Tops

[Bill Call]

..A Giant Eagle press release said that the acquisitions will include 13 corporately owned Giant Eagle supermarkets, one independently-owned supermarket and four Dave's Supermarkets with Giant Eagle pharmacies.


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I talked to a friend who is in the upper management of Tops. A few highlights:

Dave's is still independently owned. They are not owned by Giant Eagle. Dave's was part of the buyers group that purchased the inventory from a buyers cooperative used by the Stop-n-Shops and other independent stores. When Giant Eagle purchased the Stop-n-Shops Giant Eagle agreed to continue to supply Dave's with wholesale foods.

Giant Eagle may have provided Dave's with the financing to purchase four Tops Markets.

That means:

Giant Eagle does not own Dave's but they have tight control over Dave's. They are Dave's banker and Dave's supplier and Dave's pharmacy.

I shop at Dave's on Payne. Their produce and meat is consistantly less expensive than Giant Eagle (99 cents for apples, 99 cents for lettuce..) and of equal quality. That may come to an end.

Top's management to is being cut off with little or no severance and no information on how the sale affects their pensions and other benefits.

This sale has been planned for at least two years. Over the last two years Tops has stopped maintaining buildings, lowered quality and service with the intent to squeeze as much profit as possible out of the stores.

My contact would not provide me with their internal price studies. He said that technically they now belong to Giant Eagle. (Loyal to the minute they slip the knife into his back). What he would say is that on average Tops prices were about 5% lower than Giant Eagle.

There is more.

[c. dawson]

Does Giant Eagle really supply Dave's? When I lived in Euclid, I used to shop at a Dave's exclusively (until a Tops was built right across the street), and while Dave's was a nice store with good pricing, they tended to carry food brands I never heard of, or saw anywhere else, especially not Giant Eagle, which tends to carry the "big" brands of foods.

I will say that each Dave's I've been in really seems to try hard to fit its neighborhood, and carry products that seem tailored to that area. For example, there was quite a few shelves of Eastern European products, a very sizeable section of Kosher products (there was a temple about a half mile away), and products aimed at an African-American audience. It was nice, because it seemed like they really tried to make sure that they carried something for everyone in our little corner of diversity.

And the nice thing about Dave's is that they will take a risk on some neighborhoods and areas where the big chains will not. That's where a local company can always beat a regional or national chain, in taking that risk, which has seemed to pay off for Dave's.

While I do like the bigger and newer Giant Eagle stores (like Rocky River or Lyndhurst/Legacy Village), they don't seem to have such a tailored mix of products.

I do hope when GE moves across the street, they do more than put up a sign and slap a coat of paint on the place, but give it a proper renovation.

[Jeff Endress]

I do hope when GE moves across the street, they do more than put up a sign and slap a coat of paint on the place, but give it a proper renovation

I don't think ANY renovation is in the works, given the announced timetable. Once the Tops stock is gone, it'll be replaced by GE stock...no downtime, seamless transistion...

Jeff