chain . for the bird see haast s eagle . not to be confused with giant carlisle . this article needs to be updated . please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . november 2011 giant eagle inc. type private industry retail grocery founded march 17 1933 1 headquarters o hara township pennsylvania united states number of locations 229 area served pennsylvania west virginia ohio maryland indiana key people david shapira executive chairman 2 laura shapira karet ceo 2 john lucot president and chief operating officer 2 products bakery dairy deli frozen foods general grocery meat pharmacy produce seafood snacks liquor lottery tickets fuel sushi western union money orders dry ice prepared foods most now offering betsy ann chocolates www.betsyann.com out of pittsburgh pa services convenience forecourt store other specialty supermarket gas stations revenue 9.3 billion usd 2011 number of employees 36 000 website gianteagle.com giant eagle is a supermarket chain with stores in the u.s. states of pennsylvania ohio west virginia indiana and maryland . the company was founded in 1918 in pittsburgh pennsylvania and incorporated on march 17 1933 . 1 supermarket news ranked giant eagle no. 21 in the 2012 top 75 north american food retailers based on 2011 fiscal year estimated sales of 9.3 billion . 3 in 2005 it was the 32nd largest privately held corporation as determined by forbes . 4 based on 2005 revenue giant eagle is the 49th largest retailer in the united states . 5 as of summer 2014 the company has approximately 9.9 billion in annual sales giant eagle has 417 stores . the company also operates 168 fuel station convenience stores under the getgo banner . the company operates its corporate headquarters in an office park in the pittsburgh suburb of o hara township . contents 1 history 2 loyalty program 3 operations 3.1 current brands 3.1.1 market district 3.1.2 giant eagle express 3.1.3 market district express 3.1.4 getgo 3.1.5 giant eagle pharmacy 3.1.6 giant eagle contact lenses 3.1.7 starbucks 3.2 defunct brands 3.2.1 phar mor 3.2.2 iggle video 3.2.3 giant eagle optical 3.2.4 valu king and good cents 4 employees 5 advertising 6 references 7 external links history edit a giant eagle location at northern lights shopping center in economy pennsylvania in 2014 . this giant eagle is privately owned . after world war i three pittsburgh area families the goldsteins porters and chaits built a grocery chain called eagle grocery . in 1928 eagle now 125 stores strong merged with kroger company . the three families agreed to stay out of the grocery business for at least three years . meanwhile the moravitz and weizenbaum families built their own successful chain of grocery stores named ok grocery . in 1931 ok grocery merged with eagle grocery to form giant eagle which was incorporated two years later . giant eagle quickly expanded across western pennsylvania weathering the great depression and world war ii . 6 giant eagle in stow ohio . this is the current giant eagle prototype used since the late 1990s but has the 1980s era giant eagle logo font . the chain remained based solely in western pennsylvania until the 1980s when it bought youngstown ohio based wholesaler tamarkin company and its valu king stores that were converted to the giant eagle name . the kent and ravenna stores were the first to be converted at that time ; the youngstown stores then got converted years later . around mid or late 1990s giant eagle later reached cleveland by acquiring the stop n shop stores in the area . stop n shop stores were family owned and operated in different areas of cleveland . the family operators of stop n shop formed a holding company named international seaway foods as the main umbrella for stop n shop . in 1998 giant eagle acquired the international seaway foods and converted the stop n shop stores into giant eagle stores . giant eagle also purchased or opened other northeast ohio stores outside the stop n shop area such as the former apples supermarkets in the nearby akron ohio area . the company entered the toledo market opening two stores in 2001 and 2004 both of which have now closed . giant eagle emerged as one of the dominant supermarket chains in northeast ohio competing mainly against the new york based tops from which it purchased 18 stores in october 2006 . the purchases came as tops exited the northeast ohio area . giant eagle purchased independently owned county market stores giving it a store in somerset pennsylvania a new store in johnstown pennsylvania and its first maryland stores one in cumberland one in hagerstown and two in frederick . the cumberland store closed in december 2003 and the hagerstown store closed in august 2005 . giant eagle has aggressively expanded its footprint in the greater columbus area capitalizing on the demise of the former big bear supermarket chain and taking big bear s traditional place as columbus upmarket grocer . giant eagle first entered what it calls its columbus region in late 2000 opening three large newly built stores at sawmill and bethel rd. lewis center and dublin granville rd. with two more following in 2002 and 2003 at gahanna and hilliard rome rd. in 2004 giant eagle purchased nine former big bear stores in columbus newark and marietta from parent company penn traffic . giant eagle has since expanded to several additional locations acquiring other abandoned big bear stores and in newly constructed buildings using the current giant eagle prototype . giant eagle opened its 20th columbus area at new albany road at the ohio rt. 161 freeway new albany in august 2007 its 21st area store at hayden run and cosgray roads dublin in november 2007 its 22nd area store at stelzer and mccutcheon roads columbus in july 2008 and its 23rd area