Shownotes
Recorded live at FMI 2026, Omni Talk Retail hosts Anne Mezzenga and Chris Walton sit down with Justin Weinstein, EVP, Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer at Giant Eagle, Inc., from the Simbe booth.
Justin shares an update on Giant Eagle’s progress since their last conversation, including how the company is reinvesting in stores, sharpening value, and doubling down on fresh and quality across the business. He discusses how Giant Eagle is thinking about store prototypes, department level differentiation, and how trends like GLP 1s are influencing merchandising, space allocation, and customer engagement.
The conversation also explores agentic AI in grocery, where the hype is real but still evolving, and why operational rigor, real time insight, and strong partnerships are critical to serving customers when it matters most.
Key Topics Covered
- Progress on Giant Eagle’s growth and reinvestment strategy
- Store of the future thinking and department differentiation
- Value, pricing, and promotional focus
- Fresh, protein, and nutrient dense foods
- GLP 1s and implications for merchandising and space planning
- Agentic AI and its role in grocery commerce
- Operational execution and real time visibility through technology partners
For more insights from grocery and retail leaders, continue following Omni Talk Retail’s live coverage from FMI 2026, recorded at the Simbe booth.
#FMI2026 #OmniTalkRetail #GroceryRetail #GiantEagle #Merchandising #RetailMarketing #FoodRetail #RetailTechnology #Simbe
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Transcripts
Hello, welcome back.
Speaker A:This is Omnitalk Retail.
Speaker A:I'm Anne Mazinga.
Speaker B:And I'm Chris Walton.
Speaker A:And we are coming to you from the simbi booth, number 118@fmi.
Speaker A:A big thanks to Simbi for helping us bring you all of the interviews that we've been bringing you for the last three days here at the show.
Speaker A:Next up, we have Justin Weinstein, the chief marketing and merchandising officer at Giant Eagle.
Speaker A:Justin, welcome.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker A:We're excited to have you back.
Speaker A:It's only been a few months since you last were on the show, but we're excited to catch up.
Speaker A:You got a lot to share with us, I'm sure.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker B:Yes, indeed.
Speaker B:So, like, what I remember specifically about our conversation together was your hundred million dollar because it Matters initiative.
Speaker B:You guys were just, like, set to launch that, right, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker B:So I'm curious.
Speaker B:Let's get a progress report.
Speaker B:How's it been going?
Speaker C:Things have been great.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker C:Things have been really great.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:We've been doing all the things we talked about doing.
Speaker C:We rolled out what was a new strategy for us that had a lot of consistency with what we had been focused on previously, but with really a renewed focus around growth inside of our supermarket and our pharmacy business.
Speaker C:And that work is well underway.
Speaker C:We had a really good holiday season.
Speaker C:We've been really focused around the three pillars that we talked about.
Speaker C:How do we reinvest back into our stores?
Speaker C:How do we really sharpen value?
Speaker C:And we've done a lot of work around both our promotional plans and our price plans over the last months that have been successful.
Speaker C:And then thirdly, how do we really supercharge the work we're doing around fresh and around quality?
Speaker C:We have a new leader who we hired, Ruth McClellan, who's leading that business for us in addition to our market District business.
Speaker C:And she's off to the races in terms of a whole bunch of work across fresh to really supercharge what we're doing.
Speaker B:Justin, what are some of the key elements in terms of reinvesting into the stores?
Speaker B:If you don't mind sharing?
Speaker C:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker C:It's everything from really building what the prototype of the future is in terms of a Giant Eagle being able to look department by department in terms of where are those areas of differentiation that we want to lean into?
Speaker C:How do we think about the future of what a modern produce department looks like?
Speaker C:How do we look at how meat and seafood are going to shine inside of our stores?
Speaker C:How do we bring the theater around things like bakery to market.
Speaker C:And so it's a lot of that work.
Speaker C:And then it's also a lot of work in terms of really looking at our store footprint and saying, how do we deploy dollars effectively into areas either that we haven't touched in a moment or areas where we really see the demand and we want to be there for that customer.
Speaker A:Well, Justin, I imagine one of the things that's impacting the store footprint of the future for you all is GLP1s, which you talked about with us at Grocery Shop.
Speaker A:Catch us up on that.
Speaker A:I mean, what, what is your thought as you approach marketing and merchandising for Giant Eagle?
Speaker A:What is that going to change or how is that going to impact what stores look like, kinds of marketing and promotional things that you're going to put out for consumers?
Speaker A:Give us a little bit of an overview on that, if you don't mind.
Speaker C:It's a great question.
Speaker C:And I think when we talked back at Grocery Shop, it was just as pervasive of a conversation as it is today.
Speaker C:It's probably intensified.
Speaker A:It has.
Speaker C:You know, being here at fmi, I've met with many, many, many of our CPG partners, and I think our goal as a retailer and our goal in partnership with our supplier partners is we have to be one step ahead of the consumer in terms of what they're looking for.
Speaker C:You know, the last time we talked, we talked a lot about protein.
Speaker A:I was going to say, how many protein samples, protein enhanced samples have you had over the course of the last three days?
Speaker C:I'm well fed here.
Speaker B:On the last dialysis.
Speaker C:After this conference, you know, the next big trend that we're seeing is, you know, a lot of talk around fiber, you know, inside of the market.
Speaker C:And I think that, you know, that does double back into the GLP1 trend.
Speaker C:You know, in terms of our pharmacy business, affordability is key.
Speaker C:We've done a lot of work with folks like Goodrx to really lean in, be able to bring some of these drugs to consumers at a lower retail price.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:And so it's really a holistic strategy, but I think it starts with the customer and, and it's really being there with them for them, helping them guide through how is their diet ultimately gonna need to change.
