Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Earlier this week, I blogged about a petition to keep the Cedar Avenue Giant Eagle store open. Late Tuesday afternoon, Giant Eagle tweet this to me as their formal response.

After more than 30 years of owning and operating Giant Eagle supermarkets throughout the city of Pittsburgh, Bill and Marie Bricker have decided to retire from the food retail business. As a result, Giant Eagle, Inc. has agreed to transfer the Bricker family’s current store, located at 318-320 Cedar Avenue in Pittsburgh’s North Side, to corporate ownership.   

“We greatly appreciate the longstanding dedication the Bricker family has shown to Pittsburgh-area Giant Eagle customers,” said Giant Eagle spokesperson Dan Donovan. “We look forward to continuing many of the offerings, services, and community commitments the Brickers established at this location, while ensuring North Side customers have the best of what Giant Eagle has to offer.”

North Side Giant Eagle customers will continue to see many of the same friendly faces throughout the store, in addition to new Team Members who will be joining the store as the company plans to increase staffing by at least 15 positions, creating job opportunities for those interested. Customers will also continue to find many of their favorite local products alongside a wider assortment of fresh, high quality meat, seafood, bakery and other items, as well as both national brands and Giant Eagle branded items popular with customers at other area Giant Eagle stores.

“The North Side is a vital Pittsburgh neighborhood, and we look forward to bringing a refreshed approach to meet the evolving needs of our customers,” Donovan added.

This is good news, they are planning to stay. It is critical that the Northside keep a reliable grocery story for all of our neighbors. That’s a good thing.

The response to my post was interesting. A lot of people supported the idea of a petition and expressed their hope to keep the store open and flourishing. Others reported on the signs they’ve observed indicating that commitment was in place.

I reached out to Pittsburgh United, which launched the petition, for a comment.

“Keeping this store open is a huge win for the community. People have been fighting for a long time to make Giant Eagle the best community member they can be and this response to our petition shows that we can push them to do the right thing. We look forward to seeing the changes that can be made to better the Cedar Ave Giant Eagle to benefit the employees and shoppers.” – Kai Pang, Organizer at Pittsburgh United 

As for the Bricker family commitment to the Northside, well you can read Marie Bricker’s words here.  Insert big eye roll from me, but I know corporate has to say these things. Here’s hoping we can move past this mentality to embrace a new perspective on the store.

I’d still love to see Giant Eagle buy out Sunoco and set up a Getgo.  Actually work with the jitney drivers. I’d love to see all sorts of new efforts and initiatives, mostly focused on workforce development. My first job was in a grocery store when I was 15 years old. It was a positive experience overall and I only left because I was hired away to a better paying job. I worked in retail later again in my life, once in a PT capacity and once when I was unemployed and really needed a job. I was glad to have the work and liked the work actually.  It was satisfying and I enjoyed working with people. But it was hard and required a lot of skills as well as patience.

So kudos to Giant Eagle for their overall plan and for responding to the petition, to the questions from the community. This is a win/win scenario.