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| If Giant were still around today, it'd look like this. |
My visit to Weis the other day got me wanting to write about Giant Markets, which dominated Broome County for over 75 years time. They were ahead of their time when they opened during the Depression, being a one-stop shop that was self-serve with baskets and later carts, before even downstate. They managed to compete with A&P, ShopRite, P&C, Wegmans, Price Chopper, Walmart and Grand Union. They managed to buy properties on Upper Front Street to keep some of these other chains out, while others left that part of town. It'd be too much work to find which generic brands they carried in those days as it's not always easy to tell with some indies, although Giant had their own with most common items, as well as some other private labels, and even their own warehouse. With the generic nature of the word "Giant", this is not the same Giant that is in Pennsylvania, Delmarva, the Virginias (including as Martins for the same reason; being Pittsburghs Giant Eagle, but that's different, as both of Ahold Delhaizes Giants themselves were separate animals at first). Even in Endicott back in the Southern Tier in the late '30s, there was once an unrelated Giant Market to boot, so it could also happen within the region at a time news moved slowly). That's a Giant headache! (I wrote about naming conflicts some years earlier as there was simply no way of knowing if a name was taken before the Internet if it wasn't a national company as we don't have a Companies House in this country
per se).
Weis bought Giant in the Southern Tier in 2009. They initially kept the name like they did with Albany Public Markets up I-88, but maybe because of the confusion I just described, and since Weis are rivals with the other three Giants as you head down the Appalachian Trail, the Axels' Giant name was retired, yet the company are still a legal entity belonging to the family owning properties, some with their old stores. Several have a unique design familiar to people in Spiedie Country if built and/or remodelled in the late '80s up until the '00s. There are a Facebook group as one would expect like with other chains.
Here is a list of the locations they had in 1939 and 2004 (Archive.org can take too long, even on a good connection). Much older ones, like with other stores, are sometimes too ambiguous in nature to track down, even if I knew the area or had time to scour the history. Any that aren't Weis today will be noted (especially if they're too small, even though Weis' own flagship store in Northumberland County is).
Binghamton
307 Conklin Ave (NY 7) (Weis recently closed)
50-60 Pennsylvania Ave (near hospital)
93 Pennsylvania Ave (closed)
56-58 Main St (now Family Dollar)
160 Robinson St (the one I visited; should have taken a photo so I could edit if I had planned this, so I resorted to cheap AI instead)
278 Robinson St (now a doctors office, with later store up the street)
95 Chenango St (downtown between bus depot and Little Venice Italian restaurant; long gone)
279-309 Main St (NY 17C) (now vacant, but City Church are in the process of buying it)
184-186 Court St (first store; originally an auto garage; later local office for state tax and finance; now Lourdes Mental Health Youth Services)
Vestal
100 Rano Blvd & Vestal Pkwy W (NY 434) (previously ShopRite)
925 Main St (off NY 26)
Nimmonsburg
1290 Upper Front St (US 11), Northgate Ames Plaza (Ames closed in 2002 [see earlier article])
1240 Upper Front St (US 11) - previously Grand Union, now vacant (opened that close by founding family the Axels to keep competitors from opening nearby. They still own many Giant/Weis and other commercial properties in Broome County to this day)
Johnson City (Westover) - 560 Harry L. Dr., Oakdale Center (now ALDI)
Endicott
West Corners - Giant (now Day Hollow) Shopping Plaza (NY 26 & CR 60) (previous two stores demolished and replaced by current Weis)
143 Washington Ave (now Allstate)
Endwell
800 Hooper Rd. (CR 33), Park Manor Plaza (previously Grand Union [until 1995] and Great American in the town of Union! All's well that's Endwell!)
860 Hooper Rd - opened in 1964; closed in 2002
