Eastern C-Stores Pursue Shoppers Tesco's Fresh & Easy, Wal-Mart's Marketside Target Out West
While Wal-Mart, Tesco and Safeway test scaled down grocery store formats on the West Coast to service consumers who prefer quick and easy shopping, East Cost food retailers are bulking up convenience store concepts to make their own play for shoppers who want to purchase basic food items without the hassle of navigating big supermarkets or supercenters.
Giant-Carlisle, a division of Ahold USA, which operates Giant and Stop & Shop supermarkets in the Northeast, is one of the food retailers launching new convenience store formats that include perishable items such as meat and produce that take them a step beyond the traditional C-store operating model. Its new Giant To Go convenience store combines gas pumps with traditional convenience store categories and a basic assortment of fresh meat and produce. Giant To Go isn't as big as the West Coast convenience groceries. At about 4,500 square feet, it is a little less then half the size of, say, Tesco's Fresh & Easy. However, it allows consumers to pull together a meal in a few minutes, and that's at heart of the proposition offered by all convenience grocery concepts.
Giant spokesperson Tracy Pawelski said Giant To Go provides more than 100 fresh produce items in single-serving sizes and family packs. Customers can pick up bananas, berries, grapes, cantaloupes and even mangos. In the fresh vegetable category, they can choose snow peas, asparagus, green peppers, carrots and cucumbers among other items. She added:
We also feature individual serving sizes of cut-up fruit and vegetables and Giant single serve salads that are made fresh for the on-the-go customer. Our tailored selection of fresh meats includes family favorites like fresh ground beef, boneless chicken breasts, fresh ham steaks and smoked sausage along with Family Heat & Eat Hormel entrees.Giant Eagle Express is more of a hybrid. The Giant Eagle supermarket chain â€" unrelated to Giant -- has had it in development and reports say it is prepared to expand the format by at least three stores. Express is relatively big at around 14,000 square feet, and it offers an extensive foodservice department including sit down dining. It recently expanded fresh food in a customer proposition that also includes meat and produce.
Although unaffiliated corporately, both companies are headquartered in Pennsylvania, which is a hotbed of activity for convenience food on the East Coast. That may have something to do with the presence of Wawa. The convenience store chain, headquartered in Wawa, Pa., has been a sector leader in providing high-quality fresh food, including produce, salads and deli products, arranged both for on-the-go eating and fill in grocery trips.
Wawa operates stores in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, as well as Pennsylvania. It's uncertain that the approach to convenience grocery the company represents can extend behind its heartland in the midst of the East Coast. Yet, it's also uncertain whether the new convenience grocery concepts being tested on the West Coast have the wherewithal to establish themselves even in their current markets. At least the new concepts in Pennsylvania have an historical precedence through Wawa, and that can't hurt.