Michael Storm I'm from a town in British Columbia about 30kms outside Vancouver. And we have an old grocery store that hasn't changed much from the 1960s. And a laundromat beside it with a vintage sign with those blinking bulbs hanging over the side walk. I sometimes go in just to take a step back though time
Eh, as long as they are maintaining it. Our store opened in 2002 and it looks so fucked up it's terrible, and the renovation will happen in 2020. That's just 16 years but it sucks so bad and I can't even order replacements for my fresh produce departments, there are panels missing below the table with the apples and shit. I am forced by the company to have an unwanted trash look. This video however shows that you can keep your inventory with some investments here and there, which is, in the long run, better than writing off inventory just due to tage... The old refridgerators in this video seem to be taken care of, despite being visually old (dirty), but for their age, it's great.
A lot of people don't realize how extraordinary neon signs are - they all have to be hand-made and are quite expensive. The typography used here is excellent and you can see a real craftsperson (maybe several) had a hand in these signs.
WOW!!!! That store is nice!!! The floors are old. But they are clean and shiny!!!! Even the lights are CLEAN WITH NO DUST!!!! Someone must take some pride in where they work. You don't see that very much anymore.
Dan, I worked at Giant from 80 to 98. I would date this remodel to somewhere between 88 and 92. The terrazzo floor makes this looked like it was built in the late 60s to early 70s. We hated Thiessen over under freezer cases, a real PITA to stock.
This is from a 1988 article in. The Washington Post: "The store also has a "Step-Saver" meat case, which includes uncooked meats combined with other ingredients for pork stir-fries, stuffed veal breasts and chicken or beef kebabs."
I just realized why I like your channel. I accidentally ended up on some other guy's dead mall video - and he was yelling! A lot!. So I hurried back to your channel as fast as I could, where the voice is soft, and the pace is laid back. Ah... so much better!
Dan, I used to live across Milford Mill Rd and this was my Giant which I haven't seen since I left MD in the 80's!!! The neon believe it or not was at that time (when I lived there which was the 70's) the Giant upgrade!!! Previously it had a very "Mayberry" look to it. Thank you for a walk back in time!! 💖
Hi Dan! Fun fact... there used to be a Red Lobster attached to the AMC Theatres Granite Run 8 Cinema (next to the Granite Run Mall which you made a video of once) which had a neon lobster sign just like the one at this Giant above the entrance! Anyway, I find it hilarious that this chain called "Giant" just happened to be bought by the same DUTCH (Netherlands) company which had already owned the completely unrelated (until the Dutch bought it) chain which also coincidentally was called "Giant" in Pennsylvania! And today, over 20 years after the Dutch bought the Maryland Giant chain, and almost 40 years since they bought the Pennsylvania Giant chain, both "Giants" still exist but each use a different logo for their store signage, and yet sell the same store-brand products (using the "fruit slice" logo used by Stop & Shop in the Northeast until recently, but still used by the Maryland Giant chain) but have no actual name on the packaging of their products! And apparently there's been a very bitter disagreement between the unionized Maryland Giant workers and non-union Pennsylvania Giant workers for over 20 years! Also, the Pennsylvania Giant chain still has stores with the name "Martin's" (which uses an identical logo to the Pennsylvania Giant chain, and has completely identical stores to THAT Giant except for the different name) in part of the same region that the Maryland Giant chain exists... apparently Martin's was originally a small chain that the Pennsylvania Giant chain bought, but was forced to keep using the Martin's name (though adopted an identical logo to the PA Giant chain) because of the existence of their then-competitor which was also called Giant! And in the early 90's, the Maryland Giant chain opened a bunch of stores in Pennsylvania (also southern NJ and northern DE) but had to call them "Super G" because of the other Giant chain's existence! And all of those stores in PA (the Pennsylvania Giant chain never had stores in NJ or DE except for their brief ownership of the Edwards chain in parts of NJ) were required to be divested to any other chain which could possibly buy them for the FTC to approve the merger of the two chains with the same name! I actually live near a currently empty former Giant Pennsylvania store (which relocated two years ago) which is a former Bradlees department store, ironic because Stop & Shop once owned Bradlees!
I used to live just a stone throw away from this Giant. It was my local grocery store so it's nice to get a fresh perspective on the store. You pointed out a lot of things that I never really noticed before. Thank you for appreciating and loving something in a neighborhood that doesn't get either of those things anymore.
This store should have a annual cultural contribution! I really loved this video Dan Bell, and look what a bit of passion can do for food store! More neon to the people!
Reminds me of the Giant my parents used to go to when I was a kid. It was in Glen Burnie. I also remember the bulk food section. People don't do bulk food anymore.
Being a sign guy I truly appreciate the old neon signs. But they are so inefficient & dangerous if installed incorrectly. Even a little neon beer sign that hangs at the local store in the window uses a 15,000 volt transformer! That is not a typo.....15,000 volt! Love these vids Dan.
They are not inefficient and not dangerous. Neon signs need zero maintenance and work reliably for decades. Your shitty little chinese made LED sign with the PCB from Guiangzhaomezedongchintou China that was made in a sweat shop for 5 cents that will start a fire and burn the store down is 300 times more dangerous than a neon sign, which cannot burn because its made of metal and glass. Not plastic. Also I have no idea in what planet you think the voltage of the ballast means anything at all, Did you eat lead paint as a kid and think you need to reach your hand into live electrical wiring?
I started working for Giant in 1977 and I still work there as of this writing (2020). It’s really the only job I’ve ever had and they’ve been good to me over the years, for the most part. I’ve seen many changes, obviously, and watching this video was a pleasure as it brought back memories of things I had forgotten about. Thanks.
