Weekly Circular | Peapod | Product Recalls | Employment | Store Locator | Customer Service

Company History

The History of Giant Foods Timeline -

Click on the year in the timeline below for company highlights

  • 1936

    N.M. Cohen and Samuel Lehrman found Giant Food Inc. and open Washington, DC's first supermarket.

  • 1940s

    Giant begins move toward vertical integration and leases a slaughterhouse to ship meats to stores.

  • 1941

    Giant opens its first store outside of Washington, in Arlington, Va.

  • 1948

    Giant purchases Sheridan Bakery in Silver Spring, Md. an renames it Heidi Bakery.

  • 1950s

    Company sets standard for supermarkets by adding automatic doors, mechanized checkouts, and open display cases for meat and frozen foods.

  • 1955

    Giant Construction Company established to build Giant stores, and GFS Realty established to handle the sales and leasing of real estate for the company. First Giant store opens in Baltimore, Md.

  • 1958

    New headquarters and distribution center opens in Landover, Md. First "Super Giant" department store opens. Eight additional Super Giant stores open within a year.

  • 1959

    Giant grows to 53 stores and begins computerizing its customer data, inventory, and other information.

  • 1962

    Company opens its first food/drug combination store.

  • 1964

    N.M. Cohen takes the newly created position as Chairman and Joseph B. Danzansky takes over as president.

  • 1970

    Giant hires the industry's first consumer advocate, Esther Peterson, and works with government and industry to develop and test consumer programs, including unit pricing and nutrition labeling.

  • 1973

    Warehouse and grocery distribution center opens in Jessup.

  • 1977

    Joseph Danzansky becomes chairman as N.M. Cohen becomes honorary chairman, and Izzy Cohen takes over as president. Giant's four remaining department stores and seven carpet centers are closed.

  • 1979

    Giant is first supermarket chain to put computer-assisted checkout scanning equipment into use chain wide.

  • 1980s

    Company begins building larger stores, up to 60,000 square feet. Company introduces life saving computerized prescription system to help guard against harmful side effects.

  • 1982

    Gourmet food store, Someplace Special opens in Mclean, Va. Richmond stores closed.

  • 1988

    Pete Manos becomes president. Izzy Cohen continues as chairman of the board.

  • 1994

    Giant begins northern expansion with plans to open stores in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania under the Super G trade name. J. Sainsbury buys the Lehrman's non-controlling voting stock in Giant.

  • 1995

    Izzy Cohen passes away. The 1224 Corporation gains control of company.

  • 1996

    Pete Manos becomes chairman.

  • 1998

    Ahold purchases Giant Food Inc.

  • 1999

    Pete Manos retires, Dick Baird named president and CEO.

  • 2000

    BonusCard program launched; Peapod by Giant begins home delivery service via internet ordering; Introduction of new consumer information program - Healthy Ideas.

  • 2001

    American Heroes Fund is created and raises $2 million for September 11 victims and their families; Giant opens first Starbucks full-service cafe; New HBC - Relax, Renew, Revive concept launched in Giant's store pharmacies.

  • 2002

    $5 billion in sales reached; Giant is the first chain pharmacy to offer OnCallData (electronic prescriptions); Ground breaking of new fresh food distribution facility takes place in Howard County, MD.

  • 2003

    367,000 square foot Fresh Food Facility opens in Jessup, MD; Giant launches Floral Delivery Service; ClubMom program is launched in Baltimore area stores.

  • 2004

    Giant begins integration of administrative functions with Stop & Shop; Dick Baird retires, Bill Holmes named Executive Vice President and General Manager.

  • 2005

    Giant/Stop & Shop and their customers contribute over $3 million to the American Red Cross and America's Second Harvest to assist tsunami victims. Giant launches Triple Winner program, which raises $1 million for the Children's Cancer Foundation.

  • 2006

    Giant opens first new Super Giant prototype store in Millville, DE, featuring Starbucks shop and sushi bar. Giant launches Value Improvement Program (VIP) offering customers fresh, quality and relevant products at low prices every day.

  • 2007

    Giant celebrates one-year anniversary of low prices every day shrinking prices in departments such as cereal, juice, water, pet, produce, paper, baby and cleaning supplies. Giant launches a new multimedia ad campaign featuring testimonials from actual Giant customers.

  • 2008

    Robin Michel named Executive Vice President and General Manager.

The History of Giant

Until 1936 most food stores were small, relying on high markups for profits. But the Depression created a new kind of consumer - desperate to reduce costs even as they sought quality foods.

The world was ready when Giant's founders, N.M. Cohen and Samuel Lehrman introduced their new food market concept: replacing high markups with high volume and self-service. It was so novel that skeptics said "supermarkets" would never catch on. But In February 1936 when Giant Store #1 opened, customers from all around the Washington D.C. area flocked to help themselves and take advantage of the low prices. Giant made such an impact on the retail food industry that within one year, area food prices were down 35 percent. Since then, Giant's success has been based on offering a wide variety of quality food at the lowest possible prices, along with friendly, pleasant service customers can count on.