-By Meg Major

Performing a complete makeover of a newly constructed, 13,500-square-foot store that originally opened 22 months earlier might seem a bit extreme. But after careful consideration and ample analysis, the chief architects at Giant Eagle astutely chose deliberation over acceleration in a bid to build the perfect convenience-oriented mousetrap. What's since resulted is a potent, promising recipe for a small-scale, quick-stop neighborhood store format that smoothly blends a streamlined, fresh-market design with staple groceries, gas pumps and a drive-through pharmacy — all in a modern, innovative environment.

It's interesting to note that in the same two-year time frame that's elapsed between now and when the Pittsburgh-based, privately held chain first opened the doors of its pilot Express store, U.K.-based global retailer Tesco charged into the perishables-intense, small-format derby by opening a whopping 120 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets in California, Nevada and Arizona — the majority of which have struggled mightily to secure a niche in the competitive and complex U.S. food retailing scene.

So, while conventional wisdom dictates that there's power in numbers — particularly in an industry ruled by market share penetration and brand identity — the painstaking process undertaken to perfect its functional and efficient Express formula is consistent with the quiet Giant's meticulous approach that would never be mistaken for hastily rushing a concept to the market.

When asked what prompted the redesigned floor plan and retooled product mix for what can readily be recommended as a must-see visit on a whistle-stop tour of innovative concepts, Kevin Srigley, Giant Eagle's SVP of new formats, says the changes were based on considerable sales analyses and ample customer feedback over the course of the store's first 15 months in operation.

"Adjustments are expected whenever you launch a new store concept," says Srigley, adding that since the outset of opening the first two Market District locations in its western Pennsylvania home turf in 2006, "Each store has gone through modifications and tweaks to continue to meet the needs of our customers. Giant Eagle Express is no different. We opened the store believing that the format met a specific need state for our customers, and in large part it did. However, after being in operation for nearly two years, we realized some areas for improvement and acted on them."

Now armed with a playbook of diverse and carefully orchestrated store concepts, the company, in its bid to blunt budding competition from alternative format operators, demonstrates an ongoing commitment to meet and exceed the various need states of various customer segments.

"It goes without saying that no two customers are alike," Srigley notes. "What we attempt to do with our varying formats is to appeal to the different need states of our customers. The traditional Giant Eagle supermarket has been, and will continue to be, the core of our business," he affirms. "However, our Market District, Giant Eagle Express and GetGo banners allow us to focus on specific consumer need states while still offering all of the traditional supermarket products and services."

Describing its Market District concept as the format "geared to customers with a real passion for food," Srigley says the overhauled Giant Eagle Express "now has a renewed focus on providing high-quality meal solutions, both ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat, for our busy customers. And GetGo maximizes that convenience factor with quick in-and-out options. If we continue to meet and exceed these need states of our customers, we believe we will be well prepared for future success."

Dueling Front Ends

So, is it safe to call Giant Eagle Express an alternative format in its own right? "We believe that the Giant Eagle Express concept works best as a solution for those grocery needs between a customer's larger stock-up trips. In this sense," Srigley continues, "it's not necessarily an alternative to the traditional Giant Eagle supermarket trip. However, we do realize that the store's smaller footprint allows us to potentially take it to areas that cannot accommodate our larger Giant Eagle format."

With the vast majority of the kinks worked out and things humming along quite nicely, the Giant Eagle Express format certainly seems ripe for continued expansion. However, Srigley says, while the company does not yet have additional locations confirmed, "The potential to better service our customers in the smaller or more urban communities where they live and work allows us to meet their needs in environments where we may otherwise not have a presence."

Situated near a bustling intersection of Route 910 and Freeport Road in Harmar Township, roughly 5.5 miles away from Giant Eagle's corporate headquarters, the store boasts an especially interesting "best of both worlds" experience that blends the familiar look and feel of a traditional GetGo on the gas pumps side of the store with an instantly recognizable Market District-type prepared foods and grocery presentation on the other.

Among the store's most profound physical changes are two distinct "front ends" with two separate store entry points, one of which is dedicated to the in-and-out gourmet coffee and GetGo gas business, and the other to food and grocery customers. The modified scheme, which has changed not only the offerings but also the functionality, goes a long way toward preventing customer congestion between the gas and to-go foods crowd and the traditional grocery customers formerly commonplace at the original store's now-defunct central checkout pod.