LOVE it ; ) The good old days when your only choice was paper...and you literally had to go straight home if you had frozen stuff, or your bags would get soggy...but they sure made for cheap book covers! The background music was so befitting. It's funny how you miss little stuff like the color schemes of these times, or how labels and advertising looked. Probably why I'm addicted to Etsy ; ) I'm a sucker for nostalgia. Thanks for sharing, Dan. I proudly clicked the link and voted ; ) ~Ashley/Lancaster, PA
This Giant is one up the street from where my aunt lived in Gwynn Oak. With a few minor changes to the aisles it's pretty much exactly the way it looked when I was a kid in the 1970s. The downside to this particular Giant is the long wait you often encounter at the registers no matter jow few people are ahead of you.
Amazing vintage grocery store! That neon signage is just fantastic. A real blast from the past. Dig it, Dan! (I also love McMansion Hell! Give Kate kudos from me, ok?)
Thank you Dan for bringing back happy memories of my childhood in the `80's! I actually remember when all of the Giant Food Stores in the MD/DC/VA area all looked like the one that you just showed. I actually kind of miss the look of the stores from that era. Thank again for the memories!
BTW....I used to work at a local supermarket in the late `90's, and the floor mounted Freezers are call 'Coffin Style Freezers'. The reason that you don't see them much anymore is they weren't very energy efferent, and don't meet current energy standards. The only reason you still see a few, like this Giant, is that ones already in place (from the `70's or `80's) are 'Grandfathered'.
Thanks, DAN. I'm from Southern California, and retired , 41 years from the grocery industry, and remember those neon signs of the past. Even more so the giant cash registers that we used, and now scanners! Progress!
Erica, As soon as Dan said "seafood area," I immediate thought--LOBSTER! I was not disappointed. To paraphrase Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite, the neon lobster made all of my wildest dreams come true.
I remember giants old little customer service section. It was almost like a tiny house and you would push a button for service and they would come out. I remember wanting to go in there as a kid because it almost looked like a club house. Thanks for sharing this, Dan! Brings back lovable memories!
thanks Dan for another awesome video. those neon signs bring back so many memories of my grandmother and I shopping during the 80s. Miss her so much. thanks
Back when my grandparents lived in Reston, VA-the closest Giant was at the Tall Oaks Plaza. The one thing that stood out light-wise was all those red LED aisle "billboard" signs (you know, showcasing random products found throughout the store, or incentives from the store itself). All the neon I recognized came from the pharmacy and deli sections. And that song at 6:06 sounds familiar: I've heard it on KET's _Adult Math_ (part of their "GED on TV" series) once.
Oh man, seeing that old Giant logo gives me so much nostalgia. And the over/under freezer... I didn't even know I remembered that! I guess there were still some in our local Giant in the early '90s. Most of ours were remodeled fairly early on though. Only you could give me nostalgia for such random-ass old Maryland things, lol.
I remember seeing this video when it premiered in 2017. That was 4 years ago (from when I am currently typing this comment) and sooooo much has changed. One person in the comments for example has explained that this store went out-of-business in 2020 and that this location is now abandoned, but who knows what happened to the neon lights as a result. At least video time capsules like this one can help archive the past so we can see what the world used to be like before 2020. Thank you once again to Dan Bell and the Dead Malls of Discord crew for their amazing video documentation. Also I love the Crystal Pepsi signage, as of 2020 it has been discontinued again and I am somewhat regretful that I could not find any old signage like that for my home as decor.
Thank you - thank you - thank you, Dan Bell, for presenting this sentimental journey for me, and kindling memories from my far-off past of the first store in which I remember shopping with my parents in the early 50s. (No, it wasn't in Baltimore; it was the small Giant in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Flower Avenue, just before crossing Piney Branch Road over into Takoma Park. I have been away from Maryland for the past 42 years, so seeing an honest-to-goodness Giant food store is a real rush for me.) Too bad the TV show "VR-5" wasn't a reality; I would have LOVED to hop through the screen of my monitor (a la Sidney Bloom, the show's protagonist) and take the scenic tour with you through the aisles of that Baltimore Giant store. Although it didn't seem as large as some of the stores in the D.C. area, I just know that it carried many brands of food with which I used to be familiar, but that are totally unavailable to me in the isolated place where I now live. Again, my sincerest thanks for providing me with a link to my past; it reinforces in me my tenaciously-held East Coast identity...
as a kid i always loved the frozen ice pop neon sign. the giant closest to me kept those up until the early 2000s, and then a decade after then that was my first job when i got older! :)
that store is amazing love the vintage neon. it reminds me of a old school Safeway store in Puyallup washington I went to it is like a time travel in real life.
This reminded me so much of the grocery store close to me when I was growing up. We had a cool neon milk carton that would move as it was pouring milk (hard to explain but you get the mental image). The area that had the bulk food in this store reminded me of the area of my store that had a book store, cause of that wood panelling. I love stores that haven't updated their looks.
The amazing part is most of the neon still works! My first job was $7.00/hour minimum wage grocery stocker at a similar store. Hated stocking and front/facing the canned food section, took FOREVER.
