Giant Food — Local services in Towson

On April 3rd, 2023 I went to check out a vacuum sealed prime ribeye steak that was packaged on March 13th with an expiration date of April 4th, 2023. When I went to check it out no manager's special or discount (which is 50% off for beef that is about to expire). When I asked the associate, she rudely began to question if I wanted the product and attempted to pressure me into taking it at the higher price. She tried to gaslight me and claimed that the special and discount had applied, when it had clearly not, and that the price was the correct discounted price. It was not. It was a 0.62lbs cut of beef still priced at 23.99/lbs coming out to 15.59$/lbs. No discount as advertised. When I showed her the sticker and asked her to prove to me that a discount had been applied she informed me that because she doesn't know what the manager special is she can not just arbitrarily apply a discount and then proceeded to try to pressure me into purchasing the item. She understood that the product was about to expire, but seemed flustered and flabbergasted that she would be asked to correct an error that the corporation she works for had made. What even is this person’s role if the customer has to understand the checkout technology and process better than the store representative???

I told her I did not feel the matter was resolved not that her judgment or information was correct. Rather than escalate the issue to a manager or try to honor the discount she took the product (probably to apply the discount for herself later) and offered no further assistance.

It’s honestly a disgusting action in principle. By the time the meat section opens in the morning that beef which expires at midnight will be discarded and thrown into the trash. All because a petty undertrained individual could not be bothered to help the customer, critically think, or have a base level respect for either the product or the customer. It’s a reflection of the broader acceptable standard practices from those above, and the sign of failing...

This location needs a deep cleaning. For years now, when you enter the front door, there is a very particular stench of spoiled food. I feel bad for the security person who is stationed there and has to smell it for their entire shift. Most importantly, if you are buying any organic food items here, the prices are almost all $1 higher (per product) than M🍎M's for the same items. I compared this week. Given that this is a huge chain, I feel like Giant is profiteering since they know that a lot of people who frequent most locations are low income and can't drive much further to other stores (or they take the bus here or walk over). And the produce section is not well-kept or fresh. Over 50% of the produce is always old, dry, and spoiled. They need to take a page out of the playbook of WF or M🍎M's to keep their produce looking like it just arrived from the farm. Meanwhile, the bird seed I used to buy here for years jumped from $6.50 to $8.50 in the past 6 months, but I found it online for $5 with free shipping. If you shop here regularly, you need to do some comparison shopping at other grocery stores to assess the competition and find the best savings. Lastly, be really careful at the self checkout. It double charged me on a $5 item and I didn't notice until days later when reviewing...

This review is about sustainability only. By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Plastics are made from fossil fuels, they take hundreds of years to break down in our oceans, incinerators, and landfills, and when they do “break down,” they just become micro plastics that we consume and get sick from them. Over 95% of plastics we produce and consume do NOT get recycled in any form.

I truly cannot believe that the majority of the produce you sell comes wrapped in plastic. I understand that this is beyond your singular store’s control, but I implore your company to interrogate its supply chain that necessitates that all this food that comes from the earth gets wrapped in trash that is poisoning us all.

It is nauseating to witness. Surely you can be selecting vendors that sell produce as it comes—bare.

The plastic waste crisis will only be ended by the consumer, the companies selling the food, and policies that mitigate the harmful impact we create together.

I would love to see Giant be a responsible vendor of food, and try (at the very least with its produce!!!) to relieve us from this devastating reality.

Thank you for...