Lorain/Elyria, OH
‘New’ Giant Eagle doesn’t fly
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ELYRIA - Giant Eagle representatives said Thursday that the Cleveland Street store in Elyria will close in February, just 16 months after Giant Eagle acquired it and 17 others from Tops supermarket chain.
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| SHAWN FOUCHER / CHRONICLE |
| The Giant Eagle on Cleveland Street in Elyria is closing in February. |
Ongoing “financial reasons” have made it necessary to close the Cleveland Street store, said Rob Barilla, a company spokesman.
“While the closure of the Elyria location is unfortunate but necessary, we welcome Cleveland Street Giant Eagle customers to our two other nearby supermarkets at Midway Mall and North Ridgeville,” Barilla said.
The company has no plans to close any of the other Giant Eagle stores in Lorain County, so the 100 employees at the Cleveland Street store will be able to consider work at those locations, Barilla said.
The Cleveland Street store will officially close Feb. 2.
The Cleveland Street supermarket space - about 74,600 square feet valued at $4 million - is owned by Developers Diversified Realty in Beachwood, according to the county auditor`s Web site.
Giant Eagle representatives said they`ll be working with the property owners to find a suitable replacement for the space when it`s vacant. However, there`s already a vacant space immediately next to the Giant Eagle in the same building, while the other large tenant in that shopping strip is Dollar Tree.
Barilla said the Giant Eagle stores at Midway Mall and in North Ridgeville offer everything the Cleveland Street store offered, plus a full-service meat department.
Contact Shawn Foucher at 653-6255 or sfoucher@chroniclet.com.
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I would love to know where you all came up with 16 months. The store was open less than a year. Tops closed the stores Dec. 8th, 2006…Giant Eagle did not reopen them until Jan. 2007. First Giant Eagle abandons this side of town when it closes the store on Broad Street now it does it again….they keep running from the competition. What can’t they handle WalMart being down the street. Time for Giant Eagle to fly the coup for good. Bring back Kroger!
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your store is to expensive i can go to marcs and get the same bran name for half the money that is why i have to been to your store for a while you say you cut your prices but every time you do you bring up the price of lots of other things i was at you 231 (ask so i know first time in a while) and the deli people there are so rude james just wants you to know he is gay and so rude to people us older people more so , the black lady there just acts as if she dont see you at all at the same time you ask who the manager is oh she on break she will be back sometime soon i was at the same store about 2-3 months ago and things were a lot better tags were there to tell you what the price was it is not that way now i dont know whats wrong with that store but they have problems no i dont use my card to much there or at your elyria (mall) store because i buy beer and cigs and a couple other things nothing for gas points. i use to shop at you store a lo tbut its getting less and less for me and my family and you wounder whats wrong with you stores this one you need to check out cause me or my family will not be back
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Well truth is Giant Eagle is more expensive. WallyWorld (Walmart) is not much better. The real deals are at Marc’s.
However who wants to deal with that congestion and those lines. Marc’s doesn’t have a deli or a bakery. Marcs has limited selection. I prefer to go down to Grafton Sparkle or IGA. I get much friendly service and pay the same as Giant Eagle.
Leave cosmetics, dog food and Shampoo to Target, Marcs or even CVS. What I want from a grocery store is food.
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Giant Eagle is the biggest rip off in town.There prices are crazy high and you wonder why they can give you free gas.
compare the same exact products to aldis, marcs or save a lot and you will save a minium of 30%.
I now pay two extra bills a month just by not going to giant eagle.
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Giant Eagle is really terrible to do busienss with too-very demanding of their merchandisers and suppliers. No wonder Wal-Mart and Aldi’s is the place to go along with Marks. Love it or hate it, they don’t even bother competing on price.
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Maybe if Giant Eagle had lowered their prices rather than raising them, people like me, trying to stretch their shopping dollar and live on a budget, I would not have had to make the unfortunate switched of becoming a WalMart shopper!
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Funny how no one knows how to write anymore. What happened to good grammar and spelling (read the comments above)?
Maybe our schools should get as much attention as the grocery store.