If you visit, some other odd things are The Crystal Fox mystic shop with an in-store pet cat, a sex shop built inside of an old book store which they kept the old giant blade sign that reads BOOKS as disguise, ahahah, (also an actual adult video arcade complete with neon signs.... awful but hilarious), there's several old motels like Valencia and Turf motel (one of which recently a scene of a shooting), houses converted in to liquor stores and a ton of other fun, weird things, lmao. The whole area dates back to 1600s and certain roads like Whiskey Bottom Road were believed to originally be Native American foot trails. I'm rambling now but yeah, i think you'd guys enjoy it
The Giant in Milford Mill! I used to take my Mom years ago (we normally went to the one in New Town but occasionally she wanted to go to this one because they had certain items the other Giant didn't have..) I love the old school flooring too in addition to the Neon. I remember going here as a kid and I feel as though the pharmacy used to be to the left when you walked in (near the magazines and where the current frozen section is). Thanks as always for doing these videos Dan - I really appreciate you taking the time to capture these memories, especially when this store won't be around forever. Thank you!!!
Wow! This Giant is set up EXACTLY the same as the Giant in Leisure World (Montgomery County, MD) that my mom used to drag me to every Friday after school. I've moved up north and here they called them Stop&Shop😷
This is a bunch of bs. Step saver, as already mentioned, *_are_* food items packaged with other ingredients, side orders, etc... to make it easier to cook a complete meal. If the step saver program was discontinued, do you think they would keep the sign up there for a couple of decades?
Very cool! Love the lobster and the carton of eggs! Also, those old freezer/refrigerator units! I don't recall having a Giant Food Store here in the Northeast, but I remember Giant Value when I was young.
really loved this video! i kinda want to go check it out when i need some groceries lol. i also enjoyed how despite everything being quite old, it seemed like a very well kept giant on the whole. makes you really feel like you're in a time machine or something.
The Shop-Rite in Kearny, NJ had a humongous old red neon shop-rite sign on top of the roof until very recently. I’d guess it was from the ‘50s or ‘60s, but I could be wrong. Just last year they replaced it with the current backlit shoprite logo sign. I photographed it once, but lost the photo 😢
Thank you for this trip down memory lane!! I grew up going to the Vienna giant and it looked exactly like this in the early 90s.... I fondly remember running my hands up and down the grate in the reach in cooler and playing this the frost build up 😂😂 also the floor! That was the first thing I noticed, the pink speckled tiles... this was perfect 😍
Thumbs up, Dan for another great video blog! I enjoy going to some of these old school grocery stores. We have a few in my city but they don't advertise on TV so you have to hunt to find them or know someone who will give you directions to the store or take you with them the next time they go. It is a unique experience to go walking through an old style grocery store remembering how grocery shopping was many years ago.
whoa, that flower center brought me right back to the giant on shady grove rd circa 1993, incredible instant nostalgia i didnt even know i had. thanks, as always dan.
Those wood walls and colorful neon look like many stores and eateries from the '80s. The '70s markets that I remember had white tile and clear plastic ribbons covering the refrigerated items.
Did anyone else bust up laughing at Kate grabbing all the Crystal Pepsi? That's definitely something silly that I would do, just to help contribute to the video! ;) lmao
I think my favorite aspect about your videos is how appreciative you are of small details that I'm sure many people don't notice. The fact that you're so jazzed about neon signs in a vintage grocery store makes me really happy.
I grew up in Randallstown, not far from here. This store is largely unchanged since the mid 1970's. There used to be another Giant food very similar in style and vintage to this one just a few miles west but I believe it was removed about ten years ago. I pass by this store every year on my way to visit family in PA and can't help but to stop in for some memories! This is a fairly small store but they use their space well and it is usually very busy. I am kind of surprised they keep this store since there is a fairly new Food Lion not to mention Wal Mart supercenters nearby. Nonetheless it is nice to see a well preserved time capsule from my early years - thanks for documenting it!!
Dan, you'd love grocery shopping here in Indiana- most of our grocery stores resemble this store almost exactly! (At least the ones near me do) Seeing this video makes me think that my city is decades overdue for an update! I still love the nostalgic, vintage feel and would hate to see it gone.
Thank you! Incredible artifact. Can't believe it hasn't been vandalized in all that time. It's bizarre how little things can be such memory triggers...especially those reach in compartments set above the floor freezers in the frozen section. good job
The meat department is staffed by professional meat cutters and offers a complete selection of USDA Choice beef, Grade A poultry, marinated meats and fully prepared dishes. Such items as marinated beef kabobs, stuffed pork chops, and stuffed flank steaks are offered fully prepared and ready to cook through Giant's "Step Saver" program.
You can just about hear all the great AM radio classics echoing throughout the store....'Dreamweaver'...'Horse With No Name'...'Year Of The Cat'...'Lotta Love'...'What A Fool Believes', etc.
The old Giant in Hampden, Baltimore City, MD located at the Rotunda Shopping Center before the renovation/expansion of the shopping center had this vintage neon signage as well. Unfortunately, the Giant got demolished as part of the renovation of the original Rotunda Shopping Center and got moved to a former Super Fresh food store a short walk from the Rotunda.
Dan Bell / Film It I've been a lifelong resident of Baltimore City. Growing up, I used to travel with my parents for grocery shopping to either the Giant at the Rotunda or the old Super Fresh/A&P located on Gorsuch Avenue near Old York Road in the Waverly area of Baltimore that got replaced by a much larger Giant. It's quite amazing that this Giant hadn't been modernized by Ahold Delhaize (parent company of Giant) yet.
Man. I love grocery shopping cuz I'm a foodie and when I'm not a foodie I gotta have my snacks when I blaze it. lol. but I love grocery shopping even more when there's cool signs like this all over. thanks again Dan!
