TV Show featuring Giant Eagle (credit card, purchase, cinema)

[Evergrey]

What I hate most about Giant Eagle is the wildly varying quality of their stores. Market District is fantastic top-tier stuff, of course... but there's only a few of those. Giant Eagle has some really solid markets in affluent suburban areas (the ones I've experienced in Ohio are very nice too). I also like a lot of their Market District brand products... like their iced tea. However, their urban locations and rural small town locations are almost always mediocre to atrocious. Other than Market District Shadyside, is there a decent Giant Eagle within City of Pittsburgh limits? Even Squirrel Hill... a large wealthy international neighborhood... gets a crummy Giant Eagle (though at least the parking lot is in the rear... 5 points for urban design). Before building another extravagant palace in the next booming exurb... Giant Eagle should strive to establish consistently excellent quality at their stores... regardless of location... urban, suburban, rural.

[fleetiebelle]

Other than Market District Shadyside, is there a decent Giant Eagle within City of Pittsburgh limits?

What do you consider decent?

I don't particularly care about grocery stores. Heck, I shopped almost exclusively at the Foodland in Mt. Washington for 6 years. As long as the place is clean and the produce section is decent, it's fine by me.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Giant Eagle should strive to establish consistently excellent quality at their stores... regardless of location... urban, suburban, rural.

That's the way I think, too. Very odd to have some deluxe stores and others that are decidedly more mediocre.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Caladium

That's the way I think, too. Very odd to have some deluxe stores and others that are decidedly more mediocre.

Have you ever been to that Giant Eagle on Penn across from Club One in Shadyside? Oh my! Talk about depressing. I think what gets me are the prices at Giant Eagle. I always feel like they are all about smoke and mirrors. For example, do you think Giant Eagle has GMO's throughout the store? My gut says YES. Compare that to a place like Trader Joe's that has cheaper prices and the don't have any GMO's in any product in the store. I asked management one time and they said they have an independent tester on the products. I just don't think a Giant Eagle would care about that type of thing. They are more about monopoly and out for the buck. Look at those gas stations they run. Did they have to enter that market as well? I just really dislike Giant Eagle with all there tricks and fuel perk crap. Just put a price on the products and leave me alone with fuel and all the tricks to make me think I am getting some deal. I know full well I am not getting a deal and don't insult me. At least that is how I feel when I go there.

[cheezit34141988]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Have you ever been to that Giant Eagle on Penn across from Club One in Shadyside? Oh my! Talk about depressing.

In my 6 months in this city I've visited most throughout the near-downtown area, and can say that Southside is by far the worst.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by dtrtrggr13

In my 6 months in this city I've visited most throughout the near-downtown area, and can say that Southside is by far the worst.

I swear they also rotate fruit & vegetables between stores or have a hierarchy as to the order the stores get the best to worst produce, because any that's bought at that southside GE goes bad in no time.

I might have a more positive view of GE overall if I was close to one of their nice stores rather then the southside cesspool

[youngabe]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Have you ever been to that Giant Eagle on Penn across from Club One in Shadyside? Oh my! Talk about depressing. I think what gets me are the prices at Giant Eagle. I always feel like they are all about smoke and mirrors. For example, do you think Giant Eagle has GMO's throughout the store? My gut says YES. Compare that to a place like Trader Joe's that has cheaper prices and the don't have any GMO's in any product in the store. I asked management one time and they said they have an independent tester on the products. I just don't think a Giant Eagle would care about that type of thing. They are more about monopoly and out for the buck. Look at those gas stations they run. Did they have to enter that market as well? I just really dislike Giant Eagle with all there tricks and fuel perk crap. Just put a price on the products and leave me alone with fuel and all the tricks to make me think I am getting some deal. I know full well I am not getting a deal and don't insult me. At least that is how I feel when I go there.

Your opinion about the store itself is your opinion for your shopping needs--that I would never refute.

BUT...why doesn't anyone actually recognize that the fuelperks are a very good deal? Like I said previously, even if you never have even bought a gallon of milk at a Giant Eagle store, buying gift cards there, which are obviously not marked up in any way, only benefits YOU, the shopper. I routinely do that and routinely get .50+ cents off per gallon, per fill-up. GetGo's basic fuel prices are never more expensive than any other competitor.

Seems as if everyone is so hell bent on hating GE that they won't even give one bit of credit where credit is due. Can anyone tell me why fuelperks is NOT a good program? When you're paying $3.89/gal and I'm paying $3.39 just by buying giftcards--it's pretty obvious to me...

[cheezit34141988]

I use the Fuelperks and they're cool and all. I use the giftcard trick as well.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by youngabe

BUT...why doesn't anyone actually recognize that the fuelperks are a very good deal?

As far as I'm concerned, you need a big car for them to be a particularly good deal. If I let my car get super empty I'm putting in 12 gallons. So I spend 50 bucks at Giant Eagle and that 10 cents off would save a whole $1.20. That kind of return is often not worth the hassle of getting gift cards first. Certainly don't want to have money tied up in unused gift cards, even for places I know I'll use eventually. And yeah the other way to make it more worthwhile would be to stockpile gas in cans at home. I considered it but it would make the other resident of my house too nervous. (Even I don't really want 10-20 gallons of gas hanging around in the garage either.)

I have to know that I'm buying something large in advance AND remember to get the cards a day in advance of such a shopping trip. Just doesn't happen often. Sometimes I wish I could remember things like that to better operate that way, but I can't. Only a large purchase might make it worth the hassle; it's about 2-2.5% back for me. If you were putting 30 gallons in your tank all the time, that would be 6%. Then I start to get it. The occasional double gift card points is another temptation. Each time that happens I think about it, but short of some definite purchase on the horizon I don't want to tie up $$ in gift cards. The return rate is greater than some things, especially on double, if you use the cards within a short time. But it's a weird place to park too much money IMO.

I shop various places including GE, and thus sometimes I do earn FuelPerks, but it's not enough to make me shop exclusively there. Looking forward to new Whole Foods as additional option closer to home.

BTW, some GE stores are not company-owned, but this alone doesn't account for the big variations in what to expect at different stores.

[cheezit34141988]

To continue with the gift cards things...I know some poeple who are contractors/homebuilders, etc and they will go to GE and get thousands of dollars in gift cards to Home Depot, etc...and never pay to fill their car. I think THOSE people are the ones benefiting most.