Dive Brief:

• The Giant Company is altering operations at its Camp Hill Giant Direct wareroom, tapping a third-party partner to deliver orders while the grocer’s employees at surrounding stores will fulfill orders for customers, a spokesperson for the grocer confirmed via email. 
• The grocer noted these fulfillment model changes, which will take effect at the end of April, will allow for faster delivery, shorter delivery windows and more. 
• Giants’ new approach comes as grocers are pulling back on e-commerce investments as growth in the channel has recently slowed. 

Dive Insight:

Giant’s shifting fulfillment operations are part of an effort to bolster the efficiency of its e-commerce offerings, the spokesperson said.  

Giant said the company will “transition operations” away from the Camp Hill wareroom, but did not say if the location will close for business. The spokesperson confirmed that the only change customers in the area will experience is their orders being delivered by a third-party partner. The grocer did not say which partner would make the deliveries. It currently has delivery partnerships with DoorDash and Instacart.

The change will enable delivery in as little as two hours, shorten delivery windows to just one hour and allow customers to make order changes until two to three hours before their delivery window compared to previously having to do it four to six hours before.  

The Camp Hill wareroom, located at 3301 Trindle Road, is the only Giant Direct facility out of the six the grocer operates that will undergo these operational changes “at this time,” the spokesperson noted.

All Giant staff members employed at the wareroom were offered comparable positions at the grocer’s other e-commerce sites, perishable distribution centers or stores. More than 80% of impacted team members have accepted positions, according to the grocer. 

Giant debuted Giant Direct in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in January 2019 with a 38,000-square-foot facility. The service replaced Ahold Delhaize’s Peapod by Giant brand. 

In its first three years, Giant Direct performed so well that the grocery company had trouble keeping up with demand. It opened a 124,000-square-foot automated e-commerce fulfillment center near Philadelphia in 2021. 

A number of grocers are reevaluating their e-commerce operations as year-over-year digital sales continue to drop. 

Last summer, Giant Food shuttered three regional e-commerce facilities with plans to transition to a “localized fulfillment model.” Kroger also plans to close three spoke facilities as part of its e-commerce fulfillment network with Ocado in late May after the centers “did not meet the benchmarks we set for success,” a Kroger spokesperson said in a statement.