TOUR: GIANT Food Stores - Hellertown, PA

GIANT Food Stores
Opened: 2002

Previous Tenants: unsure

Location: 1880 Leithsville Rd, Hellertown, PA

Photographed: Late 2018 and January 12, 2019

Contributor: Lucas from Grocery Voice

Welcome to the Hellertown GIANT! Lucas from Grocery Voice brings us pictures of this store during its most recent renovation and once the renovation was completed. Unlike the other stores Lucas has contributed, I've actually been to this store twice but never photographed it. Both times were before this latest renovation. I have to say that I think the store looked much better before, but it's definitely brighter and more modern-looking these days. The 54,000 square foot store feels larger than it is, likely because of how spacious it is and how high the ceiling is.

If there's one thing that can be said about the renovation, it's that the stores are... white. Very, very white. I think that's something that's been drastically improved for the later renovations.

Remember that what we're seeing is the store in the middle of its renovations, so you'll notice department signage is not fully installed yet, and the aisle markers haven't been changed, among other things in-progress.

But you can see what I mean about how white (completely bland) the store interiors are.

The store has a standard GIANT layout, with produce on the right side, meat/seafood on the back wall, with deli in the back right corner, dairy/frozen on the left side, and bakery in the front left corner.

Here we see the older aisle markers that have yet to be replaced.

Lucas took this first round of photos in late 2018, then returned in January 2019 to show the finished renovation.

I won't say the store is unattractive, since it's definitely not. There's just nothing going for the design here. I like the wood floor, but that's left over from a past decor package.

And the lighting is good, too, if not that exciting.

At the very least, the department signage is easy to read. But there's not much on the wall, although admittedly this is even less than usual because the remodel wasn't done yet.

And the bakery department had been modified the least, with basically just the old signage removed...

And next to the bakery is the front end, beginning with these self-checkout registers.

Here's a look across the front-end back towards the produce aisle.

And now for the 2019 photos after the renovation. Lucas returned to the store to document the decor fully installed, although in my opinion not much changed...

We do see a little more color on the walls with some of the promotional signage here, but still not the most exciting.

I will say that I think this decor package works better in these more modern-looking stores than some of the much older Stop & Shops.

And I think it ties in well with the promotional signage, like the Save banners here.

We missed it the first time around, but here's a look at the deli and prepared foods area in the back right corner of the store. I remember this store having a much better prepared foods selection than the Stop & Shop stores in my area, and I believe this was my first GIANT I'd been to.

Here's a good overview of the back wall of the store. Again, I like the wood floor and I think that actually matches the new decor quite well.

It's just so plain, though. There's absolutely nothing eye-catching about it.

And it looks like the aisle markers hadn't been replaced by this point either, so maybe they never were.

This is a very pleasant store, although to be fair both times I was here was late at night so I was the only one in the store practically!

Service meat and seafood, which is of course a rarity in the Stop & Shop stores.

Note the blue aisle markers for the HABA aisles. 

In the areas without the wood signage or focused lighting, the store really has a much lower-end, almost no-frills discount store-like environment, which I don't think is bad but is just not what this store actually is.

This signage and department especially looks really low-end, which again is not a problem but just not what they're going for, as far as I can tell. Or are they trying to position themselves as a lower-end choice to the higher-end Weis, which consistently has more deluxe decor in their stores?

One more shot of the back wall before we move along. This is a nice overview of the deli-prepared foods area looking back towards produce.

Even these signs are more basic than the Stop & Shop ones, since they exclude the fruitbowl symbol found in the equivalent Stop & Shop remodels.

Here's a look at the pharmacy in the front corner next to bakery.

And that is all for the Hellertown GIANT! Thanks again to Lucas for these photos from the last few days. Tomorrow we're headed towards Bethlehem with a look at a former supermarket just south of the city on Grocery Archaeology!