Another noteworthy upshot of the move to add separate checkouts to serve fuel and convenience customers is how the eye is immediately drawn to the dynamic presentation of fresh, ready-to-eat foods, any number of which prompt cause for pause — even for those entering the store with full intentions of simply paying for their gas and grabbing a quick cup of coffee. But don't be fooled by the convenience: a hungry motorist, frantic commuter or busy working parent would be hard-pressed to leave the place empty-handed.

At the epicenter of Giant Eagle Express' quick, convenient fresh prepared foods lineup are expansive hot foods and salad bars that feature more than 50 items available for the breakfast, lunch and dinner day parts. Open from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily, the hot foods bar features breakfast staples such as scrambled eggs and hot oatmeal with a variety of toppings, and lunch and dinner favorites such as roasted chicken and meatloaf, as well as numerous accompanying vegetables. The salad bar is open from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and houses a show-stopping variety of fresh, healthy salad, vegetables, fruits, toppings and side dishes, in addition to pasta and Mediterranean salads.

With an open layout that provides easy access and visibility to nearly everything in the store, the newly reformatted Express store also includes new features that help shoppers make the most of every store visit, including fast-selling fresh and frequently purchased conventional items now repositioned front and center.

Now that it carries the most commonly purchased fresh and grocery items, including produce, baked goods, dairy, frozen foods, health and beauty, meat, seafood, boxed and canned goods, snacks, beverages, and floral, store manager Jeff Zivek marvels at the volume of productive changes the store has undergone. "Everything inside these four walls has been picked up, moved and/or replaced to some degree."

Stay and Eat

A 19-year company veteran who has held various positions throughout his career, Zivek displays unmistakable pride and passion when discussing the small-scale store's transformation, which has resulted in a variety of company firsts, including a signature gourmet muffin program that's found in the fresh bakery. "We’re the only store in the company that offers this recipe," he reveals, adding that "once you try one, you won't be able to eat a muffin anywhere else." The full array of breakfast offerings on the hot bar is also unique to Giant Eagle Express as the only store in the company to court breakfasters with a restaurant-quality menu.

It goes without saying that the store really jumps at traditional mealtimes, which Zivek says is particularly satisfying. "I've never been in a store like this, where the breakfast, lunch and evening crowds are so condensed. The food bar is a great way to deliver on multiple customers' meal needs and also be able to deliver a variety of other products that meet a wide variety of other shopping needs as well."

While the standard fare — such as coffee, breakfast favorites, sandwiches, hot foods and soups — rule during the busy breakfast, lunch and dinner hours, "We do have people that do their full-order shopping here, while many others rely on us for supplemental midweek fill-ins, and still others simply for the quick in-and-out items and sit-down meals."

The 40-seat in-store cafe, which enables customers to grab a comfortable spot to enjoy their breakfast, lunch, dinner and/or free 24/7 Wi-Fi access, was also enhanced from its previous iteration with a privacy wall that, Zivek says, has been very well received by customers, now that the area feels more like an enclave rather than a central part of the total store.

Communicating to customers with its own unique ads and in-store specials lineup is  a less-is-more floral strategy that's ideal for capturing impulse floral purchases. Prominently merchandised in close proximity to the main grocery-oriented checkout via an eye-catching display, the scaled-down floral setup leads with affordable, everyday low price points offered for two signature bouquets, one of which is priced at $12.99, while the second, a six-stem rose arrangement, sells for $6.99.

"We're not looking to solve every kind of floral need," says Zivek. "What we're instead looking for is a very tailored, streamlined presentation that offers a great everyday value and a very fresh product. We deliberately want to keep our floral offerings simple to prevent potentially confusing customers with mixed messages." He notes that other seasonal offerings are generally available, such as lilies and poinsettias in both a large and a small size that are typically displayed outdoors.
 
"We do a very solid floral business, and while it's not necessarily a 'floral destination' in the traditional sense and we might not make the same gross as a traditional floral department, the product moves very well, and helps us capture a great shrink ratio as a result of building a strong incremental business," explains Zivek.

Nontradtional Management

A lean, mean meat department is yet another compelling aspect of the fresh food offerings. Having since shifted from on-site dedicated meat-cutters and meat-wrappers to stocking the fresh meat case with products sourced from a traditional full-size Giant Eagle store in close proximity, the location packs an impressive array of unique fresh meats, including many oven-ready beef, pork, poultry and seafood selections like gourmet burgers and coconut-crusted tilapia, that easily enable customers to prepare high-quality, home-cooked meals in a jiffy.

