Giant Food of Landover, Maryland
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- For other uses, see Giant Food.
Giant Food Inc. of Landover, Maryland, was founded in 1936 by N.M. Cohen and Samuel Lehrman in Washington, D.C.. It expanded to Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. Giant Food Inc. was the first to use computer-assisted checkout systemwide. Giant Food Inc. operated stores in Pennsylvania under the Super G name until its 1998 buyout by Dutch supermarket conglomerate Ahold from the founding Cohen family. It presently operates over 190 supermarkets. In the 1970s, Giant experimented with department stores under the Giant name and apparel stores, including the Pants Corral. Giant is a long-time sponsor of the Washington- and Baltimore-area high-school quizbowl game It's Academic.
Since 1977, Odonna Mathews has been well-known to Washington- and Baltimore-area Giant Food shoppers as consumer adviser. Mathews, who appeared in countless circulars and TV and newspaper ads, announced her retirement in September 2005, effective at the end of the month. Andrea Astrachan succeeds Mathews in the role, and also appears in Stop & Shop circulars and in-store ads.
[edit] Giant-Stop & Shop
In December 2004, Royal Ahold integrated Stop & Shop Supermarkets and Giant Food LLC of Landover into a single operation to save money and it has become one of the biggest supermarket chains in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The new combined unit has more than 540 stores in various states and 80,000 part time and full time associates.