Kinda wish they still played the dumb music you used as background music. I would notice it a lot less than the garbage pop music that they have on at our store, which gets grating once you've been listening to the same ten tracks for months on end.
Love the look of this store. Reminds me of the earlier days and I love neon. I even have a clock with pink neon around it. Bought it over 25 years ago.
Love the old neon! I always love your background music Dan it's so relaxing and reminiscent. Several grocery stores here in Missouri used to have bulk stuff as well. It was always nuts and spices and candy and such. A few stores still have some bulk stuff but its nothing like it was. I really miss those days.
That is a really cool store. I have never seen a store that had those little reach in freezers before, but I am pretty young. I love all this retro stuff so cool. I have never heard of Giant stores either. We don't have them down here in the South.
I would totally shop at this place just for the neons. I love that still work completely, too! They look great! Thanks for sharing this with us! I like your friend, she's weird. :)
I miss those giants, there was one in the Hamlets in Alexandria that looked just like this complete with the wood panelling. I kind of remember step saver has ready to cook meat stuff like spiced and marinated all you had to do was cook it. I wish Giant still sold balk foods. We had a vintage 50s Giant food by my house until about 3 years a go, everything except for the freezers was untouched, it had a really unique bakery sign i wish i had taken a photo of.
Look more closely at the floors. There is terrazzo in the center sections that likely dates from the early to middle 1960s. Large grocery stores stopped using terrazzo in the 1970s when cheaper non-slip tile options came along. So that dates the structure. Then note there are tiles at the edges near the cold cases that were popular in the chain-wide 1980s updates of Giant stores in the middle-1980s in Maryland, Virginia and DC. The tiles replace sections that were damaged when the original produce and freezer cases were pulled out. When you enter the store, you can see concrete patches put into the terrazzo from where some fixtures were removed. The neon and bright-work behind it also part of the 1980s updates. Same with the exterior signage. I shopped in these stores during that period and remember how each was closed, renovated and reopened. Prior to the '80s, Giant stores in that part of the country had really intense exterior neon signs. There was one in use in Alexandria up until the later 1990s.
I liked the bulk food section. I believe it was done away with because the health dept. didn't like people sticking their hands in the barrel, possibly contaminating the contents.
I used to work for Giant, I think that the neon was from the mid to late 1990's, there is also one in Dumfries, Va. that is now a Korean grocery store and still has the neon and a lot of it still lit. There was no neon in the 1970's.
Hi Dan, love watching your clips. Regarding the neon.. I think it may have been from the very late 70s to mid 80s. There was a store in Upstate NY called Grand Union. They had similar neon in their stores. Alas GU went bankrupt in the early 90s.
Wow. This store really is a blast from the past. It looks like I could go in there and just buy some vintage Star Wars action figures from that time era.
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I love this whenever the stores don't update their look that is the ultimate way to travel back in time so to speak
Yeh, same :)
Michael Storm I'm from a town in British Columbia about 30kms outside Vancouver. And we have an old grocery store that hasn't changed much from the 1960s. And a laundromat beside it with a vintage sign with those blinking bulbs hanging over the side walk. I sometimes go in just to take a step back though time
my toys r us was turned in to a boxing gym in Florida
Michael Storm exactly , ive thought that aswell
Eh, as long as they are maintaining it. Our store opened in 2002 and it looks so fucked up it's terrible, and the renovation will happen in 2020. That's just 16 years but it sucks so bad and I can't even order replacements for my fresh produce departments, there are panels missing below the table with the apples and shit. I am forced by the company to have an unwanted trash look. This video however shows that you can keep your inventory with some investments here and there, which is, in the long run, better than writing off inventory just due to tage...
The old refridgerators in this video seem to be taken care of, despite being visually old (dirty), but for their age, it's great.
A lot of people don't realize how extraordinary neon signs are - they all have to be hand-made and are quite expensive. The typography used here is excellent and you can see a real craftsperson (maybe several) had a hand in these signs.
Riff Chick Definitely. The cursive is fantastic. Most of the old neon artists have passed away since this was made.
@@5roundsrapid263 May they all blessfully rest in peace.
WOW!!!! That store is nice!!! The floors are old. But they are clean and shiny!!!! Even the lights are CLEAN WITH NO DUST!!!! Someone must take some pride in where they work. You don't see that very much anymore.
Giant Food Stores are great places to shop. Always very clean & well stocked. :) And I'm not just saying that because my husband works in one, lol.
Dan, I worked at Giant from 80 to 98. I would date this remodel to somewhere between 88 and 92. The terrazzo floor makes this looked like it was built in the late 60s to early 70s. We hated Thiessen over under freezer cases, a real PITA to stock.
Yes, this is "vintage" 1990 give or take. I worked for an architecture firm that produced their construction documents.
This is from a 1988 article in. The Washington Post: "The store also has a "Step-Saver" meat case, which includes uncooked meats combined with other ingredients for pork stir-fries, stuffed veal breasts and chicken or beef kebabs."
This lamb hopes my species was never used for this.
That's what I remember too. Used to get those to make a fast after work meal.
Upeedina Lamb mmmmmm shwarma :D
I just realized why I like your channel. I accidentally ended up on some other guy's dead mall video - and he was yelling! A lot!. So I hurried back to your channel as fast as I could, where the voice is soft, and the pace is laid back. Ah... so much better!
the music selection adds to the nostalgic feel for this..love it
I love old grocery stores, thanks for going here!
I love them too!
You should create a new series called " Shopping With Dan Bell" love the videos keep em coming
Indeed! Well, Dan's voice makes everything look interesting!
yessssssssss :)
I wish i could own that neon milk sign lol
I want the LOBSTER!!!
