Giant Eagle Poised To Land In Cincinnati?

An article that appeared Thursday on TribLive stated that the real estate developer for Giant Eagle's grocery stores has sold a third of it's stock to an investment firm in a $294 million deal.  Such a deal opens up large amounts of cash which may be used for expansion... possibly into SouthWestern Ohio.

For those unaware, Giant Eagle is a regional grocery chain based in Pittsburgh, and currently has over 200 locations in Western PA and in Ohio as far South as Grove City.

Compared to Kroger, Giant Eagle has a more modern, youthful appeal and a very inviting store layout.  The Market District store(comparable to Kroger's super rare Fresh Fare concept) in the Upper Arlington neighborhood of Columbus offers a vast array of hot prepared foods, exotic meats, a station to make your own nut butter, and a stage for cooking demonstrations.  It blows the competition out of the water and is so nice, you could eat there for dinner with all the available seating.

In the past, Giant Eagle's CEO Laura Shapira Karet has said that the companies expansion strategy would be focused on building stores within its established geographic footprint, but that was well over a year ago.  Giant Eagle is pretty well saturated within Columbus, and Cleveland, leaving the Southern half of Ohio as the most logical step.

I know the perfect place for them.

The Kenwood Collection.

The Kenwood Collection used to be called Kenwood Town Place before there were issues with contractors being stiffed, which led to years of a rusty I-Beam eye-sore, which led to a foreclosure  and now... new developers with a new name.

This property sits on the edge of the massive Kenwood Town Center, featuring H & M, Apple, Oakley, Nordstom, and many other high end shops and restaurants.  This mall is never really slow, as the surrounding neighborhoods of Indian Hills, Silverton, and Montgomery feed it with throngs of affluent suburbanites.

The former Kenwood Town Place was the location of The Kroger Co's Fresh Fare concept, which featured greater meat, deli, and seafood selections as well as a wine tasting section and better prepared meal options.  Kroger pulled out citing low foot traffic, which if true, would have no doubt been due to the lack of progress made on the rest of the property.

The mall that shares land with the Kenwood Collection is currently being remodeled, and will no doubt bring more interest into the already busy mall.  People also visit retailers like The Container Store and Crate & Barrel that stuck with the Town Place project through the low times and will no doubt be a great compliment to whatever fills Kroger Fresh Fare's large square footage.

So all the high end, refreshed mall and the high end, back-on-track mixed use development is missing is Giant Eagle.

I'll admit that this may come off as biased and that's because it is.  I really want to see Giant Eagle come to Cincinnati.  The store is a refreshing change of pace from what you get from Kroger.  Also, Giant Eagles fuel rewards program is at least twice as good as Kroger's.  

While Kroger gives you 100 points for every $100 spent, equaling 10 cents off per gallon, Giant Eagle gives 10 cents off for every $50 spent. So not only are the rewards more straight forward, but you get twice as many.  Also, Giant Eagle offers a fuel perk bounty on certain sale items.  'Buy 4 boxes of cereal, get an extra 15 cents off'.  Where a big spender at Kroger can get a 40 cent discount in a month, you can easily get 3 times as many. Even better, and perhaps the best part is that Giant Eagle's fuel perks accumulate in a rolling 60 or 90 day period; whereas points don't combine between one month and the next at Kroger.

Naysayers will say that Kroger is too strong in Cincinnati, but I would say to them: 1. we already have Meijer, Walmart, Target(some have groceries now), Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Fresh, and Remke-Bigg's and 2. Giant Eagle does well in Columbus, a town lousy with Kroger locations.  So that doesn't matter.  Also The Kenwood Collection is located on I-71, making distribution a couple hours away from Grove City(the next closest location). 

Of course, I'm sure the folks who make expansion decisions for Giant Eagle will want to send multiple shipments of goods 100 miles further to service more than one location.  It's cool, I already have the 2nd location scouted.  As a currently unemployed person, I would be willing to offer my thoughts as a consultant to Giant Eagle at a competitive rate... 


PS... I'm poor.  This is a hard thing to say since most of my readers are fiercely self-reliant, 'up by the boot-straps types', but I was wondering if anyone noticed the PayPal Donate button on my blog?  I'm currently in between jobs and I'm getting behind enough to the point where I don't know how much longer I can stay in my meager apt.  

