Giant Food
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Giant Food is the name of two separate but related supermarket chains in the United States.
Giant Food of Carlisle, Pennsylvania was founded in 1923 by David Javitch. In 1970 it purchased Martins Food Markets in Hagerstown, Maryland and expanded until 1981, when it was purchased by the Dutch supermarket chain Ahold.
Although the companies shared financiers, Giant Food of Pennsylvania was independent of Giant Food of Landover, Maryland, which was founded in 1936 by N.M. Cohen and Samuel Lehrman in Washington, D.C.. It expanded to Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and New Jersey. Giant Food was the first to use computer-assisted checkout system-wide. Giant operated stores in Pennsylvania under the Super G name until its 1998 buyout by Dutch supermarket conglomerate Ahold from the founding Cohen family. It presently operates over 150 supermarkets. In the 1970s Giant experimented with department stores under the Giant name and apparel stores, including the Pants Corral. Giant was a long-time sponsor of the high school quizbowl game It's Academic.
In December 2004, Royal Ahold integrated Stop & Shop and Giant Landover into one single company to save money and has become one of the biggest supermarket chains in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The new company has more than 540 stores in various states and 80,000 part time and full time associates. See Giant-Stop & Shop for more details on the combined company.