Giant-MD President Ira Kress says it may be forced to close stores if retail theft continues

[mjhale]

https://wtop.com/local/2023/06/landover ... dent-says/

I don't do a lot of shopping at Giant-MD anymore. When I have been in Giant-MD I have noticed that stores with dual entrances have one entrance closed off to force everyone through a single entrance/exit. The entrance that is usually closed in the one near the pharmacy. I have also seen the 20 items or less limitation for self-checkout. During the middle of the day there is usually one or two staffed register lines for people with full carts. I was in a Giant-MD store around closing last weekend. Two people came up front with full carts. When faced with the 20 item limit at self-checkout both asked where they were supposed to check out. The few staff on duty were tied up dealing with various issues at self-checkout. I only had a single item to purchase but still had to wait about five minutes for a self-checkout to become available. In that time the staff still hadn't addressed the two people with full carts over the self-checkout item limit. I wonder if those people ever got checked out or if they bailed and left.

In the past couple of months, I have noticed a drop in traffic in the Giant-MD stores near me. The ads are not as strong as they used to be. In the past I would use sale items and coupons to balance out the high average non-sale pricing. I used to be able to come out about 5 percent over Walmart which allowed me to limit my Walmart run to only HBA and paper goods where Walmart is usually cheapest around here. Safeway has really been running strong ads and good Just for U specials over the past three months or so.

I do wonder where geographically Giant-MD is having theft issues. I have actually witnessed more incidents of theft at Walmart near me than I have at Giant-MD. Once again, I suspect that the theft issues are happening at stores in lower income areas. Those are the areas that can least afford to loose a large scale grocery store. I don't know what the total answer is. However, I don't think that threatening to close stores is going to gain much goodwill with your customers and community. Safeway hasn't closed off second entrances except after 8-9 PM until close which I think is reasonable. Also, I only see baby formula locked up at Safeway but it has been that way since the shortages we had in the last couple of years. Maybe the theft rings haven't hit Safeway around here yet and changes are coming at Safeway too.

[storewanderer]

And now this out of Ward 8 in DC.

However Giant states they have no plans to close the store.

I wonder why the "meeting" and discussion even came up then?

Also appears the store was remodeled in the past few years... if there were such problems why did they feel the urge to redecorate?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va ... dc-future/

[mjhale]

And now this out of Ward 8 in DC.

However Giant states they have no plans to close the store.

I wonder why the "meeting" and discussion even came up then?

Also appears the store was remodeled in the past few years... if there were such problems why did they feel the urge to redecorate?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va ... dc-future/

I have to wonder if Giant-MD is not doing as well as Ahold would like. To gain some cover on closing money loosing stores they are using theft as the excuse. With that said, a similar article on WTOP.com said that Ahold has lost 20 percent of store profits in theft and is spending $300,000/year on security on the Alabama Avenue store. That isn't insignificant. Let's assume Albertsons isn't mum on theft issues because of the potential merger, I don't hear them screaming wolf about issues at the store further up Alabama Avenue at Good Hope Marketplace. Or any of their other DC area stores for that matter. Maybe my observation is inaccurate, but it seems like Safeway has a better handle on running urban stores in different environments. Lastly, I'm glad that the councilman is advocating for his community. However, the problem does not lie completely with Ahold. A recent article where the same councilman was interviewed about the rise in violence in DC, he says his ward is short 33 police officers. And then he says "Parenting. I’m going to say it again: Parenting." Where was that message in his comments about Giant potentially closing the store? He makes this sound like it is all on Ahold. It isn't. The community has to be willing to change and the government and community organizations have to be willing to provide the resources to help that change. Business can't do it alone. When the community and business don't get the help they need to be successful everyone is destined to fail.

[storewanderer]

Giant has a ton of foot traffic. Is it much more difficult to control theft when you have very high foot traffic. They also have a larger store with more appealing merchandise, a more broad mix of non food, laundry detergent, and other highly stolen items.

Safeway by comparison has a fraction of the foot traffic of Giant in this particular location. They have considerably less non food. With little traffic shoplifters will stand out more and be more likely to be caught. So to that point the only reason Safeway doesn't have theft issues is because the thieves, much like many paying customers, have decided Safeway is not the best place to go. I suppose in this case this is helpful for Safeway.