Prince George's grocers brace for Wegmans
Upscale chain to debut in county next year
by Lindsey Robbins | Staff Writer, Gazette

Grocers in the county keep trying new ways to snare shoppers, as a major player looms on the horizon.

Construction is to begin this summer for a Wegmans store in Landover, with the opening for the Prince George's County debut of the high-end grocery chain based in Rochester, N.Y., set for next spring, according to Patrick Miller, operations director for Petrie Ross.

The store is an anchor of Woodmore Towne Centre, a 705,227-square-foot mixed-use project developed by Petrie Ross Ventures of Annapolis.

Wegmans will challenge the dominance of Giant Food, Shoppers Food & Pharmacy and Safeway, among the major grocers. In Maryland Wegmans already has a store in Hunt Valley and has plans for one in Germantown.

Safeway opened a 58,000-square-foot supermarket in the Brandywine Crossing Shopping Center last month. The store is the first in the county to feature the chain's lifestyle format, which includes an open-flame hearth oven and iced seafood case, according to company information.

Store improvements are also planned throughout Maryland, including a replacement for the Damascus store, despite Safeway's plans to reduce capital expenditures in 2009 to $1 billion from $1.2 billion last year, said Craig Muckle, spokesman for Safeway's Eastern division in Lanham.

The reduction "is not going to affect anything in Maryland," Muckle said, adding that Safeway continues to invest in existing locations.

Safeway's net income dropped to $144.2 million for the quarter ending March 28, from $193.4 million for the same quarter last year, according to its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Quarterly sales for the Pleasanton, Calif., chain also fell, to $9.24 billion from $10.0 billion.

Giant Food, with regional headquarters in Landover, is focused on reaping the benefits of its hand-held scanner program, which is available at 43 stores in Maryland and 17 other stores around the Washington region. The devices allow customers to scan items as they shop and quickly tally totals at the register.

"They're the next evolution in self-checkout for customers who like the larger orders," said Bob Bennett, director of front-end operations and customer service for Giant. "Customers have been asking about them for some time."

The remodeled Largo store was among the first to offer the scanners.

Bennett added that the scanners also offer discounts on certain products and provide more convenience for shoppers with more than 20 items. About 48 scanners, developed by Modiv Media and Motorola, are available at participating stores.

Giant will decide which other stores receive scanners on a case-by-case basis, depending on space and customer counts, Bennett said. He said it is difficult to estimate whether any more stores will install scanners in the next several months.

"It's part of our effort to answer the call for what customers are asking for," Bennett said.

Identical store sales for Giant's Landover division rose 3.6 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, despite lower pharmacy sales, said its parent, Royal Ahold of the Netherlands.

Combined sales for Royal Ahold's Giant-Landover and Stop & Shop chains totaled $5.32 billion for the quarter, up 3.6 percent from $5.14 billion in the first quarter of 2008.

Giant continues to lead in market share in Prince George's and surrounding counties, according to a study by Food World, a grocery trade publication in Columbia. The chain's 22 stores accounted for 22.86 percent of the county's grocery sales as of June 2008, up from 22.50 percent in 2007. Prince George's customers spent about $516.64 million at Giant stores in 2008, up from $499.82 in 2007. Giant also closed a Laurel store last year.

Total grocery sales in the county were about $2.26 billion last year.

Safeway, which ranks third in market share in the county, saw its sales in the area drop from $394.8 million in 2007 to $390.70 in 2008. Safeway has 17 stores in Prince George's.