Dive Brief:

• GetGo Café + Market, the c-store arm of supermarket chain Giant Eagle, will open its first new-build c-store with a drive-thru lane on Thursday, according to an emailed announcement.
• Located in Mentor, Ohio — about 24 miles northeast of downtown Cleveland — the store will offer GetGo’s made-to-order foodservice program and online ordering capabilities, according to the retailer’s website. It is GetGo’s third location in Mentor.
• The drive-thru comes at a time when retailers are increasingly emphasizing foodservice to better compete with fast-food restaurants. 

Dive Insight:

For GetGo, drive-thru operations began in September 2021 at a store in Avalon, Ohio. And now, with its first new-build c-store to feature a drive-thru, the Pittsburgh-based retailer continues to be among the operators leading the charge on the innovation front.

In 2020, GetGo debuted checkout-free technology at a store in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, and a year later, became the first U.S. c-store company to accept PayPal and Venmo as in-store forms of payment.

“We’re all about fresh food, and with this drive-thru lane, we’re thrilled to bring the Mentor community our delicious made-to-order menu with the convenience you’d expect from GetGo,” a GetGo spokesperson said in the announcement.

The store’s grand opening on Feb. 2 will begin at 9 a.m., with a ribbon-cutting ceremony set for 12:30 p.m. The celebration will include live music, giveaways, raffle drawings, food and beverage samples and celebrity appearances. GetGo will also present a donation to Hunger Network, the area’s second-largest emergency food distribution and recovery organization. 

Guests attending the ceremony will receive a variety of GetGo merchandise and coupons, and will be able to try several of GetGo’s made-to-order appetizers and entrees.

Giant Eagle owns and operates more than 260 GetGo c-stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Maryland and West Virginia. Besides made-to-order foodservice, many locations offer WetGo car washes.

Convenience-focused grocery formats are also making headway with drive-up grocery startup Addie’s debuting its first retail location in Norwood, Massachusetts. Grocery startups Opie and JackBe have also opened pickup-only stores.