Speaker A:And what about the space allocation in the store?
Speaker A:I mean, is that gonna be changing, you think, as consumers, when we're walking through the store or walking through a Giant Eagle, like, what is that gonna look like and how might that be different?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think, you know, in many Ways it plays to an area we've been focused on for a long time, which is fresh, nutrient dense product is really important.
Speaker C:People are looking for that protein and they're not just looking for it down the aisles.
Speaker C:They absolutely are.
Speaker C:They're also looking for it from us.
Speaker C:As you think about the role that, to your point, meat and seafood is playing, you think about the role that produce is playing.
Speaker C:Those are really important areas for us and we want to lean in everywhere we can.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker B:Well, so this is one of my favorite questions to ask whenever I get the chance to ask it.
Speaker B:So I'm going to ask you because you were just on a show with us recently.
Speaker B:So agentic commerce, big buzzword.
Speaker B:Big buzzword at nrf.
Speaker B:Big buzzword here.
Speaker B:Do you think it's overhyped, underhyped, or properly hyped for the grocery industry?
Speaker B:By the grocery industry right now?
Speaker C:I should say I think it's properly hyped.
Speaker B:Properly hyped.
Speaker C:I think it's properly hyped.
Speaker C:I think there should be real hype around it.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:Why I do, and I think it's any trend that we're seeing that's changing the way that people interact with tech and with product and with making decisions inside of their life is something that I think we should pay a lot of attention to.
Speaker C:And you know, in the same way that, you know, go back a few years, TikTok was, you know, was all the rage, not really because of commerce, but because of, you know, social interaction.
Speaker C:I think the same ways that that changed behavior and we're starting to see commerce catch up to how the TikTok economy is operating.
Speaker C:I think agentic AI is that really on steroids in a whole number of ways.
Speaker C:And we have not seen massive changes in how customers are shopping today.
Speaker C:And so this is not about going and trying to go further than where the customer is.
Speaker C:But I think we know that customers are spending a lot of time starting to really interact with AI around how they're eating, what decisions they're making inside of their life.
Speaker C:We need to take that seriously.
Speaker C:As retailers, we need to be providing solutions.
Speaker C:Whether it's on those, those platforms that they're on and, or on our own platform, which we've done a lot of work on at Giant Eagle, to really bring AI into the app, experience the web experience wherever we can.
Speaker B:It's a good way to frame it up.
Speaker A:Justin, has that changed then, in that being agentic Commerce or AgentIC AI, has that changed how you approach retail media then as you're trying to talk to your consumers?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I think the short and the honest answer is, I don't think yet.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:I don't think yet.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:I think that's coming.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:And I think we're all trying to figure out what are those pivot points and those additional enablement levels we'll be able to have with the customer.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:But I don't see that today, really, with the rubber meeting the road on that.
Speaker A:Is there anything that you think has to happen where you have greater confidence or you'd be feeling more compelled to kind of move that forward or tap a generic AI?
Speaker C:I think it's really the commerce element has to catch up to the AI element.
Speaker C:And to me, that's the gap that exists today.
Speaker A:Especially in grocery.
Speaker C:Especially in grocery.
Speaker C:I mean, it's one thing, you know, in other.
Speaker C:In other sectors, it's easier in some cases to really connect those dots.
Speaker C:I think today, given the basket size we see, given the complexity of meal planning, people are looking for counsel, but they're not necessarily looking to take it that next step.
Speaker C:I think once we figure out with our partners and others how that next step is going to be taken, I think that's really what then leads into how does it impact retail media, how does it impact broader e commerce, etc.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That makes sense.
Speaker B:All right, so let's get you out of here on this.
Speaker B:Couple more questions just to close things up.
Speaker B:So we're at the Simba booth.
Speaker B:You recently just announced or embarked on a partnership with them.
Speaker B:So I'd love for you to touch on that in terms of the rationale there.
Speaker B:And then also, like, what are your priorities for the next six months as you look to, you know, expand either on because it matters or any of the other topics we touched on today.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Well, I'll connect Simbi back to, you know, what is a top priority of ours, which is we want to be the best retailer we can be.
Speaker C:And, you know, I've spent a lot of time over these last few days talking about the blocking and tackling that we need to do each and every day to be there for the customer.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:You know, an example of that is big snowstorm coming to many of our markets here.
Speaker C:We leaned in yesterday, very quickly, launched free delivery through the weekend across all of our markets for all of our customers as a way to be there.
Speaker C:And I connect that back to we need to be able to act quickly inside of the market.
Speaker C:Simbee is an example of a partner who is allowing us to really get a whole new level of insight and data in terms of where the gaps are inside of a store in real time and being able to connect that back to our supply chain, being able to connect that back to our operations teams, our merchants, how we're thinking about marketing, all of those dynamics, dots need to be connected, and SYMBI is helping us do that.
Speaker C:We've actually been partnered with Simbi for a long time in a pilot fashion, and we're excited about the prospect of how do we expand that out.
Speaker C:But it really comes back to operational rigor.
Speaker C:Take a weekend like we're about to have.
Speaker C:How do we equip our stores with the most information that they can have so that they can be there for the customer?
Speaker C:And that's what Simbi's doing.
Speaker C:There's a whole host of partners that are in a similar space for us.
Speaker A:Yeah, especially having that inventory.
Speaker A:Visibility becomes even more critical when people can't get out into the.
Speaker A:Out into the stores because of the weather.
Speaker A:Well, Justin, always a pleasure to have you.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for giving us your time here at fmi.
Speaker A:Happy to thank you again to Simbi for helping us bring you these interviews all week long.
Speaker A:And until our next interview, be careful out there.