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The Kingsdale Shopping Center renovations were first announced two years ago, and the project is one step closer to being completed today. Giant Eagle opened their first Market District grocery store there this morning. In addition to traditional grocery offerings, Market District includes more upscale offerings, prepared foods, a demonstration kitchen for special events and more.
More information can be found online at MarketDistrict.com.
The updates coming across my social media stream are killing me. Definitely have to head in….
Let me know what you think. It’s a bit far from from where I live to be much of a regular grocery store, but it sounds like it might make for a good visit from time to time when we want to go to a Giant Eagle in general. We normally hit the Brewery District Kroger, which has a lot of the same types of offerings in terms of prepared foods, full service liquor store, etc, so I’m wondering how it compares.
Celebrity chefs apparently will be cooking at the Giant Eagle Market District.
http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2010/10/celebrity_chefs_to_descend_on_giant_eagles_kingsdale_store.html?ana=e_du_pub
I am a bit biased (we did a promo competition for scholarships there this morning for CSCC) but I thought it was great. Reminds me of the 161/Sawmill Whole Foods on steroids. What stood out to me were the experts in each department, meat, cheese, candy, seafood, beer, cosmetics, etc.. etc… They seemed to know their stuff. It also seems like a perfect fit for that neighborhood and Kingsdale project.
I sure hope Huffman’s can survive this. It’d be a shame to see a great local business crowded out.
Are they getting rid of the old Giant Eagle building? Or will it be renovated along with the rest of the shopping center?
I think that Market District is more like Columbus’ answer to Jungle Jim’s. Yes, really. Was amazed at the game selection – in addition to obscure cuts (for Columbus, that is) of lamb, veal, and duck, they also have rattlesnake, elk, venison and python.
They seem to be gung ho about stocking locally produced products, too. I went in there expecting it was a bunch of hype, but I was really impressed. Great prepared foods (I had some pizza and banana-strawberry-nutella crepes for lunch), amazing meat/seafood selection, prices were good, and I saw quite a few products that I’ve (until now) had to go to Cleveland or Cincinnati to get. I can honestly say there’s nothing else quite like this in town.
I took tons of pictures (probably 100+) of the grand opening, and will post a link to the Flickr set once I have them all uploaded. A few of us bloggers got a tour of the store today with the executive chef of prepared foods so we got a good feel for the place.
#5
Kahiki Says:
October 14th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
I sure hope Huffman’s can survive this. It’d be a shame to see a great local business crowded out.
–
I don’t think that will be a problem – I shop at Huffman’s and there’s not much overlap there that I can tell. Huffman’s is still the only place locally I can get WondeRoast rotisserie chicken since Broadmoor Market closed.
I’m just really glad that they repurposed a dead shopping center into something people will frequent again. I haven’t shopped in Kingsdale once since Firdous left. Also love that there’s new businesses popping up near there too (i.e. the new burger and yogurt places in Kingsdale, and Louie’s II at Northwest and Zollinger).
Everyone I dealt with today from Giant Eagle corporate in Pittsburgh seems to want to leave the community in a better place than it started – although I’m a little wary of corporate hype, I really think they’re sincere about that. Everyone they’ve hired to be one of their team members in this store seems to be passionate about food and sharing their knowledge.
I will reserve judgment until after a year. Back in 02 or so, the Giant Eagle on Sawmill had items like American Wagyu beef. The demand didn’t support it and they stopped carrying it. Whole Food had a similar degradation. The real test will be if they continue to have the range of D’Artagnan products, conch, truffles and the like a year from now.
The VP of meat told me that several people had asked about Wagyu and they were planning to bring in Australian pure-bred.
In the ethnic sections, I didn’t see anything in particular that I can’t find elsewhere in Columbus (though I didn’t deeply survey), but there is an advantage to going to one place versus many. In fact, aside from some of the dramatic items like python, that is the primary logic and strength of the place.
A.
Matthew Says:
October 14th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Are they getting rid of the old Giant Eagle building? Or will it be renovated along with the rest of the shopping center?
I believe it’s getting renovated along with the rest of shopping center.
Renderings here -
http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=6055.30.
The redevelopment of Kingsdale so boring and doomed to failure in another 20 years (and the cycle continues). The only gain is a huge grocery store to replace an existing large grocery store and a couple of medical buildings. Looks like a fancy strip mall. Great job utilizing a large central commercial area in a landlocked suburb. This is a huge missed opportunity for UA.
I don’t think that will be a problem – I shop at Huffman’s and there’s not much overlap there that I can tell.
In the long run, Huffman’s may be okay, but in the next two or three weeks, curiosity-based business will most certainly cause a decrease in business. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have as much as a 35% drop in traffic in the next week, as close as they are. (When WFM-Dublin opened, we at Hills experienced a double-digit drop in sales; and everyone – from baggers to owners – took a temporary pay cut to allow the dust to settle. Eventually, our once-curious customers returned, and so did our salaries, but that took at least six months.)
I’ve been suggesting to folks who head down to check out the new store that they stop at Huffman’s and buy something. They’re one of the last family-run markets in Central Ohio and they’re going to need the business.
I bet the Whole Foods on Lane will really take a hit too with the Giant Eagle Marketplace open. Whoever compared the new store to the Sawmill Whole Foods on steroids was right…it’s massive and the the prepared food section by itself is as big as other local grocery stores. They even have chicken waffles. Yum.
I didn’t get to the grand opening until 8pm tonight but they had a band playing, a woman singing, and people walking around on stilts. Quite the show for a grocery store.
I am excited for this, I was wondering how long until one of the large Grocery chains realized they could open a Whole Foods themselves.
It’s clearly what they are going after, the floorplan of the store resembles most large Whole Foods (Columbus only has small ones). Same type of events, beer coolers, food in house, etc etc.
I think the strength is that unlike whole foods, they also stock all of the things that a normal giant eagle stocks, making it easier if you want to stop and pick up a lb of python in addition to your kraft cheese and macaroni.
this is my biased opinion, as i will now be employed there.
It was crazy in there yesterday when I was in so I didn’t feel like buying too much, but I saw a lot of stuff I plan to go back and purchase when the hysteria dies down.
I love fancy grocery stores and I have to say, I was not expecting to be wowed by Giant Eagle, but I definately was!
who the fuck eats python?
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and Chuck Norris….
We stopped in this afternoon. Busy as hell, as expected. Tough to park. They had a little shuttle vehicle getting people around the parking lot.
Simply put, this store is massive. Half of it is a pretty traditional, yet upscale, Giant Eagle. The other half is a cross between Whole Foods and The North Market with tons of prepared food options, specialty counters, and all sort of other things. The fact that the prepared-food area had an upstairs seating area that overlooked it was very North-Market-esque.
I agree with Andrew Hall that the real test comes in a year to see how much of this stuff is maintained. There’s some pretty big wow factor when the place is shoulder-to-shoulder on opening Saturday and they’re flipping out a stream of wood-fired pizzas and have a three-man team churning out fresh crepes, but I have to imagine certain things will be scaled back after the buzz dies down.
Afterward, we went over to Huffman’s, having never been and only made aware of it due to this post and bought a few things. Cool grocery store. Full writeup coming tomorrow. ;)
I liked it thought it isn’t my kind of store, it has everything under the sun. And like someone pointed out it is likes columbus’s jungle jims. First time I ever seen rattlesnake,python, vennison, duck and buffalo hot dogs in one place though lol.
It was an impressive opening, but take away the prepared food section and there is nothing special about the market distict. I prefer to deal with local markets that are less pushy.