I like how he is tucked all the way in the corner. It really accentuates the masterpiece that he is.
I want anything with cursive lol
Awesome !! I love old neon
Heck yeah
adamthewoo omg it's really you! first like :-D
adamthewoo Hey Adam
ADAM !!!!!
:D
Grab me that neon egg carton sign when this place goes under, thanks.🍻
BuyTheTicket TakeTheRide I like the eggs too!
Never buy a neon dozen (it only holds eleven eggs).
Dan, I used to live across Milford Mill Rd and this was my Giant which I haven't seen since I left MD in the 80's!!! The neon believe it or not was at that time (when I lived there which was the 70's) the Giant upgrade!!! Previously it had a very "Mayberry" look to it. Thank you for a walk back in time!! 💖
Hi Dan! Fun fact... there used to be a Red Lobster attached to the AMC Theatres Granite Run 8 Cinema (next to the Granite Run Mall which you made a video of once) which had a neon lobster sign just like the one at this Giant above the entrance! Anyway, I find it hilarious that this chain called "Giant" just happened to be bought by the same DUTCH (Netherlands) company which had already owned the completely unrelated (until the Dutch bought it) chain which also coincidentally was called "Giant" in Pennsylvania! And today, over 20 years after the Dutch bought the Maryland Giant chain, and almost 40 years since they bought the Pennsylvania Giant chain, both "Giants" still exist but each use a different logo for their store signage, and yet sell the same store-brand products (using the "fruit slice" logo used by Stop & Shop in the Northeast until recently, but still used by the Maryland Giant chain) but have no actual name on the packaging of their products! And apparently there's been a very bitter disagreement between the unionized Maryland Giant workers and non-union Pennsylvania Giant workers for over 20 years! Also, the Pennsylvania Giant chain still has stores with the name "Martin's" (which uses an identical logo to the Pennsylvania Giant chain, and has completely identical stores to THAT Giant except for the different name) in part of the same region that the Maryland Giant chain exists... apparently Martin's was originally a small chain that the Pennsylvania Giant chain bought, but was forced to keep using the Martin's name (though adopted an identical logo to the PA Giant chain) because of the existence of their then-competitor which was also called Giant! And in the early 90's, the Maryland Giant chain opened a bunch of stores in Pennsylvania (also southern NJ and northern DE) but had to call them "Super G" because of the other Giant chain's existence! And all of those stores in PA (the Pennsylvania Giant chain never had stores in NJ or DE except for their brief ownership of the Edwards chain in parts of NJ) were required to be divested to any other chain which could possibly buy them for the FTC to approve the merger of the two chains with the same name! I actually live near a currently empty former Giant Pennsylvania store (which relocated two years ago) which is a former Bradlees department store, ironic because Stop & Shop once owned Bradlees!
I used to live just a stone throw away from this Giant. It was my local grocery store so it's nice to get a fresh perspective on the store. You pointed out a lot of things that I never really noticed before. Thank you for appreciating and loving something in a neighborhood that doesn't get either of those things anymore.
Bring on the neon! It's like 5 in the morning and I'm so sick but watching this is so relaxing
This store should have a annual cultural contribution! I really loved this video Dan Bell, and look what a bit of passion can do for food store! More neon to the people!
Dan this was the beat video I love old vintage stores. More please !!!!!!
Them neons are perfect, the two colour cheese wheel is beautiful, i love old stores like this.
Reminds me of the Giant my parents used to go to when I was a kid. It was in Glen Burnie. I also remember the bulk food section. People don't do bulk food anymore.
Being a sign guy I truly appreciate the old neon signs. But they are so inefficient & dangerous if installed incorrectly. Even a little neon beer sign that hangs at the local store in the window uses a 15,000 volt transformer! That is not a typo.....15,000 volt! Love these vids Dan.
How?
They are not inefficient and not dangerous. Neon signs need zero maintenance and work reliably for decades. Your shitty little chinese made LED sign with the PCB from Guiangzhaomezedongchintou China that was made in a sweat shop for 5 cents that will start a fire and burn the store down is 300 times more dangerous than a neon sign, which cannot burn because its made of metal and glass. Not plastic.
Also I have no idea in what planet you think the voltage of the ballast means anything at all, Did you eat lead paint as a kid and think you need to reach your hand into live electrical wiring?
I started working for Giant in 1977 and I still work there as of this writing (2020). It’s really the only job I’ve ever had and they’ve been good to me over the years, for the most part. I’ve seen many changes, obviously, and watching this video was a pleasure as it brought back memories of things I had forgotten about. Thanks.
LOVE it ; ) The good old days when your only choice was paper...and you literally had to go straight home if you had frozen stuff, or your bags would get soggy...but they sure made for cheap book covers! The background music was so befitting. It's funny how you miss little stuff like the color schemes of these times, or how labels and advertising looked. Probably why I'm addicted to Etsy ; ) I'm a sucker for nostalgia. Thanks for sharing, Dan. I proudly clicked the link and voted ; ) ~Ashley/Lancaster, PA
Love the vintage freezer section too! Looks like the store was well maintained over the years. Thanks for running to the store for us!
This Giant is one up the street from where my aunt lived in Gwynn Oak. With a few minor changes to the aisles it's pretty much exactly the way it looked when I was a kid in the 1970s. The downside to this particular Giant is the long wait you often encounter at the registers no matter jow few people are ahead of you.
