Giant Eagle Launches New Business Strategy To Drive Company’s Multi-Year Plan For Growth

Retailer enters its next chapter with planned $100 million investment in value, quality and stores in 2025 and 2026

Giant Eagle, one of the nation’s leading food and pharmacy retailers, announced the launch of its Because It Matters business strategy that will guide the company’s plan for growth in the coming years. The new strategy marks the latest ina series of historic organizational milestones throughout the past 12 months, highlighted by the sale of Giant Eagle’s GetGo business and the rapid growth of the retailer’s pharmacy services.

“Today launches the next era of Giant Eagle which has a series of components that we’ve been working on for a long time,” said Justin Weinstein, Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer at Giant Eagle in an interview with Grocery Insight. “Yes, this is a marketing and brand campaign, but more than anything, it’s a rallying cry for our teams, and it’s a commitment around reinvestment back into the things our customers care about most. This was not something we came up with over a period of a few weeks, this has been a long time in the making, and it’s us putting a stake in the ground around our next chapter as being a focused supermarket and pharmacy retailer that is delivering upon the things that our customers and our team members are asking us for.”

The Because It Matters strategy reaffirms Giant Eagle’s commitment to better everyday value, better quality and service and a better overall shopping experience, all with a focus on prioritizing what truly matters to customers. It is bolstered by an investment of more than $100 million the company is dedicating toward new and brighter stores and more everyday value and quality.

Weinstein said, “It’s simple: It’s about how do we lower prices every day  for customers on the items they care about? How do we have great promotions that bring them in every week? How do we care about the commodities where people expect freshness and quality? How do we invest in our people to make sure the  training is alright? How do we make sure our physical plants are up-to-date and are modern and bright? Retail is detail; the details matter because ultimately they matter to our customers.”

The Because It Matters multi-year strategic plan is focused in three distinct areas: Better Everyday Value, Better Quality and Service and A Better Shopping Experience.

“It’s the idea that a grocery store is a social place to play inside the communities we operate in,” Weinstein elaborated. “It’s all the moments we’re there for – big and small – for our customers.”

Better Everyday Value

Giant Eagle realizes it has a responsibility to deliver real, meaningful value to customers. In the last year, industry grocery prices have been influenced by compounding factors including recent and existing tariff implementation, fluctuations in transportation costs and product availability challenges.

“Our commitments to quality, service and being a leading employer across the communities we serve cannot come at the expense of prices that make choosing to shop with us a challenge,” Weinstein said in a press release. “We plan tointroduce several savings-focused initiatives throughout the remainder of 2025 to keep costs low for customers by offering additional ways to save. This comes alongside us working closely with our suppliers every day to explore all opportunities to maintain and reduce costs during this important time for families’ grocery budgets.”

A cornerstone of Giant Eagle’s upcoming investments is the launch of a seasonal pricing initiative aimed at providingcustomers with immediate relief from inflation. The company will invest millions of dollars to reduce prices on dozens of the most frequently purchased items across its supermarkets, including family meal essentials like proteins, produce and pantry staples. Through the process of identifying and lowering the prices of, items that are frequently purchased, this initiative is designed to create recurring value for Giant Eagle customers as they shop through the season.

“We want to be there for our customers however they want to shop,” Weinstein said. “Regarding the customer piece, we’re going to invest more than $100 million between now and the end of 2026 in our store infrastructure that’s across both supermarket and pharmacy alongside in more everyday value. The everyday value piece is one that’s very top of mind for the consumer today given the financial realities a lot of families are facing in terms of rising costs. We believe a core part of this – it’s not the only part, it’s one of the three pillars – is around better everyday value.”

Customers can expect a series of themed promotions to add to the seasonal pricing investment. This promotional activitykicks off with “$1 Deals”, a one-week sale starting Sept. 25 that lowers 1,000 items to

$1. This million-dollar investment discounts popular items ranging from name brand drinks to pasta products and from yogurts to baby food. “$1 Deals” and other promotional efforts are in addition to the strong weekly sales, discounts via the Giant Eagle mobile app and savings through the myPerks loyalty program that customers have come to appreciate.

Better Quality and Service

Quality and service have differentiated the Giant Eagle shopping experience for decades. As the company looks toward the future, it believes these two areas must continue to resonate strongly with customers.