"We are still fine-tuning our offerings and recipes," says Zivek, "but the main idea behind our strategy focuses on timesavings, good value and high quality to give shoppers healthy, fresh options that are just as easy as a frozen dinner."

An unconventional neighborhood store-type management structure is yet another distinctive attribute. "When we originally opened," explains Zivek, "we had a traditional store management structure with traditional assignments and responsibilities." After the store's makeover, he goes on, "We've since built the team around a general store manager and four co-managers, who have shared responsibility for the various departments and duties spanning center store, front end, grocery and the fresh food departments."

Offering all of the traditional business lines that are found in the average full-service supermarket,  the nontraditional Express store instead functions with teams that jointly manage store departments on a rotating schedule, Zivek notes. And though he admits that the structure is somewhat complicated primarily because of how different it is from the traditional "store manager mentality," Zivek says a thorough training program has been custom-built around a "four-wall capability model, where we interchange duties," via an arrangement that he describes as both productive and highly rewarding.

"As we do more, we learn more," notes Zivek, "and I'm very proud of our team here, which I'm willing to bet is probably more well-rounded than anyone in the company." Within the total store training blueprint, he adds, "You might start your day opening as a barista and end it doing something entirely different, be it a fuel cashier, in the center store, or even working in the meat department for an hour, or baking and replenishing the muffin cases."

Making prominent use of the company's affordable, upscale Market District private label brands throughout, the store does a brisk sandwich business. "We used to have touch-screen kiosks where customers placed their sandwich orders," Zivek explains, "but have since eliminated them in favor of a personalized ordering service along the lines of Subway, which enables us to still maintain the made-to-order business but also gives us direct interaction with customers at the station."

Flanking the fresh sandwich counter is a full-service deli and sushi bar, the latter of which was previously stocked with fresh selections made at an off-site location. "We now have a sushi chef that makes it fresh on-site," says Zivek.

Quality Offering

Either way, shoppers are all set from a grocery perspective as a result of Giant Eagle's careful monitoring conducted over the last two years to learn and understand what grocery items customers look for most often, especially between their larger, more traditional shopping trips.

Indeed, while much of the store's modifications focused heavily on fresh foods, the center store, according to Zivek, underwent dramatic changes as a result of completely reconfiguring the aisles from horizontal to vertical, which further highlights an edited assortment of staples focused closely on what people buy the most.

To that end, the store features three levels of products in many popular grocery categories, including a name brand, a value brand and a unique product, says Zivek, pointing to a trio of syrup varieties, which on the day of our visit included ValuTime, Aunt Jemima and a signature all-natural Market District brand. "Although we can't translate this scheme to every grocery item in the store, when possible, it's the strategy we try to go with," he adds.

The high ceilings and great use of natural light make the sleek, sophisticated store design appear much larger than its 13,500 square feet, an attribute Zivek considers to be especially interesting because of how "it makes everything in the store seem bigger, yet smaller at the same time." While the modified floor plan provides "an unobstructed visual path to facilitate a quick scan of the store, it simultaneously feels smaller because you get to see everything. As a manager, I really like it because I can come out of my office and take the pulse of things very quickly."

It's also clear that product diversification with an upscale edge also factors heavily in the merchandising mix, an observation Zivek affirms with a nod to couscous. "You're not going to stroll into a convenience store and find couscous," he quips, indicating that by setting the bar higher, "We're not trying to merely offer the absolute basics, but instead, basics with the best in terms of variety and healthy options."

Giant Eagle Express also excels with an excellent assortment of fresh produce, much of which bears Giant Eagle's Farmer's Market and Nature's Basket private labels for conventional and organic, respectively.

The Express Meal Case houses an incredible assortment of chilled Market District brand ready-to-heat meals prominently displayed from a large refrigerated case. "We are really trying to capture takeout meal business with our refrigerated, high-quality, reasonably priced offerings that are made fresh daily at our central kitchen," says Zivek.


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Convenience Rules

The store is the third-busiest Redbox retailer chainwide and the company's No. 1 Redbox store in the Pittsburgh area and store manager Jeff Zivek affirms that the $1-per-day self-service DVD rental kiosks "fit really well with a format like ours."

Another super-convenient aspect of the store is the drive-through pharmacy, which was also part of the original setup. However, it wasn't until after the store's overhaul was complete that the pharmacy component began clicking in high gear. "I talk to people all day, and was really surprised to hear that so many of our customers didn't realize we had a pharmacy," adds Zivek, who considers the close interaction he has with many of the store's regular customers to be a gratifying part of his job.