Giant Food will open a new store Friday in Parkville and close a West Baltimore location next month, creating a food desert in that neighborhood.
The Baltimore area’s largest grocer said it will open a new store Friday in a former Shoppers Food market site in Perring Plaza on East Joppa Road.
But it also plans to close its Edmondson Village store at 4624 Edmondson Avenue on June 13. The store opened in 1998 but was not meeting sales and financial benchmarks, a Giant spokesman said.
A $20 million redevelopment is planned nearby at the Edmondson Village Shopping Center, where five teens were shot — one fatally — last year and where a new owner stepped in last August.
Giant President Ira Kress said in a statement that he considers a store about three miles away on Wilkens Avenue in Arbutus that’s being renovated and expanded as a replacement for the Edmondson Village store. Staff at the West Baltimore store have been offered transfers to Wilkens Avenue, while pharmacy customers’ prescriptions are being moved to the Giant nearest their home.
“For some locations that are not meeting performance expectations, it’s best to consolidate the business, which we try do with as little impact to our customers as possible,” said Jonathan Arons, a Giant spokesman, in an email. “We believe we can meet the current needs of our customers with the locations that we have in the community.”
Baltimore City Councilman Kristerfer Burnett, whose 8th district includes the Edmondson Village area, said Giant’s decision to close the supermarket will hurt the surrounding community “that already lacks adequate access to fresh food and healthy produce.”
Many transit-dependent residents along the Edmondson corridor will be left without a viable alternative nearby, he said. His office is working with the mayor’s office on a multi-agency response and with property owners and others in Edmondson Village to try to attract a new grocery store, he said.
“I have had many conversations with Giant Food’s leadership over the years, alongside several concerned community leaders in the area, about the need to improve the store and the quality of the offerings so that more customers would support the only grocery in the area,” Burnett said in an email.
He said he also reached out to the new owners of the nearby Edmondson Village Shopping Center about the possibility of opening a grocery store there.
“They’re very supportive of the idea, and it’s my hope that this can come to fruition,” he said. “At the moment we still have a long road ahead.”
The addition of 10,000 square feet and renovations at the Giant at 4622 Wilkens Ave. are expected to be completed by June 7 and will include full-service meat and seafood departments, an expanded gourmet cheese selection, prepared food offerings, sushi and a Starbucks. It is the third Baltimore-area store that Giant has remodeled in the past year.
The Parkville Giant, which will include a pharmacy, includes similar features as well as products from Ledo Pizza in the deli section.
This article may be updated.
