Giant at 90: The supermarket that changed how D.C. shops
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The first of now 160+ Giant Food locations opened on Georgia Avenue in 1936. Photo: Courtesy Giant Food
Supermarkets can be stressful now — inflation, $9 eggs and tech that feels one step shy of stalking.
But here's a rare feel-good story: Giant Food turns 90 today, and it's marking the milestone with a nearly $1 million donation to local food banks.
- Its Washington history is more influential — and a lot weirder — than you might think.
Flashback: Giant opened what's considered Washington's first modern supermarket in 1936 on Georgia Avenue Northwest.
- Founders Nehemiah Cohen, a rabbi, and Samuel Lehrman, a financier, pitched a radical idea during the Great Depression: one-stop shopping with variety at low prices — plus self-service, complete with "serve yourself" signs for skeptical customers.
The intrigue: In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip made a surprise visit to a Hyattsville Giant after a University of Maryland football game.
- The New York Times reported the pair were "amazed and delighted" by then-novelties like refrigerated display cases and child seats in grocery carts — all as weekend shoppers looked on, stunned to find the queen of England "peering into their carts."
Zoom in: Giant pushed boundaries before Walmart or Whole Foods existed.
- In 1961, "Super Giant" in Lanham, Maryland — a proto-superstore — opened with jewelry, cameras, oil paintings and a fur salon, alongside milk and eggs.
- In the early '80s came "Gourmet Giant" (aka "Gucci Giant"), complete with lobster tanks, chocolate mousse cakes and employees in polyester slacks and bowties.
Flash forward: Today, Giant operates 160+ stores and employs about 18,000 people, holding the largest grocery market share in the D.C. region.
- The fur coats are gone. The philosophy isn't.
What they're saying: President Ira Kress, who started as a cashier in the 1980s, tells Axios that Giant isn't trying to out-Amazon Amazon or chase flashy tech.
- Instead, it focuses on serving both the region's lowest- and highest-income neighborhoods the same way.
- "There's a saying [late CEO] Izzy Cohen used to use," Kress says. "You will do business as long as you deserve to do business."
- What keeps Giant successful, he says: "Our people — and offering customers what they want, not what we think they need."