Giant Food

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Like Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Giant Food is a child of the Great Depression. The company quickly learned that survival, much less success, would require an instinct for anticipating the public's changing needs. Through innovation and experimentation, it has evolved into one of the nation's most effective food retailers.

When the first Giant Food "supermarket" opened in 1936, it was Washington's first self-service grocery store. Within a year, its unprecedented selection and convenience had lowered area food prices some 35 percent.

The second Giant store introduced shopping carts. The fourth store (1940) featured a glass facade with the store's name backlit from the inside.

Instead of following industry tradition, Giant opened its own slaughterhouse and central bakery in the 1940s. Anticipating a huge cultural shift, Giant in 1955 opened its first shopping center store in Rockville, Md. Before the decade ended, a "new dimension in retailing" was ushered in when the first 35-department Super Giant opened in District Heights, Md.

In the mid-1960s, Giant adopted the familiar grocery-pharmacy format that continues as its signature today.

Over the years, the company has constantly responded to consumers' demands for quality, value and efficiency. Privately labeled products, unit pricing, nutritional labeling and a no-frills food warehouse are just a few examples.

Responding to heightened environmental needs, Giant maintains a cardboard recycling facility. It was early to recognize the special requirements of disabled persons with ramps and wider aisles. To speed the checkout process for time-conscious shoppers, Giant in 1979 became the first chain in the world to install computer-assisted laser scanning in all its stores.

Giant opens an average of eight new stores each year, and has expanded from D.C., Maryland and Virginia into Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Clearly, it has succeeded by keeping a keen eye on the public's changing needs -- and successfully adapting to meet those needs.

Giant Food

1971

Paul B. Gunby, Jr. started out packing grocery bags in 1967. Today, as Director, Compensation, Benefits and Payroll, he has an excellent perspective from which to review three decades of change in both the retail food and health care industries.

"In the '70s, convenience and security were priorities," said Mr. Gunby, "and our associates felt comfortable with Blue Cross and Blue Shield. They also liked not having to fill out claim forms or pay for care out of their own pockets."

But, when the 1980s brought dramatic health care cost increases, Blue Cross and Blue Shield responded by offering a plan that required second-surgical opinions and inpatient precertification. Through a "triple option" offering, Giant associates chose the program that met their individual requirements.

Today, Giant staffers in five states and D.C. can each select a local Blue Cross and Blue Shield provider network. Yet, the program ensures consistent benefit administration. According to Paul Gunby, "Blue Cross and Blue Shield has always used its experience to build state-of-the-art programs for us."