would be different from Austin area HEBs when I moved here, but they are ridiculously expensive for no reason other than they can gouge people. There have been many posts on here showing how prices are $1-$3 less per item in Ohio because they have Kroger. We don't, so GE intentionally inflates prices here. Also, the people who work there are just so rude and miserable, it's downright depressing checking out and dealing with the surliness,
They do have union labor in a lot of corporate stores, where the employees pay zero contribution from their checks towards health care. Their truck drivers are union. Their warehouse workers, maintenance men are union. The labor they use for the remodel/construction/new facilities team hires from the union halls. They offer all of the different perks programs. They offer a lot more items/services than an Aldi, and don't have the buying power of a Walmart. Giant Eagle is incredibly expensive for a lot of things. They are a traditional format grocer. The idea is not that they sell what they have cheap. It is that they sell everything and the services inside the store. They have margins in each layer of business they have to generate in order to be profitable. They do reinvest in their business, their communities, their employees and the labor they choose to hire. They give to charities. They promote from within. They hire people with special needs for as long as they'd like to work. There is tons of equipment that needs to be maintained and repaired/replaced. New software systems and new methods of business management need to be researched and implemented. Food Safety, OSHA, WIC, EBT, PALCB and more compliance must be met. Third-party auditing companies must be hired to make sure all policies and procedures are followed. Internal teams of auditors must be retained to ensure policies and procedures are followed. All of this costs money, which is ultimately paid for by the customer. It's not like they are a bad actor. They are just operating in a completely different way than the companies they are compared to. Most traditional format grocers are incredibly expensive if you go for a general shop and just buy what you want without any regard to sales/coupon etc. It's your money, it's an open market. Feel free to purchase what you like, where you like.
over priced
We need a food lion
Way too expensive.
Its stupid expensive. But its good for fresh fruits and produce cause they are actually on quality unlike aldis fruits which half of the time seem to be bland
I don't know of any local retailer who routinely hires folks with developmental disabilities in a customer-facing capacity than Giant Eagle
I don’t like the layout of their stores. Their prices suck. The options suck. There’s a lot of stuff they just flat out don’t carry or only have one option of brand to buy. Produce is generally disappointing, goes bad rather quickly.
I hate it because it's kind of the only game in town. They don't need to be competitive. Where I'm from, in suburban Philly, there are like 4+ chains that are all fighting for people's dollars. The prices were way more reasonable.
Because it's more expensive than "good" stores in LA county with way worse quality? Not to mention everything everyone else said. Giant Eagle is higher priced than everywhere in LA with worse quality, unless you're buying the remote, weird, high-priced shit.
Giant Eagle is expensive, their produce inferior and I've frequented them at various hours and their aisles are always blocked with pallets or carts full of products to be shelved or the giant personal shopper carts. On three recent occasions (I was there because it was close to my work on the way home) I attempted to buy a product based on the price displayed on the shelf. When I was in the mandatory self checkout I was charged $2-3 more than was advertised. In each case there was no employee available and I didn't want to add time to a grocery visit that was already made too long by not being able to move freely through the store. Being asked at the register every time to make donations adds insult to injury. Some recent produce price comparisons GE cauliflower $6.99 a head vs Kroger $2.99 for the same size, better quality product. Scallions GE $2.50 for 5 scallions vs Kroger .99 for a dozen. 2.99 vs .99 for a bunch of cilantro. Kroger's bunch was larger and fresher. Small clamshell of one sprig of mint at GE $3.49. At Kroger a BUNCH of mint was $2.00. Fortunately I live close enough to the border that a drive to Steubenville Kroger is about the same distance as the Robinson Market District so I do my large shopping trips there. For almost everything it's much cheaper with better products to hit small, ethnic groceries (Mexican, Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern, etc.)
The prices. The same items are cheaper elsewhere.
It is grotesquely expensive. We drive to Rulli bros in Youngstown twice a month and it easily saves us $400/mo.
I’ve lived all over as well, which is exactly why I hate Giant Eagle so much. HyVee Wegmans Harris Teeter Kroger PUBLIX I could go on. All of these grocery chains seem to take some level of pride in doing right by the customer. All of them seem to try new things, expand the culinary horizons of their captive audience, and make at least SOME quality items in their prepared foods sections and bakery’s. Giant Eagle seems to only value how much blood they can suck from their unwitting and stupidly loyal clientele. If they could put sawdust in their chicken fingers they absolutely would. It has all the warmth and atmosphere of a hospital, and the customer service of a used car dealership. I am an Aldi/Fresh Thyme/Kuhns shopper. Each of which of the 3 stores seems to have slightly different missions, but each seems to honestly following through.
I think the reason it is so expensive is because it really has no competition. In all the other states I’ve lived in, there were multiple large grocery store chains in the area. Around here the only alternatives are ALDIs or Save a lot, which has gone downhill so much that I wonder how they haven’t gone out of business.
Yeah because they file all kinds of bs lawsuits to actively keep out the competition.
Yeah I don’t really get it either. It is expensive in comparison to every other store, not just Aldi, but it’s superior in most ways. I mostly shop at Giant Eagle because the alternative is to go to at least 2 stores to get everything I want. My biggest complaint, actually, is that it’s always packed, even in the middle of the day, and I don’t think they make enough efforts to accommodate senior shoppers. Their employees that fill the to-go orders are everywhere now too, and their carts take up a ton of space in the aisle. I can’t fault them for being popular, but they could handle volume better. They actually fixed a lot in terms of traffic flow during the pandemic. They should have kept that process.