Amazing vintage grocery store! That neon signage is just fantastic. A real blast from the past. Dig it, Dan! (I also love McMansion Hell! Give Kate kudos from me, ok?)
that neon cheese is seriously awesome
Thank you Dan for bringing back happy memories of my childhood in the `80's!
I actually remember when all of the Giant Food Stores in the MD/DC/VA area all looked like the one that you just showed. I actually kind of miss the look of the stores from that era. Thank again for the memories!
BTW....I used to work at a local supermarket in the late `90's, and the floor mounted Freezers are call 'Coffin Style Freezers'. The reason that you don't see them much anymore is they weren't very energy efferent, and don't meet current energy standards. The only reason you still see a few, like this Giant, is that ones already in place (from the `70's or `80's) are 'Grandfathered'.
my OCD hates that damn carton of eggs with only 11 eggs
haha...posted up top as well...good eye!
DavidsGamesOfficial I was about to count them when I first saw it, but thought that's stupid of course there's 12. Now I'm haveing an OCD attack lol.
love the milk/eggs and ice cream/popsicle signs! great video, dan! ♥
Thanks, DAN. I'm from Southern California, and retired , 41 years from the grocery industry, and remember those neon signs of the past. Even more so the giant cash registers that we used, and now scanners! Progress!
That lobster neon sign is awesome! I would love to have it.
Erica MacPherson Looks REALLY similar to the Red Lobster neon sign that used to hang in the location in my hometown.
Erica,
As soon as Dan said "seafood area," I immediate thought--LOBSTER! I was not disappointed.
To paraphrase Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite, the neon lobster made all of my wildest dreams come true.
I remember giants old little customer service section. It was almost like a tiny house and you would push a button for service and they would come out. I remember wanting to go in there as a kid because it almost looked like a club house. Thanks for sharing this, Dan! Brings back lovable memories!
thanks Dan for another awesome video. those neon signs bring back so many memories of my grandmother and I shopping during the 80s. Miss her so much. thanks
I love this. Quirky, nostalgic and definitely a happy blast from the past
Back when my grandparents lived in Reston, VA-the closest Giant was at the Tall Oaks Plaza. The one thing that stood out light-wise was all those red LED aisle "billboard" signs (you know, showcasing random products found throughout the store, or incentives from the store itself). All the neon I recognized came from the pharmacy and deli sections.
And that song at 6:06 sounds familiar: I've heard it on KET's _Adult Math_ (part of their "GED on TV" series) once.
This looks 80's to me. That diagonal wood is 80's for sure!!!
Oh man, seeing that old Giant logo gives me so much nostalgia. And the over/under freezer... I didn't even know I remembered that! I guess there were still some in our local Giant in the early '90s. Most of ours were remodeled fairly early on though. Only you could give me nostalgia for such random-ass old Maryland things, lol.
I remember seeing this video when it premiered in 2017. That was 4 years ago (from when I am currently typing this comment) and sooooo much has changed. One person in the comments for example has explained that this store went out-of-business in 2020 and that this location is now abandoned, but who knows what happened to the neon lights as a result. At least video time capsules like this one can help archive the past so we can see what the world used to be like before 2020. Thank you once again to Dan Bell and the Dead Malls of Discord crew for their amazing video documentation.
Also I love the Crystal Pepsi signage, as of 2020 it has been discontinued again and I am somewhat regretful that I could not find any old signage like that for my home as decor.
I'm so upset to hear this store is no longer open! 😔 I hope the neon signs don't get just thrown away. 😟
this has to be one of cleanest stores I've ever seen. Voted!
This is such a gorgeous video with such a nostalgic vibe, I can't get over it. What an experience this must've been. Great job as always Dan!!
I love me an old-school supermarket.
Thank you - thank you - thank you, Dan Bell, for presenting this sentimental journey for me, and kindling memories from my far-off past of the first store in which I remember shopping with my parents in the early 50s. (No, it wasn't in Baltimore; it was the small Giant in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Flower Avenue, just before crossing Piney Branch Road over into Takoma Park. I have been away from Maryland for the past 42 years, so seeing an honest-to-goodness Giant food store is a real rush for me.)
Too bad the TV show "VR-5" wasn't a reality; I would have LOVED to hop through the screen of my monitor (a la Sidney Bloom, the show's protagonist) and take the scenic tour with you through the aisles of that Baltimore Giant store. Although it didn't seem as large as some of the stores in the D.C. area, I just know that it carried many brands of food with which I used to be familiar, but that are totally unavailable to me in the isolated place where I now live.
Again, my sincerest thanks for providing me with a link to my past; it reinforces in me
my tenaciously-held East Coast identity...
Loved the friend! 😂😂. Never heard of Giant food stores though 🤔 just love crystal Pepsi though she had the right idea 😍😍
as a kid i always loved the frozen ice pop neon sign. the giant closest to me kept those up until the early 2000s, and then a decade after then that was my first job when i got older! :)
I love the mortar & pestle! So old school! Those eggs, and the lobster, were amazing! Baltimore residents are so lucky to have this stuff.
that store is amazing love the vintage neon. it reminds me of a old school Safeway store in Puyallup washington I went to it is like a time travel in real life.
This reminded me so much of the grocery store close to me when I was growing up. We had a cool neon milk carton that would move as it was pouring milk (hard to explain but you get the mental image). The area that had the bulk food in this store reminded me of the area of my store that had a book store, cause of that wood panelling. I love stores that haven't updated their looks.
The amazing part is most of the neon still works!
My first job was $7.00/hour minimum wage grocery stocker at a similar store. Hated stocking and front/facing the canned food section, took FOREVER.
