Inside Giant Food’s strategy for linking healthy eating with affordability

Along with the music that plays in Giant Food’s supermarkets, shoppers who visit the Mid-Atlantic chain’s locations often hear something other grocers don’t have: recorded announcements inviting them to listen to podcasts about how to choose and prepare healthy foods.

The programs, hosted by the Mid-Atlantic chain’s nutritionists, weave information about items Giant has on special with tips for preparing simple recipes that require only a few ingredients.

The podcasts, which help the Ahold Delhaize-owned chain differentiate itself in a competitive grocery market where shoppers have many other stores to choose from, are timed for release when Giant’s weekly circular is published — and they zero in on how shoppers can use items the retailer has on sale to conveniently prepare good-for-you meals.

Tailoring the podcast this way allows Giant to demonstrate that it not only understands people’s concerns about affordability but also offers a value proposition that goes beyond price, said Mandy Katz, the grocer’s director of healthy living.

“We’ve always spoken about value and nutrition as going hand in hand. … Historically, we would lead with health, and value was ‘by the way,’” Katz said. “Now we lead with, ‘Hey, we know you have a budget. Let us go ahead and help you meet that budget. And guess what? You’re going to get healthy while you do it too.’”

Giant’s Healthy Living staff decided last year to develop a series of audio programs that would serve as a guide to the grocer’s weekly promotions from a shopper’s point of view, according to Katz. The concept stemmed from live audio snippets her team produced during the COVID-19 pandemic to help shoppers cope with product shortages and lean into cooking at home, she said.

The chain’s “This Week at Giant” podcasts are released every Friday. They last for about 10 minutes and feature Healthy Living team members chatting informally about foods in the latest circular that they think listeners might not have thought about. The nutritionists describe ways to prepare meals with those foods in addition to directing listeners to coupons and other opportunities to save money. 

During a recent episode, for example, Katz and a colleague shared their thoughts about gluten-free granola bars that Giant had on sale and chatted about the benefits of marrying fresh pasta with rotisserie chicken. Katz then offered suggestions for preparing Tex Mex stuffed potatoes and Aussie leg of lamb using ingredients that the chain was promoting that week.

The audio programs are available on Giant’s website and through platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Giant, which runs 163 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C., also publishes links to the products and recipes mentioned in the podcasts.

A focus on standing out by focusing on more than price

Katz said she gets access to the weekly circular a few days before it is released. She prepares for each podcast by looking for items that are on special and can be used to make a recipe that calls for no more than about four ingredients.

“I am about going through that entire circular and finding the best deals,” said Katz. “And it might be a little, tiny, little box that most people won’t notice, but I’m going to tell you that you can get it for 50% off this week, and so stock up and put it in your freezer.”

Katz added that she and her team are intent on helping shoppers find ways to choose foods that reflect their preferences while also taking nutrition into account.

“As far as nutrition is concerned, I think you would find any dietitian in the retail setting that you meet would talk more about what can you add to your cart and your plate for health, not what do you take out of your cart,” she said.

Giant’s efforts to set itself apart by using nutrition-oriented programming to highlight promotions are closely linked with the chain’s loyalty program.

In an example of that partnership, Giant offers 1,000 loyalty points — worth $10 — to shoppers who sign up for monthly virtual “cook-alongs,” which feature members of the Healthy Living staff preparing healthy recipes over Zoom. The cook-alongs usually also feature a pharmacist to answer questions about the relationship between food and wellness as well as a representative of a vendor or community organization.

Katz said her team strives to make sure that the ingredients for the recipe they prepare during a cook-along cost no more than $10. “If you sign in, you get your flexible rewards points. It should pay for your dinner,” she said.

Ryan Draude, Giant’s director of loyalty and shopper marketing, said Giant is striving to build and maintain ties with shoppers by highlighting its unique offerings — not by going head-to-head with discounters.

“One of the things that my organization tries to encourage is this idea that we’re never going to be an Aldi or a Walmart — and we don’t want to be,” Draude said. “We are a full-service neighborhood grocery store that is meant to focus on quality service. And if you shop us smart, if you use digital coupons, if you use the loyalty deals, if you use the weekly promotions, you can really rack up the savings.”

As part of the tie-up between Giant’s loyalty and nutrition teams, shoppers earn extra reward points when they purchase items that have at least one star under the Guiding Stars program, which rates foods based on their nutritional value. Shoppers also earn points when filling prescriptions or receiving vaccines.

Draude added that a challenge for Giant is that while the number of customers coming into its stores remains strong, people are buying fewer items per trip, which he said indicates they are visiting other stores “because they are sensitive toward price.”

“They’re doing their homework in advance, and they’re willing to trade their time for savings. And so for us, that’s a real challenge, but it’s a real opportunity as well, because the most important thing is they’re still coming to us,” Draude said. “What we need to do is to regain their confidence, to get more of that basket via value, quality and all the other things that we bring to the table.”