GIANT — Local services in Philadelphia

I have shopped at this location more than several times, so this is my collective experience over the past several months. Here are the Cons:

1. Produce. Layout is bad. The layout of the store in general is not very intuitive, and the produce layout is equally as confusing and non intuitive. You walk in and it appears to be a selection/variety of local produce and sale items, but then it quickly disperses into a chaos of mixed matched produce, with a layout that just does not make any sense. For example, it appears the fruits are all collectively at the beginning of the produce section with Bananas nowhere close to the other fruits but located all by their lonesome with the vegetables at the very end. Makes no sense. It makes finding specific produce items on your list a real chore, which I do not like when I am shopping.

2. Overall store layout. It's just a mess. This store is quite large and has ample room for a variety of layout prototypes that are intuitive with product layout that make sense on where they are located. This store seems to be split in two, with a layout that seems to zigzag all different ways. I have been to the store quite a bit and still find it extremely confusing and hard to find products, to a point I just leave and walk empty handed because I do not have 10+ minutes to waste to look for every item on my list.

3. Fresh Meat and Seafood Departments are virtually nonexistent. The whole value proposition of a large format store is the Fresh Meat and Seafood selection! What is going on here Giant?? This actually blows me away how subpar the Fresh Meat and Seafood departments are. The selection is absolutely horrendous. Acme offers well over 10 times the selection @ a lower price @ their Northern Liberties store. @ this Giant there are only about 6 different Fresh Seafood and 6 different Fresh Meat selections. Which is embarrassing for a store this size. On top of that, the counter @ the Fresh Meat/Seafood counter closes up before 8 PM which is pathetic and embarrassing! Especially considering that the prepackaged meat department is also well below par and paltry small. The Pork, Fresh Seafood and Steak selection is awful and is very small. I walked away empty handed. Big loss for Giant. It baffles me tbh. People spend big $$ on fresh meat & seafood.

4. Healthy alternatives. This store is really hit or miss and I feel like Giant is mostly a miss.

Ex. A) Sprouted Wheat Bread. This is relatively common; sold everywhere from Aldi, Acme, Wegmans, Costco, etc. I was able to find only ONE brand @ Giant and it was MORE than Whole Foods, Acme,Trader Joes, etc.

Ex. B) Whole Wheat Wraps. Very common item. Small selection, only offered one brand, and cost more than Whole Foods. Come on. Giant does not even have healthy wrap options? Not good.

Ex. C) Huge store did not even carry Kefir. Kefir is a very common product, Aldi even sells it & always has it in stock. EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING GIANT.

These are basic products and not considered specialty.

Giant's health food offerings are a mess. There seems to be too much emphasis on the "plant based meat" products & not the core products that health consumers seek. The layout of its healthy products is so scattered and messy it again makes no sense & is not intuitive. Bad for sales Giant.

5. It is expensive. Overall the store is a little pricey, unless something is on sale. Overall I find most products to be more than Trader Joes, and at the same price point as Acme and even on some products the same price point as Whole Foods!!! Fresh squash cost more @ Giant than Trader Joes and Whole Foods. That goes w. most produce @ Giant. Giant produce prices are about the same as Whole Foods. The bread above I mentioned was a full $3 more than the Sprouted Wheat bread found at Trader Joes and more than what I found at Acme. Giant's bread was $5.99 a loaf, Acme had the Sprouted Wheat bread for $3.29 and Whole Foods had it for $3.49.

Pros:

1. The store is clean.
2. Friendly and helpful staff.

Bottom Line: Expensive. Very Poor Meat + Seafood...

Know what I like about Whole Foods (At least the one on Philadelphia Ave)? They don't have an hour long countdown of "get out in XX minutes, we're closing". Ok it's not exactly like that, but as a paying customer, it seems that way. I do like and frequent this location often because I sometimes work late and it's one of the few places open till 11. And I get it, I work in the service industry - hotels, restaurants, and catering events. There's nothing worse than at the end of the shift having to wait for customers to vacate. BUT THEY ARE CUSTOMERS. If I spoke to a customer with the tone I hear blaring over the intercom every so many minutes, I'd be fired. There's nothing wrong with asking customers to finish up because it's time to close, but it's all about the presentation. And what I hear in the last hour before closing is not the right presentation.

4/14/22 dropping my rating again. I bought an 8 oz water tonight. Normally I would buy the 16.9oz for .50, but they were all out. I figured half the size, half the price, even though there weren’t any price tags for the 8 oz waters. It rang up as 16.9oz for 50cents. I asked an employee about the incorrect label and the fact I was being charged the same as double the size I was getting. He had no answer except “that’s how we always label them”. Earlier that day, I bought what was labeled as 1lb of chips for chips and salsa. The package didn’t seem like a pound. I used 3 of the produce scales to confirm…with bag and twist tie, the weight was .95lb. Close, but not really 1lb. At $3.99 /lb I’d expect the whole package (bag and twist tie) to be at least 1 lb or more. This giant’s mislabeling along with bait and switch methods keep lowering my thoughts of giant.

Little note, verify the price tag matches the item. This store is notorious for having items and tags not matching up. I’m surprised no one’s had an issue of bate and switch. I know there’s been a few times I grabbed items thinking they were on sale and it turned out the tag was wrong. The candy impulse buys at the register and the way out are often mismatched

A very unique Giant (for me at least). The whole store is on the second floor. This newly remodeled Supermarket is loaded with groceries and a wide selection. However, if you’re a Pepsi Max/Zero fan, you’re out of luck for the 16.9 6pk bottles. I’ve requested them twice with the Pepsi ordering and Pepsi delivery representatives, and after 2+ months I’ve given up hope. But the store is nice, has beers on tap and a lounge area that overlooks the...

I started coming here in January of this year on a regular basis. However, it’s gotten progressively worse with time to the point that I will no longer be going back. Before diving deeper into why, here are the pros- large store with parking lot and a Starbucks inside, has a good selection of products and some discount areas for bargains (although the quality is highly variable). Also has a rewards card that’s free and gives additional discounts (although they are minimal unless you are shopping for an entire family or you spend a lot each trip).

Cons- Customer service is poor and practically nonexistent, especially on weekend mornings. The staff on duty just sit there and watch people checkout and fail to lend a hand until they are repeatedly acknowledged instead of being observant and providing timely assistance. Also, when disputing a charge, the same staff are not helpful, giving excuses instead of simply apologizing when wrong and failing to show some ounce of empathy to the customer.

These cons aren’t a big deal on their own, but some other things have come up that put it over the top. On my last trip, I purchased a yogurt that I later found out was past its use by date. Not by days, but a whole month!!!! This is unacceptable! Is it the customers responsibility to have to look at the expiration of every single item in the store to make sure it’s still good? I have had the same problem with a lot of product codes not matching to the item on the shelf as well as advertised discounts that were no longer valid and just hadn’t been taken down. I’m not expecting a perfect store and shopping experience, but all this together makes the food shopping trips a real adventure and an unnecessarily time consuming process if you are cost conscious customer like me. Also, it is never known if the escalator will be in service or not on a given week. It’s not that it doesn’t function that’s the problem, but rather the lack of care and attention to have a properly running store. Reminds me of the 30th street SEPTA station where sometimes the escalator to the platform works and sometimes not. And we all know what is happening to SEPTA!

Best to spend your dollars 2 blocks over at the...