Great video as always, I have to show this to my mom since she used to work for Giant back when my family lived in maryland in the 80's
There are a lot of old skool neon signs for companies in Laurel, MD, too. One is an Arby's, it's a giant neon cowboy hat.
If you visit, some other odd things are The Crystal Fox mystic shop with an in-store pet cat, a sex shop built inside of an old book store which they kept the old giant blade sign that reads BOOKS as disguise, ahahah, (also an actual adult video arcade complete with neon signs.... awful but hilarious), there's several old motels like Valencia and Turf motel (one of which recently a scene of a shooting), houses converted in to liquor stores and a ton of other fun, weird things, lmao. The whole area dates back to 1600s and certain roads like Whiskey Bottom Road were believed to originally be Native American foot trails. I'm rambling now but yeah, i think you'd guys enjoy it
The Giant in Milford Mill! I used to take my Mom years ago (we normally went to the one in New Town but occasionally she wanted to go to this one because they had certain items the other Giant didn't have..) I love the old school flooring too in addition to the Neon. I remember going here as a kid and I feel as though the pharmacy used to be to the left when you walked in (near the magazines and where the current frozen section is). Thanks as always for doing these videos Dan - I really appreciate you taking the time to capture these memories, especially when this store won't be around forever. Thank you!!!
It's always weird to learn about region-specific grocery stores. Down here in Florida, I mostly just know Publix and Winn-Dixie
Wow! This Giant is set up EXACTLY the same as the Giant in Leisure World (Montgomery County, MD) that my mom used to drag me to every Friday after school. I've moved up north and here they called them Stop&Shop😷
Step saver were cards you collected stamps/punches/stickers for discounts.
Awesome! Thank you! I bet that sign is the only one left in any Giant.
This is a bunch of bs. Step saver, as already mentioned, *_are_* food items packaged with other ingredients, side orders, etc... to make it easier to cook a complete meal.
If the step saver program was discontinued, do you think they would keep the sign up there for a couple of decades?
Cooll Asice Yes they would keep it up because its nostalgic or no one cared enough to take it down.
wrong.
Cooll Asice I never said it did, I was guessing why the sign was never taken down.
Very cool! Love the lobster and the carton of eggs! Also, those old freezer/refrigerator units! I don't recall having a Giant Food Store here in the Northeast, but I remember Giant Value when I was young.
haha love how you mention the old school refrigerators. All my local stores in the UK still have them. We're so far behind :)
I agree, you rarely see these neon signs, and walking into this store is like walking back in time...great video Dan!!
really loved this video! i kinda want to go check it out when i need some groceries lol. i also enjoyed how despite everything being quite old, it seemed like a very well kept giant on the whole. makes you really feel like you're in a time machine or something.
The Shop-Rite in Kearny, NJ had a humongous old red neon shop-rite sign on top of the roof until very recently. I’d guess it was from the ‘50s or ‘60s, but I could be wrong. Just last year they replaced it with the current backlit shoprite logo sign. I photographed it once, but lost the photo 😢
I love the vintage stores and buildings
I'd like that neon eggs sign that's pretty cool
LIVE TV BOY'S I love how it's missing an egg!
+5Rounds Rapid What??! Totally missed it. :)
haha i was just as happy when i found Crystal Pepsi came back here to Canada
Thank you for this trip down memory lane!! I grew up going to the Vienna giant and it looked exactly like this in the early 90s.... I fondly remember running my hands up and down the grate in the reach in cooler and playing this the frost build up 😂😂 also the floor! That was the first thing I noticed, the pink speckled tiles... this was perfect 😍
Thumbs up, Dan for another great video blog! I enjoy going to some of these old school grocery stores. We have a few in my city but they don't advertise on TV so you have to hunt to find them or know someone who will give you directions to the store or take you with them the next time they go. It is a unique experience to go walking through an old style grocery store remembering how grocery shopping was many years ago.
whoa, that flower center brought me right back to the giant on shady grove rd circa 1993, incredible instant nostalgia i didnt even know i had. thanks, as always dan.
Those wood walls and colorful neon look like many stores and eateries from the '80s. The '70s markets that I remember had white tile and clear plastic ribbons covering the refrigerated items.
That's awesome. Whoever owns that store obviously cares a lot about the upkeep, looks really well kept.
Did anyone else bust up laughing at Kate grabbing all the Crystal Pepsi? That's definitely something silly that I would do, just to help contribute to the video! ;) lmao
I think my favorite aspect about your videos is how appreciative you are of small details that I'm sure many people don't notice. The fact that you're so jazzed about neon signs in a vintage grocery store makes me really happy.
Great upload. Loved seeing the old neons
Step saver meant partially prepared main dishes like seasoned chicken, stuffed and pre-seasoned meats that simply require baking or pan frying..
I grew up in Randallstown, not far from here. This store is largely unchanged since the mid 1970's. There used to be another Giant food very similar in style and vintage to this one just a few miles west but I believe it was removed about ten years ago. I pass by this store every year on my way to visit family in PA and can't help but to stop in for some memories! This is a fairly small store but they use their space well and it is usually very busy. I am kind of surprised they keep this store since there is a fairly new Food Lion not to mention Wal Mart supercenters nearby. Nonetheless it is nice to see a well preserved time capsule from my early years - thanks for documenting it!!
Dan, you'd love grocery shopping here in Indiana- most of our grocery stores resemble this store almost exactly! (At least the ones near me do) Seeing this video makes me think that my city is decades overdue for an update! I still love the nostalgic, vintage feel and would hate to see it gone.