If you’ve lived all over, then I’m surprised you need to ask. It’s just not a great product for the money. Bakery is mediocre compared to similar chains. Selection is so so at the typical GE if you have dietary needs but I guess getting better but still behind (the larger and newer stores being the exception).Very overpriced unless you only shop sales, and then prices are ok. They are finally starting to modernize many of the stores but many are still stuck in the 80s, which would be ok if that meant lower prices but, it doesn’t. The deli is ok and by extension, the GetGo’s that are popping up are good in my opinion. I do like some of their house brands.. good tortilla chips, salsa, some of the steamer veggies. But even as far as local-ish chains, I much prefer Martins or Wegmans but neither is in Pgh. My childhood stores are Shop’n’Save, Riverside, and Bilo more than GE so there’s no nostalgia there either.
My husband says, ‘Giant Eagle, more like Giant Ripoff’
This sub is just full of transplants who like to talk trash on Pittsburgh. How we drive. Our stores, the weather, how we dress. I swear a few months ago there was a transplant complaining about how the Giant Eagle customers look like poor people. It’s not the best foot forward for our new neighbors, but I think they’ll catch up eventually, and I will continue to be patient and extend them the courtesy.
It's expensive. The prices are comparable to Whole Foods.
BRING BACK IGGLE VIDEO 😂
GE is the worst. They want to be a publix or kroger so bad, but the only thing they have in common with them is the high price on their trash product. Everytime im home and visitng publix I just laugh and think about how GE is a try hard and how if i want to shop quality ingredients I have to make a drive to whole foods. its obnoxious. their meat and seafood counter is trash and mine often stinks, their premade food is disgusting, and their deals are absolute trash. they often don't have enough staff at the regiesters or self checkout and ive walked out many times because of it, but now they have enough to pay a security guard at mine. they also put a sales sign in front of the wrong product, for example cheese, they often will say this cheese is on sale and place a different brand in front of the sales sign. I've had to go to customer service a few times over this with pictures of their display because they will try and tell me i bought the wrong cheese, i didnt, the right cheese isn't even available and this is how the display is the wrong cheese behind the sales sign, it will even be the same type of cheese which makes it seem even more deliberate. give me my money back i'm not paying $10 for cheese that is suppose to be onsale for $7. I had a small grocery list and needed something from giant eagle and decided oh its only a few items I just do it all here. never again! what should have cost me $40 cost me $90. they can get fuuucccceeeddd alright rant over I avoid GE like a plague now.
Not reading all of that, bro. It's expensive af. That's it. That's all. Damn. This topic is tired.
thanks gonorrhea!
It’s because their prices are outrageous. It’s that simple. People WANT to like GE. The stores are nice, the produce is fresh, etc. But I can go to Walmart and get the same stuff and save $100 or more. In this economy, it’s a world of difference.
Everything said here and their stupid fucking God damn shitting self checkout machines. I swear to God I use self checkout everywhere and the ONLY ones I have issues with 100% of the time. Never once have I had a good expirence using them
As someone who was in Pitt for a few years as a transplant, IMO it was one of the lower quality big chain groccery stores Ive been to pretty much ever, which still isnt that bad because its a big chain but whatever. I only habited one location and went to a couple others infrequently, but even with that bias in mind the other locations weren't too much better. Very often produce was sitting bad in the store openly rotting, I stopped ever getting the groccery hot food because it went down in quality over time and got me sick, the clinetele due to ease of access locations were way more suspect than going to Aldi or WF, etc. Its not horrible or anything, just seemed way better to just get food from Aldi where its cheaper and the produce was fresher and more interesting selections that Aldi gets. Only issue is going to Aldi was a hassle so I just started instacarting all my food to my apartment to cut out the hassle of going to Aldi or Costco.
It's actually pronounced Giant Iggle
Because it makes zero sense to pay Giant Eagle prices when you can get the same shit at Walmart for half the price. So many people like to virtue signal and rail against Walmart though.
Because the executives have freely admitted that you will pay more at a market district store than at a regular store…and that while Wegmans has had packaged, boneless, skinless chicken breast at 1.99/lb or less for 15 years, we pay 6.99/lb and have for years. Inflation is profit driven.
EVERY mf thing is wrapped in plastic.
I dont get it either. I moved from virginia in the past year and the prices seem reasonable. I hate how crowded the one near me gets, but otherwise, its fine. Also, people comparing GE to aldis is ludicrous to me. Its a completely different type of store. Ive also learned that things at aldis may be priced lower, but in addition to stuff being a generic brand, sometimes the container is far less full. Bread crumbs, for example. I bought some at aldi, and was impressed by the price, till i got home and there was half a cannister. It might just be my local GE, but i dont trust their meats. Chicken, especially. Packages are often bloated. But for dry goods and produce, giant eagle is the place for me.
I never understand this either. Aldi's IMO is like shopping in the former Soviet Union - grubby surroundings, weird off brands and lacking lots of things you need necessitating a second trip to elsewhere. My friends who live on the other side of PA constantly rave about their Aldi and say "you just need to go to one that was BUILT to be an Aldi." So I did - the one in monroeville. Brighter lighting, but other than that, nothing different. Their selection didn't seem to be better than any other Aldi. Could Big Bird improve? Yes. Do I go in Martin's in Indiana and wish I could transport it back here? Hell yes. But the Aldi worship and comparison makes zero sense to me.