Cincinnati-based Kroger is buying Giant Eagle. But this isn’t the first time the two supermarket chains have gone down the acquisitions aisle together.
The two grocery chains first got hitched in 1928, when Kroger bought the Eagle Grocery Company, a local chain with 125 stores and deep ties to Pittsburgh Jewish history. The announcement reunites two historic supermarket brands in a single company. The last time Kroger did business in Pittsburgh was in 1984. It departed in the early days of a strike that closed most of its Pittsburgh stores.
Kroger, which did not respond to requests for an interview, will be keeping the Giant Eagle brand name after the $1.65 billion sale. That’s a good thing, because like Alcoa, U.S. Steel, the Steelers, and even Primanti’s, Giant Eagle is part of Pittsburgh’s identity.
“It’s in a very rarefied space in terms of businesses that have local recognition and that level of not only ubiquity, but also are sort of synonymous with the city in some way,” says Eric Lidji, the Heinz History Center’s Director of Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives. Pittsburgh City Paper reached out to Lidji to dig into Giant Eagle’s early history in Pittsburgh and its connections to Jewish history…