Developers build in East Liberty while Pittsburgh employment stagnates (Penn Hills: shop, kosher)

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Given Market District is directly owned by Giant Eagle as well, the question needs to be asked if it's actually profitable for them to have two different stores less than a mile apart, especially because there is some overlap between the clientele of the two stores as it is.

In the best of times, running a grocery is a high-volume, low margin business. And given the wide range of competition, and decline in lower-income customers in East Liberty, I can't see the store being more profitable today than it was ten years ago.

There is also a question of market share, Giant Eagle would want to get as many of their Shakespeare shoppers down to the Centre Ave. store.

And they definitely would not care to sell if they thought the Shakespeare site would be used for further competition.

example given, over on the South Side, Rite Aid has a store in the 1900 block of East Carson and another at 2300 Jane. One would think they would be cannabalizing each other, but maintaining the two storefronts prevents someone else from coming in.

[doo dah]

The Shakespeare Street Giant Eagle was built in around the early 1980s, I know because I had a boyfriend who lived over by there , it was the fanciest in city limits, and built to be like a suburban store, thus the parking lots. At that point in time, there were still quite a few of the franchise stores, Oakland Forbes Ave, North Oakland Centre, South Side, Lawrenceville, North Side (those were the ones I was familiar with, there may have been more). I think the North Side one is the only one left.
The Market District store was formerly Food Gallery, which was a nice, much smaller store; the owning family got out of the business and Giant Eagle bought the store; when they built the condos, they expanded the store into Market District.
The wine/spirits store at Shakespeare Street used to be the premium store. Then a new location was made behind what is now Panera on Center, near S. Aiken; that was the location until the Eastside store was built.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

There is also a question of market share, Giant Eagle would want to get as many of their Shakespeare shoppers down to the Centre Ave. store.

And they definitely would not care to sell if they thought the Shakespeare site would be used for further competition.

example given, over on the South Side, Rite Aid has a store in the 1900 block of East Carson and another at 2300 Jane. One would think they would be cannabalizing each other, but maintaining the two storefronts prevents someone else from coming in.

^^^^^ this.

Giant Eagle, erm, 101 Kappa Drive Assoc, still owns the land where the CVS at Center/Craig was built. CVS is not a direct competitor, so no problem leasing to them. No idea who could lease the Shakespeare Giant Eagle building - Walmart would probably love to get into the area, but they tend to build their own buildings, I think? Can't really tell about land ownership, looking at the county real estate page.
I wonder if they consider Walmart a direct competitor?

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by doo dah

The Shakespeare Street Giant Eagle was built in around the early 1980s, I know because I had a boyfriend who lived over by there , it was the fanciest in city limits, and built to be like a suburban store, thus the parking lots. At that point in time, there were still quite a few of the franchise stores, Oakland Forbes Ave, North Oakland Centre, South Side, Lawrenceville, North Side (those were the ones I was familiar with, there may have been more). I think the North Side one is the only one left.

I worked for RGIS in 79-80 , we did inventory in local supermarkets and Shakespeare was a frequent stop back then. Lawrenceville, Oakland, Cedar Ave. were all franchise Giant Eagles. South Side was a corporate store, and they are still over there- although moved from the original location at 2310 Jane St.

[theta_sigma]

Do we know if there is going to be park-and-ride at the Transit Center? Stanton Heights has even-crummier-than-average bus service and some place where I could leave my car so I can take the bus to Oakland would be a game-changer for me.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

I worked for RGIS in 79-80 , we did inventory in local supermarkets and Shakespeare was a frequent stop back then. Lawrenceville, Oakland, Cedar Ave. were all franchise Giant Eagles. South Side was a corporate store, and they are still over there- although moved from the original location at 2310 Jane St.

That's where the old store was, I couldn't remember. The one with the fierce Giant Eagle painted on the outside? I assumed it was a franchise because they were always so poorly stocked boyfriend said it was like shopping in Moscow.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

And they definitely would not care to sell if they thought the Shakespeare site would be used for further competition.

If Giant Eagle closed the store and sold the facility, it would be 95% certain that the new owner would raze the building and put something new (likely mid-rise apartments with maybe a small bit of retail) there instead. And even if it stayed open I doubt something like a Shop & Save would go in - the market for groceries is probably close to saturated.

Plus, as noted, since they lease to CVS in Oakland, which built an entire new structure on the leased property, it could be redeveloped into something different without Giant Eagle actually selling.

Originally Posted by theta_sigma

Do we know if there is going to be park-and-ride at the Transit Center? Stanton Heights has even-crummier-than-average bus service and some place where I could leave my car so I can take the bus to Oakland would be a game-changer for me.

I think there may be a small amount of parking there. I know there will be bike parking. I'm planning on riding my bike down to the station some of the time. Seems like a better solution than either a 45-minute bike ride into town, or a long ride on the 87m everyday.

[stburr91]

Originally Posted by doo dah

^^^^^ this.

Giant Eagle, erm, 101 Kappa Drive Assoc, still owns the land where the CVS at Center/Craig was built. CVS is not a direct competitor, so no problem leasing to them. No idea who could lease the Shakespeare Giant Eagle building - Walmart would probably love to get into the area, but they tend to build their own buildings, I think? Can't really tell about land ownership, looking at the county real estate page.
I wonder if they consider Walmart a direct competitor?

Walmart is a direct competitor with Giant Eagle.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by eschaton

If Giant Eagle closed the store and sold the facility, it would be 95% certain that the new owner would raze the building and put something new (likely mid-rise apartments with maybe a small bit of retail) there instead. And even if it stayed open I doubt something like a Shop & Save would go in - the market for groceries is probably close to saturated.
.

Close to saturated at this point in time, but maybe not in the recent future. Not all of the current stores are guaranteed to last in the long term, grocery stores come and they go. Giant Eagle would want to attach a covenant to the property to prevent future competition at that location.

Most of the buses that go by the Shakespeare store also go by the Market District, but not all. I think Giant Eagle want to see a few buses rerouted to go by the Market District to provide better coverage for their customers.
There isn't direct service between Garfield and Market District, for example.

[Geeo]

I don't think there will be a park and ride at the East Liberty Transit Center. They are building an underground garage for the 360 apartments that will be spread out among three buildings between Highland and Penn, but I don't think it will be public parking. At least I haven't seen anything to that effect.