store at south hamilton road and winchester pike groveport in august 2008 . a new giant eagle opened in lancaster in november 2008 and the former big bear located at blacklick crossing is undergoing an expansion and remodeling . giant eagle has the highest share of any supermarket chain in the pittsburgh area largely due to being a de facto monopoly in the region only aldi and stores supplied by supervalu such as shop n save foodland save a lot and county market even have a presence in the area let alone significant market share but has lost some market share in recent years due to walmart s construction of supercenters in the area as well as no frills supermarkets attracting value seeking customers such as aldi save a lot and relative newcomer bottom dollar in 2014 bottom dollar ceased its business in pittsburgh . this former kroger store is now occupied by giant eagle in vermilion ohio . aside from walmart giant eagle s last major competitor in the pittsburgh market was kroger which had bought the original eagle but abruptly abandoned western pennsylvania in the mid 1980s due to labor issues with its union as well as the local economy at the time . many giant eagle locations in pennsylvania and northeast ohio occupy former kroger sites and used the distinctive kroger prototypes from the 1980s with the sloped glass roof entrance until most of the stores were remodeled or replaced with newer stores in the early 2000s with giant eagle s current prototype . kroger and giant eagle still compete head to head in the nearby morgantown west virginia wheeling west virginia and weirton west virginia steubenville ohio areas as well as columbus ; except for columbus giant eagle is a virtual non factor in markets where it competes with kroger . loyalty program edit in 1991 giant eagle introduced the advantage card an electronic loyalty card discount system already popular in many chains as a sophisticated version of the obsolete stamp programs . the card was later modified to double as a video rental card for iggle video . more recently the company has started the fuelperks program to entice customers . this program allows customer the opportunity to earn 10 cents off each gallon of gas 20 cents in select markets with fifty dollars worth of authorized purchases . in early 2009 giant eagle launched the foodperks program mainly geared towards getgo . this program allows customers who use their fuelperks at getgo to also earn foodperks to save on groceries purchased at giant eagle . every 10 gallons of gas purchased earns a 1 % discount . this can be used up to 20 % maximum at a time on a purchase of up to 300 . foodperks are good for 90 days and fuelperks are good for 60 days . if the customer has more than the price of gasoline or more than the 20 % those discounts will stay on your card for the remainder of the 90 60 days and if they are not used by then they expire . in february 2013 giant eagle announced that they would be discontinuing the foodperks program that month because it was a little too complex . 7 operations edit map of giant eagle stores . there are 221 store and getgo locations in the united states 99 in western pennsylvania 122 in central northeastern and eastern ohio 2 in morgantown west virginia and 2 in frederick maryland . each store carries between 22 000 and 60 000 items approximately 5 000 of which are branded by giant eagle . giant eagle offers over twenty four different departments across its stores . the range of services includes redbox video terminals dry cleaning in store day care and pharmacies . giant eagle also has banking partnerships with citizens bank in pennsylvania and huntington bank in ohio and west virginia both of which have their branches open inside giant eagle branches seven days a week except for federal holidays . the chain has built large prototypes and it has experimented with many departments unusual to supermarkets . larger stores feature vast selections of ethnic and organic food dry cleaning services iggle video drive thru pharmacies in store banking eagle s nest for daycare purposes while shopping as well as in store coffee shops and prepared foods . prepared foods are also sold at larger getgo locations that can accommodate a getgo kitchen . the giant eagle stores franchised by the mckillop family altoona bedford and ebensburg hold a yearly event with the american cancer society . the grocer s fight cancer day event is held the first thursday of october . it features live entertainment food demos unbelievable one day deals and games of chance . the event is in its 19th year and has raised over 600 000 dollars for the acs . although older giant eagle locations tend to be unionized and some are even franchised stores in recent years the company has started leaning toward non union company owned and operated stores . in areas where a franchised store exists if a getgo exists nearby it s operated by giant eagle itself separate from the franchised supermarket . giant eagle operated two stores in the toledo metropolitan area from 2006 to 2011 one in sylvania township on central avenue just west of i 475 and another in perrysburg but both were closed by 2011 . current brands edit market district edit giant eagle market district at the kingsdale shopping center in upper arlington ohio giant eagle has rebranded some of its stores as market district in an attempt to attract upscale shoppers . the initial two stores opened in june 2006 in the upscale communities of shadyside within the city of pittsburgh and bethel park in southern allegheny county pennsylvania . 8 the shadyside store was expanded from 25 000 square feet 2 300 m2 to 78 000 square feet 7 200 m2 and uses sustainable design including a green roof . 9 the bethel park store is 117 000