Dive Brief:

• The Giant Company plans to open three stores in the Philadelphia area in December, the East Coast grocery chain announced in a press release Thursday.
• The new locations include a full-size Giant supermarket and a Giant Heirloom Market in the city itself, plus a replacement for an existing Giant supermarket in the Philadelphia suburb of Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
• The debuts of the new stores cap a busy year for the grocer as it looks to expand its presence in and around Pennsylvania's largest city.

Dive Insight:

The Giant Company's latest stores are part of a larger strategy by parent Ahold Delhaize to stand out against competitors by sharpening its pitch to shoppers in large cities.

The Netherlands-based grocery chain is striving to "cut through the weeds and simplify the customer journey to the essentials" as it looks to reach consumers who are swamped with messages from retailers eager for their business, Frans Muller, president and CEO of Ahold Delhaize, said last week during the company's investor day.

"As we look throughout our portfolio, we know urban centers are critical points of influence for customers," Muller said. "They drive cultural influence for the surrounding area. They drive commerce and they are the focal points for busy customers' life."

The first of the new Giant Company stores in Philadelphia, a 46,000-square-foot location at 1403 South Christopher Columbus Blvd., is set to open on Dec. 3. The store will include sushi prepared in-store, a dedicated section for plant-based products and a Beer & Wine Eatery.

The new Giant store in Doylestown, a 72,500-square-foot location that will replace a smaller supermarket, will open on Dec. 10. The store, at 4357 West Swamp Road, will feature a Starbucks, a Frutta Bowl superfoods cafe, an expanded selection of health and beauty care products, and a specialty cheese shop.

A week later, on Dec. 16, the company will open a 32,000-square-foot Giant Heirloom Market at 801 Market St. The Fashion District store, which will be the fourth of the small-format stores in The Giant Company's fleet, will feature offerings from local merchants including Claudio Specialty Foods, Isgro Pastries and One Village Coffee.

The new Philadelphia-area stores follow The Giant Company's opening earlier this month of an automated e-commerce fulfillment center in Philadelphia that is intended to strengthen the company's ability to handle online orders from consumers in the city and in the surrounding four counties.

Also in November, the company opened a 67,000-square foot Giant store on Cottman Avenue in Philadelphia. In March, The Giant Company opened a flagship store in Philadelphia's Center City neighborhood.

Ahold Delhaize is also looking to expand its connections with shoppers in the New York City area, where it has been taking steps to energize its Stop & Shop banner. As part of that effort, the grocer is linking Stop & Shop with FreshDirect, the Bronx, New York-based e-grocer Ahold Delhaize took control of earlier this year, to build a stronger omnichannel presence in the region.