O’Hara-based Giant Eagle plans to transition away from its fully remote corporate working model, and confirmed that the company is exploring potential new headquarters.
“We appreciate the high level of support our corporate team members have provided to our store and retail support center teams while working in a fully remote setting,” said Giant Eagle officials, in a prepared statement. “We are excited for the potential to enhance collaboration by transitioning corporate team members to a hybrid in-office model in 2024.”
Company officials did not disclose what is driving the hunt for new corporate offices.
“We are actively reviewing potential headquarters locations in and around Pittsburgh,” according to the Giant Eagle statement, which did not specify how much space the company would need.
In 2020 — months into the COVID-19 pandemic that ushered in wide acceptance of remote work — the grocer chose not to renew its lease at the 701 Alpha Drive building in O’Hara that once served as its corporate center.
The year before, the grocery chain secured 23,000 square feet of office space in Lawrenceville at TechMill 41. That site was slated to be home to 150 current and new employees, company officials said.
“As the retail industry continues through this amazing period of technological change, we are extremely fortunate to call Pittsburgh — a city with a deep and growing tech talent pool — home,” former President and CEO Laura Shapira Karet said in a statement at the time. “Our new office space in the heart of Lawrenceville will provide us with a geographic advantage to compete with regional, national and global companies that are vying for this unique expertise.”
The grocer has kept that location operating as its corporate employees remained in remote work mode.
In March, Giant Eagle replaced Ms. Shapira Karet with long-time company employee Bill Artman. Her departure, after 11 years as CEO, ended her family’s decades-long leadership of the grocery and convenience store chain.
The private company was founded by five families in 1931 and was led by Ms. Shapira Karet’s father, David Shapira, from 1980 until 2011, and her grandfather, Saul Shapira, from 1968 until 1980. A Pittsburgh institution, the grocery chain has more than 470 retail locations in several states, including its Giant Eagle stores and its GetGo convenience store chain.
It employs 14,500 people in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Ciara McEneany: cmceneany@post-gazette.com
First Published: October 20, 2023, 7:08 p.m.
Updated: October 20, 2023, 11:51 p.m.