We have those types of freezers and refrigerators in UK supermarkets. No neon though, which is a trick Tesco is missing for sure! 😂😂
i agree, they are everywhere in the UK, and they are NOT old either
Yes they are really familiar to me too ha ha ;)
Thank you! Incredible artifact. Can't believe it hasn't been vandalized in all that time. It's bizarre how little things can be such memory triggers...especially those reach in compartments set above the floor freezers in the frozen section. good job
FAVORITE FLIM IT OF ALL TIME, keep up the good work dan
How fun. I shop at Giant all the time - it's cool to see a vintage one. :-)
The meat department is staffed by professional meat cutters and offers a complete selection of USDA Choice beef, Grade A poultry, marinated meats and fully prepared dishes. Such items as marinated beef kabobs, stuffed pork chops, and stuffed flank steaks are offered fully prepared and ready to cook through Giant's "Step Saver" program.
You can just about hear all the great AM radio classics echoing throughout the store....'Dreamweaver'...'Horse With No Name'...'Year Of The Cat'...'Lotta Love'...'What A Fool Believes', etc.
Great video! Reminds me of the Giant at Loch Raven Blvd & Taylor Ave, but that one didn't have the cool neon. Very appropriate music too!!
The old Giant in Hampden, Baltimore City, MD located at the Rotunda Shopping Center before the renovation/expansion of the shopping center had this vintage neon signage as well.
Unfortunately, the Giant got demolished as part of the renovation of the original Rotunda Shopping Center and got moved to a former Super Fresh food store a short walk from the Rotunda.
That was my store for a long time. I always shopped there. It looked very much like this Giant.
Dan Bell / Film It I've been a lifelong resident of Baltimore City. Growing up, I used to travel with my parents for grocery shopping to either the Giant at the Rotunda or the old Super Fresh/A&P located on Gorsuch Avenue near Old York Road in the Waverly area of Baltimore that got replaced by a much larger Giant.
It's quite amazing that this Giant hadn't been modernized by Ahold Delhaize (parent company of Giant) yet.
Man. I love grocery shopping cuz I'm a foodie and when I'm not a foodie I gotta have my snacks when I blaze it. lol. but I love grocery shopping even more when there's cool signs like this all over. thanks again Dan!
Kinda wish they still played the dumb music you used as background music. I would notice it a lot less than the garbage pop music that they have on at our store, which gets grating once you've been listening to the same ten tracks for months on end.
Psyche can i just say I love your avatar
Dumb??
There used to be a Food Lion grocery store where I live when I was very young that still had some of that neon I'm almost certain.
I did a merchandising job at this location. It's definitely retro as the stores near me (Rockville, MD) are updated.
Love the look of this store. Reminds me of the earlier days and I love neon. I even have a clock with pink neon around it. Bought it over 25 years ago.
Love the old neon! I always love your background music Dan it's so relaxing and reminiscent. Several grocery stores here in Missouri used to have bulk stuff as well. It was always nuts and spices and candy and such. A few stores still have some bulk stuff but its nothing like it was. I really miss those days.
That is a really cool store. I have never seen a store that had those little reach in freezers before, but I am pretty young. I love all this retro stuff so cool. I have never heard of Giant stores either. We don't have them down here in the South.
I would totally shop at this place just for the neons. I love that still work completely, too! They look great! Thanks for sharing this with us! I like your friend, she's weird. :)
Who remembers Walmart's old Great Value package designs?
I miss those giants, there was one in the Hamlets in Alexandria that looked just like this complete with the wood panelling. I kind of remember step saver has ready to cook meat stuff like spiced and marinated all you had to do was cook it. I wish Giant still sold balk foods. We had a vintage 50s Giant food by my house until about 3 years a go, everything except for the freezers was untouched, it had a really unique bakery sign i wish i had taken a photo of.
Amazing. Thank you for sharing! Can't wait for more Dead Mall Videos, I can't get enough of Vintage Neon!!!
Look more closely at the floors. There is terrazzo in the center sections that likely dates from the early to middle 1960s. Large grocery stores stopped using terrazzo in the 1970s when cheaper non-slip tile options came along. So that dates the structure. Then note there are tiles at the edges near the cold cases that were popular in the chain-wide 1980s updates of Giant stores in the middle-1980s in Maryland, Virginia and DC. The tiles replace sections that were damaged when the original produce and freezer cases were pulled out. When you enter the store, you can see concrete patches put into the terrazzo from where some fixtures were removed. The neon and bright-work behind it also part of the 1980s updates. Same with the exterior signage. I shopped in these stores during that period and remember how each was closed, renovated and reopened. Prior to the '80s, Giant stores in that part of the country had really intense exterior neon signs. There was one in use in Alexandria up until the later 1990s.
If it's vintage than I love it!
Bring back the good old days. Love the neon.
I liked the bulk food section. I believe it was done away with because the health dept. didn't like people sticking their hands in the barrel, possibly contaminating the contents.
I used to work for Giant, I think that the neon was from the mid to late 1990's, there is also one in Dumfries, Va. that is now a Korean grocery store and still has the neon and a lot of it still lit. There was no neon in the 1970's.
Hi Dan, love watching your clips. Regarding the neon.. I think it may have been from the very late 70s to mid 80s. There was a store in Upstate NY called Grand Union. They had similar neon in their stores. Alas GU went bankrupt in the early 90s.
Amy Sprenkle - loved grand union ....believe it was Chicago market before that (?)
Wow. This store really is a blast from the past. It looks like I could go in there and just buy some vintage Star Wars action figures from that time era.