I'm not asking to be completely subsidized, I'm just asking that those who can, donate.  For my part, I will continue to look for work while posting more than I have been in the past.  I grew up on a hog farm with an outdoor toilet and a wood burning furnace, so hard work is something I grew up on. So while it's easy to grunt, 'Get a job!' and 'Get off yer ass!', please understand I am not a lazy person and I wouldn't so shamelessly promote the donate button if it wasn't getting serious. 

Hopefully, something good will come my way quickly, but until then, hope isn't paying the rent.  Thank you in advance for any donations, and to those who can't or won't donate, I still appreciate you taking the time to read this.

Sam

Getting Fresh with Foodies...

Kroger Fresh Fare Closing.


The Kroger Fresh Fare concept that existed at the fancy Kenwood Towne Center will be closing at the end of the month according to an article in the Cincinnati Business Courier which I have linked to in the title of this blog.

It's either closing due to lower sales or trouble with the newly built property, depending on who you ask.  If you ask me, it's a bad strategic move either way.


First let's assume they aren't meeting sales numbers.  OK, but did they adjust their expectations when the economy nose dived?  Are they using unrealistic goals as an excuse to up and leave?  The more likely reason could be that they don't want to be in the middle of any entanglements that arise from Bank of America foreclosing on the property... and sales are probably down as well.


This is bad for several reasons.  First, this is Kroger's front door step.  Closing a unique concept in the home of your headquarters is like Louisville KFC's closing down or Wendy's closing their Dublin, OH locations.  Even though they have a few other Fresh Fare concepts in the country, it's still a proof of concept for the company.  What message do you send to shoppers about that concept and about the strength of your brand if you yank one of 2 or 3 in the country from your own front doorstep?


Even if it loses them some money, it's worth keeping the concept alive and can serve as a great test market for all things upscale.  The development on the site of the Kenwood Towne Center isn't going to crumble into dust.  The businesses will rebound and whoever is still there will reap the rewards.  Also, Kroger now has a ton of Marketplace locations and they could easily close one of those instead or one of their regular Kroger stores.  The closing of that store will be ironic because it will cause the other Kroger stores in the area to be much busier.  This will be great for those store's numbers but will annoy the shoppers that get sick of waiting in long checkout lines.  Some of these shoppers will instead seek out unique experiences like those found at Whole Foods, Fresh, and Kroger Fresh Fare... if it were still open.






Foodies or Food Snobs: Time for a stern talking to...
Like many of you, I get excited about food.  I can get lost for hours in a grocery store and not buy anything.  In fact, I often get so excited that I can't decide, then walk away empty handed.  I love to look for quality ingredients, try new brands, and be a cheer leader for the things I do like.


What I don't like is what I hear and read from some foodies and food blogs.  I won't start beef(get it?) with any blogs by being negative, but I will praise a couple blogs I think are good examples.


Fries With That Shake - Run by Jess Ward, the Burger Baroness herself celebrates food and tells you what's good without being too good for certain foods.  Maybe it's the fact that she's a fan of burgers, but you never get the feeling you're being lectured, shamed, or talked down to for the food you enjoy.  Bravo Jess, and next time you're in Cincinnati, lets go out for burgers. Follow her on Twitter @BurgerBaroness



Get in mah belly! - Run by Liz and I don't know nearly as much about this blog except that it's honest and not what I would call a Shiite Foodie.  Maybe that's not fair... how about Fundamentalist Foodie.  She likes the food of the masses, seems humble about her food experiences, and like Jess, is really excited to write about food.

What many people do that I don't like is very similar to reviews written in auto magazines.  In those magazines, the guy is always disappointed and makes some shitty comment about the test car that makes the reader feel that the whole process was beneath him.  They'll write things like, 'Of course, we would have preferred to test the 6-speed manual, but we'll have to make do with this automatic.'

So food snobs love to brag about how unique their dishes or ingredients are and love to dog on anyone else they feel doesn't have exotic enough ingredients.  Maybe they only drink IPA's or brag about how much the superdark microbrew costs, or scoff's at the idea of a domestic draft.  These people have indoctrinated themselves to the point that they can't eat a simple cheeseburger or make a fried egg sandwich unless it's flax seed bread, brushed with seasoned extra virgin olive oil, toasted on the grill and made with rare eggs that you can only find in a certain farmer's market that's only open during the summer solstice of every leap year for 2 hours.


Stop it.  You're missing the point of food(aside from providing nutrition).  The point is to have an enjoyable experience and to make something that tastes good that you can share.  What it's become is a canvas for food hipsters to put on an air of superiority.  Foodies react to food as if that is how they think they should react and not what they really think/feel.  It's not about brands or being ironic.  Stop being dicks.  

p.s.
Re: the Kroger story...

