TOUR: GIANT Food Stores - Doylestown, PA

GIANT Food Stores
Opened: 2021

Previous Tenants: Kmart

Location: 4375 Swamp Rd, Doylestown, PA

Photographed: December 28, 2021

I've never been too big of a fan of the Ahold side of the Ahold Delhaize stores, although this new GIANT Food Store in Doylestown really might change that. This is one of the latest new GIANT stores, of which there have been quite a few. They've also been doing renovations of their existing stores, but as usual, the renovations are not nearly as impressive as the purpose-built stores like this one. Then again, this one was not built as a GIANT; instead, it opened with the strip mall in 1987 as a Kmart. GIANT moved from a former SuperFresh a few doors down.

Let's take a tour of this beautiful store! The 70,000 square foot building contains a grand aisle on the left side, with a Starbucks in the front left corner, with produce and bakery on the left side and deli and prepared foods on the right side. Meat and seafood are on the back of the store, with beer and wine/cafe at the back of the first few aisles and natural/organic in the front. Frozen and dairy are on the far right side of the store along with pharmacy and HABA.

So a quick disclaimer: while I do find this store very attractive, I also find it overly monotone, much like the Stop & Shop remodels. It looks great in new stores but inevitably winds up looking flat and boring in remodels. This GIANT has some more deluxe features, though, like the Starbucks in the front and this counter for fresh-cut produce.

This decor, as we'll see, is much more exciting than the Stop & Shop decor.

I do like the lit department signage, which really draws your eye to each department. The lighting overall here is very well-done. The store is dark in color, but not poorly lit.

Floral is immediately inside the entrance to the right.

Here's an overview of the grand aisle, with the deli at the back left corner. Cheese and prepared foods line the right side in an island.

Some pretty exceptional signage here, along with really interesting and different offerings like the smoked meats counter. We'll see if these make it into other stores, especially the ones that are just getting renovations.

Because the prepared foods and deli are separated, the deli feels rather small, even though it's probably completely normally sized.

And behind the deli, straight at the back of the grand aisle we have the bakery.

And as we continue along the back wall, we move into meat and seafood. I really like the design of this service counter, which is set out from the rest of the back wall. The store's size makes it easy to get lost in a sea of straight lines and aisles all going in the same direction. As we see, there are efforts to break that up.

One such example is the beer and wine/cafe department, which takes up the back of the kitchen/cheese island.

And the seafood and meat counter is directly opposite that. These are much more impressive offerings than in a standard Stop & Shop, but I'm not entirely sure how they compare to a typical GIANT.

And after beer and wine is the natural food department, in the first few grocery aisles. This is complete with its own refrigerated and frozen section, including a massive selection of plant-based and vegetarian/vegan items, as we see here. This is the first time I've ever seen that getting its own department sign.

Note that the shelving is lit differently from the other grocery shelving, and that the category markers are all these lime green ones.

It's a very impressive natural and organic selection.

And beyond the service counter is a massive expanse of packaged meat opposite the rest of the grocery aisles.

As we continue down the store, we come to nonfoods...

...and one of the most impressive health and beauty sections I've seen lately.

The remainder of the store is a pretty standard Ahold layout, with dairy starting in the back corner and continuing down the last aisle. Frozen foods are in the last few aisles...

I've seen this in a lot of Ahold stores, where frozen foods take up half of one aisle, all of the next, and half of the last with dairy on the other side.

This store is, if nothing else, incredibly spacious!

I would like some more decor here, although the big red G is pretty good. This is definitely a store for which the decor dies out after the first few aisles, though.

And a seasonal department is in the front corner, but there's no pharmacy here. That's likely because there's also a CVS in this strip mall.

And an interesting setup with customer service in an island on the front end.

We're almost done with our Doylestown stores, but we have one more just a little bit north of here, which we'll be seeing tomorrow on The Independent Edition!