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I personally don’t have the time to waste in Marc’s, even though I know they are generally cheaper, to try and find things and then triple check the expiration dates because so much of their stuff is ready to expire. Their organization is horrible and their checkout lines are worse. Half the time they don’t carry things they carried a week before. That’s what you get with close outs. But, Elyria seems to only support Dollar Stores and Marcs so I guess that’s what we get.
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Giant Eagle was a damn rip off. You buy $ 50.00 of food and get 10 cent off a gallon of gas which with most vehicle is a $ 1.60 saviings. You go to Sav-a-lot or Aldis and get 40 to 50 percent more food for $ 50.00.
Beware Marc’s changes most of there prices twice a week. always watch there.
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Maybe if they repaired the roads in the area (especially Rt. 57), people would be more inclined to shop there. Who wants to dodge all the bumps and pot holes and risk damage to their vehicle?
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I am not surprised that this store is closing. They have the rudest employees I have ever dealt with. I will go out of my way not to shop there.
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i use to shop at marc,s but no more, they keep raising there prices like everyone else and you can,t even use coupons there, at least giant eagle doubles coupons and i get really good deals on sales items when i use my coupons, i like giant eagle in sheffield lake and will continue to shop there.
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Are you guys writing in some strange new langusge that I am not aware of?I need a translation book to decipher some of those comments
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What’s the matter with everyone here? First of all you are all comparing peaches to apples. the only thing alike is their fruits! I will not shop Aldi’s lucky if you got more then one cashier. Save A lot is not much better in that department either although they got a few name brand stuff. Marc’s is not worth my time…unless I want to be in the ER from food poisioning cause they don’t check the dates on stuff. Giant Eagle is not cheap but neither is Wal Mart! Hell Wal Mart doesn’t even take care of their employees. I can tell you Giant Eagle does! I personally never have had a problem at any of the Giant Eagles!! Maybe everyone needs not to take things personal. I do think its not right that you have to go to the mall to shop there though or to Ridgeville.
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I don’t like to see our local folks lose their jobs, however I do not like the Giant Eagle company as a big-box store. I miss the local merchant touch that hasn’t been popular until recent years. Although I understand that price is a compelling factor for people to shop at inexpensive stores, the need to keep money locally is more critical in the larger picture. I’d rather see 10 small, mom& pop stores, pay 10%-20% more, buy products more on de facto need and quality rather than on instant gratification and sending money to China and sweatshop, recall-likely countries. We need to see our own neighbors/business owners be pivotal in the community display influence and governance rather than being an arm for some remote entity that benefits greater than the small community in which we live.
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Type your comment here. Giant Eagle has sold two stores in the past month. Look at the property transfers from the week of November 10nth. The Giant Eagle on Kresge Drive in Amherst sold as did the Giant Eagle shopping plaza in Sheffield Village near Cobblestone Square. These poperties have changed hands and what does that mean? One sold for 14 million and the other for 11 million.
WalMart has purchased the ENTIRE corner at Griswold and West River in Elyria near the Midway Mall. this property transferred on November 8th, 2007. The Elyria employees have been told that a new supercenter will be built in five years. Walmart purchased the old school from the Nord Family for 4.2 million and the Aros dental building for $600,000.00. The old banquet hall sold for $800,000.00 - a total of about 24 acres for the new Elyria WalMart the Bentonville Behemouth!
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Bargain-hunters have a beef with Giant Eagle’s turkey prices
Posted by rroguski November 14, 2007 12:41PM
Click to compare turkey prices
Coupon-clippers in Northeast Ohio have another bone to pick with Giant Eagle. Specifically, a turkey bone.
Only this time, the big bird doesn’t seem willing to budge.
The bargain-hunting Web group, Northeast Ohio Couponers, started squabbling with Giant Eagle this week after discovering the chain is selling frozen house-brand turkeys in Cleveland at more than twice the price it’s charging in Columbus.
Giant Eagle is selling 18-pound or larger turkeys in the Cleveland market for 87 cents a pound. An 18-pound bird costs $15.66 here.
In Columbus, the same turkey is selling for 38 cents a pound — or $6.84 for an 18-pounder. Mostly that’s because Giant Eagle isn’t perched atop the big-box grocery chains down there.