I know Kenwood is not in Cincinnati Proper but it is Cincinnati to everyone else that doesn't dwell in the Cincy Metro Area.

Hit & Miss: My love/hate relationship with the Kenwood Kroger Fresh Fare.

Aside from discussing food issues, I'll also be reviewing local chain restaurants. I don't mess with the independently owned or the trendy, because there are already a litany of people reviewing them. It's nice to know what the new Cuban place is like or where local Cincy celebs are hanging out, but most of us just want to know where the fastest, nicest, cleanest Wendy's is located.

I was thinking my first establishment would be the Newport Hooter's or the Montgomery Rd. Red Lobster, but I've had a number of experiences at the Kenwood Towne Center's Kroger Fresh Fare that warrant a review.

Kroger is one of the nation's largest grocer's with stores under the Kroger, King Sooper's, Ralph's, and Fred Meyer brands. In recent years, Kroger has updated the look of it's stores and added concepts like Kroger Marketplace, that adds homegoods and usually contains a jewelery store, and a Starbuck's. Fresh Fare gives Kroger a Whole Foods treatment, complete with Boar's Head meats, Murray's Cheeses, fresh seafood, fresh meat, sushi, a Starbucks, a large wine/beer section, sandwich/burrito making stations, pizza by the slice, and a hot food bar to package your own take home meal.

First, the good.

The wine selection is extensive, ranging from dry - sweet, cheap - expensive, humble - pretentious. The wine section even has regular tastings and is staffed by a sommelier. The beer section starts where the wine stops and is just as good. Tons of local and microbrews as well as the mainstream domestic and foreign beers. I like this section because I personally suggested that they carry Strongbow Cider, and a week later, it was stocked. That really makes a difference to know that an establishment listens and acts on customer suggestions.

Also, the customer service is pretty good there. I was at the checkout with pop that I thought was on sale. It turns out they had forgotten to change the prices on this particular brand. Did they let me have it at the cheaper price? No. They let me have it for free. They were also very good at correcting an error in ringing up peppers I bought without weighing them. The cashier made it seem like I had a pound each of Thai Chili, habanero, and jalapeno, when I didn't even have a half pound combined. I got reimbursed and they seemed to be genuinely sorry.

...and now the bad.
The food bar. This is the area where customers may get a plastic container and fill it with hot or cold food to take home or even to eat at the store in a cafe area. Great idea, Kroger, keep the customer in the store as long as possible. On one side is the cold bar, which has lettuce wedges, carrots, shredded cheese, alfalfa sprouts, edemame, and other crap I never eat. On the other side is the hot bar. Don't get me wrong, this is a great idea, but it's the execution where they fall flat. They have great food on here like Cincinnati style chili, chicken breasts covered in a balsamic reduction , macaroni & cheese, fries, some italian dishes, beans, corn, mashed potatoes, etc.

The main problem with this hot mess is that it's poorly kept. Not once have I gone in and seen glistening, steaming food in clean pans with clean stainless steel surfaces.
Instead, I see this:









...and this:
Dry chicken, spilled corn, clumpy macaroni, dried chili crust caked onto the side of the pan. Come on, Kroger, you're better than this. Also, they served spaghetti noodles with the chili so one could make there own 3 way. They problem with this is that you either dry out the noodles in the pan or you soak them till they're so soft that they can't hold their shape. Wet noodles make for horrific 3 ways. Wait a minute, did I just say that?

Anyway, nobody seemed too concerned with the state of things, and whats worse is the fact that nobody was embarrassed by it. I used to be a buffet attendant back when I started working for KFC..way back when they had buffets. Here is the proof:

Not only did I have the responsibility to keep the food full, but it had to look presentable. That means changing pans every 15-20 minutes, carefully stirring the corn or macaroni to keep it looking great. One of my bosses, franchise exec Keith Chambers, called it massaging the food. People walked in and that was their first impression of the restaurant. If I showed a lack of pride, they might assume we didn't care or were too busy and just turned around and left.

Hopefully, this isn't just about me trashing Kroger. Hopefully, something positive comes out of this review as well as the reviews I do in the future. I love grocery stores. I love walking around and seeing what they think is important and how the colors and sections are arranged. I hope Executives in the division that oversees this will see this and implement some changes. And Kroger execs...I'm happy to help.