Prioritization will continue to be given to commitments including:

• Hiring and training food professionals like certified butchers, bakers, cake decorators and cheesemongers,
• Offering a wide variety of fresh produce, meat, seafood, bakery and prepared meals,
• And making deliveries to its stores seven days a week to ensure peak quality and

“As it relates to our team members, we want to equip them with what they ultimately need to be successful,” Weinstein said. “On the team member front, focus on quality and service and those very tangible investments we’re making in making sure that if you’re an aspiring butcher, you have the training to be able to do that. There will be bakers and cake decorators inside of our bakeries and cheese mongers for those who are obsessed with the new variety of cheese. People love food and are  brought together by food, and our team members take a lot of pride in that. Being able to give them the training and education they need is really important. On the other side of that, they have to be in position to be able to deliver upon the quality and the freshness standards that we’ve set.”

As the company moves forward with its new strategy, Giant Eagle is investing in programming to continue to provide differentiated quality and service offerings. Two notable examples of this program include:

• A heightened approach to ensure ripe, great-tasting produce is offered to customers. Giant Eagle knows the importance its customers place in trusting that produce that arrives in-store is carefully inspected and cared To elevate this focus area, the company is reviewing all processes to ensure its produce meets and exceeds customer expectations. The retailer’s immediate focus is on four important produce categories – berries, grapes, tomatoes and salads – all of which the company believes currently differentiate Giant Eagle from its competitors. The company is reviewing all steps throughout the supply chain, from farm to shelf, to maintain and elevate these points of difference.

“We’ve called out specifically berries, grapes, tomatoes and salads as four areas where we want to make sure that our team members are fully equipped to be able to cull that product and to be able to provide the freshness that our customers ultimately expect,” Weinstein said.

• Expanded employee trainings so Team Members can answer questions and meet customer needs. Giant Eagleis expanding the training programming across its stores to ensure that its Team Members have the right knowledge and skills to provide world class customer service. One example is the company’s reinvigoratedService Ambassador program, which gives Team Members across all stores training and tools needed to ensure each store team is prepared to meet and exceed customer expectations every day.

“We [recently] honored hundreds of team members at Giant Eagle who have been with us for more than 25 years, and we even had a team member who was celebrating 50 years with Giant Eagle,” Weinstein said. “I mention that because the tenure and longevity of our teams is really important to us. It speaks to the role that we can play, not only for them as individuals, but for their families and for the community. The team member piece is really the enabler, if you will, of all the things that we know need to be true from a customer and a vendor perspective.”

A Better Shopping Experience

Like many retailers, Giant Eagle faces the reality that while more consumers become familiar with shopping for their groceries digitally, the majority of transactions still take place by customers shopping in its stores. As the company strives to offer new and improved shopping experiences, it has a responsibility to invest in both its physical footprint and in digital infrastructure across its owned ecommerce platforms and expanded partnerships with third parties.

Recent and upcoming investments into enhanced shopping experiences include:

• An investment of millions of dollars to remodel a dozen supermarkets across Pennsylvania and Ohio.
• The renovation and expansion of more than 60 in-store Giant Eagle Pharmacy departments, while
• continuing to refine and grow the company’s standalone pharmacy presence.
• The rollout of new shopping carts, making shopping at Giant Eagle’s even more enjoyable.
• The introduction of grocery delivery options from 33 additional Giant Eagle supermarkets.
• Continued Giant Eagle mobile app enhancements, building on recent features including item locators, meal bundles and artificial intelligence-driven enhancements to elevate the customer’s mobile app experience

“We’re attuned to what our customers and what  our team members ultimately need,” Weinstein said. “We have a lot of confidence and believe that what we do matters every day. We’re going to go out to market with a bold vision for what the future of Giant Eagle can mean as it relates to having a sharp value proposition that brings together stronger everyday value, that brings together the quality and service that our customers have come to expect from us and really looks to reinvest back into those physical stores that are the community hubs in many cases where people come together.”

All Celebrated by a New Brand Campaign Focused on What Matters to Customers

Giant Eagle’s business strategy is centered on being better for its customers, its Team Members and its communities for asingle, unifying reason – Because It Matters. The business strategy will be amplified by the launch of a new brand campaign that celebrates the reason customers choose to shop at Giant Eagle – because of the quality and care Giant Eagle delivers to the foods its customers feed themselves and their families.

“We wanted to commemorate this important moment in Giant Eagle’s history with a brand campaign that shows what we believe makes Giant Eagle unique,” said Kasey Sheffer, Vice President of Marketing and Own Brands at Giant Eagle.“Our Team Members work every day to be attentive to the needs of our guests, wanting to help make the moments in their lives special. Our Because It Matters brand campaign shines a spotlight on many of those moments, making what is important to our guests what is important to Giant Eagle.”

The Because It Matters brand campaign will be featured in a robust array of communications channels over the coming months, including broadcast, print, digital, out of home, sports marketing and numerous other mediums.