Here in Cleveland, the coupon clippers’ beef is Giant Eagle’s refusal to sell turkey at Columbus-area prices as part of its pledge to “match any competitor’s ad.”
“It’s just the principle of the thing,” said Debbie Young, founder of Northeast Ohio Couponers. “We want to be respected as loyal customers. . . . We’re asking them to price-match what’s in their stores.”
But Giant Eagle spokesman Rob Borella said those aren’t reasonable demands.
For one thing, he said, Giant Eagle’s price-matching incentive applies to local stores only, even though fliers posted online don’t say that.
Furthermore, frozen turkeys represent a “commodity” whose price is determined in large part by what other stores within the region are charging, Borella said.
In Columbus, where Giant Eagle competes with other large grocery chains, competitor Kroger charges 39 cents per pound and big-box retailer Meijer offers $10 off 11- to 16-pound turkeys with a $10 purchase. (Kroger charges 49 cents a pound at its Port Clinton, Sandusky and Fremont stores.)
Meanwhile, in Giant Eagle’s hometown of Pittsburgh, Giant Eagle’s price is 79 cents a pound.
On that barometer, then, 87 cents at local Giant Eagles is actually low, given that per-pound frozen turkey prices at many supermarkets in Northeast Ohio start at 99 cents. Giant Eagle is this region’s dominant grocery chain.
Some stores offer frozen turkeys at 88 or 89 cents per pound, while Dave’s Markets has a 79-cent deal for customers spending $50 or more and Wal-Mart Supercenters carry Riverside brand at 78 cents a pound.
Gordon Food Service, with nine stores in Northeast Ohio, is the lowest locally with a store brand selling for 59 cents a pound.
These prices only apply to frozen turkeys. Fresh, kosher, organic and free-range turkeys can cost two to four times as much per pound.
“Pricing is a little bit of an art and a little bit of a science. . . . But it’s going to vary,” Borella said. “That’s not something that’s unique to Giant Eagle or to Cleveland.”
Indeed, turkey prices nationally are on the rise. Corinne Alexander, an agricultural economist at Purdue University, said wholesale prices for turkey are up this year to 90 cents to 94 cents a pound.
Still, she said, the price consumers see at the store “really depends on the individual retailer’s pricing decisions.” Some stores sell turkey at prices lower than the wholesale rate in hopes of luring customers to do all their Thanksgiving shopping in one place.
“When people plan their shopping just around the turkey, that’s a mistake,” some Tom Heinen, co-owner of Heinen’s Fine Foods.
Giant Eagle also just announced a complete Thanksgiving meal package. The $69.99 combo comes with 10 to 12 pounds of Honeysuckle White turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams and apples, green bean casserole, cranberry relish, gravy, roles and a pumpkin pie.
All this is little consolation to the Northeast Ohio Couponers, who realize they don’t have time to organize a battle before Thanksgiving. In September, they waged a major campaign and succeeded in convincing Giant Eagle to reverse its decision to stop doubling coupons.
Coupon-clippers here say they feel doubly slighted because not only do Giant Eagle shoppers in Columbus get better turkey prices, but they also earn “fuelperks! ” gasoline discounts of 20 cents per gallon, instead of 10 cents.
Young said there’s little her group can do but express their opinion and look back fondly to when the supermarket scene in Northeast Ohio was more competitive and turkeys were given away as bonuses to big-ticket shoppers.
“It’s not our fault that Tops left,” she said. “We’re still loyal customers. . . . We really miss the old days.”
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Type your comment here. I am glad to see so many people see the giant for what they are they ran out topps and then ran all thier price sky high now they are geting paid back
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I’m a former Tops and Giant Eagle employee. If Tops was never run out of business, there would be more loyal customers and the business would still be thriving. Even the people involved with Tops did what they could to run it in the hole. I feel horrible for my friends that are still there, especially Teri whom I know none of you have ever had a problem with. She’s by far the nicest lady at Giant Eagle. Kellee, Morgan, Diane, Denise, Dianne, Pat, Sally, Vaness and anyone else I missed, Good luck to you all.
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