Giant

It’s spacious, very clean and so far at least five staff members are helpful friendly and genuinely nice. Cynthia was patient with me as well as Alisha.
Norman the store manager got several different items for my family from another store so we could enjoy while celebrating Passover. They carry sweet whipped butter by Breakstone so it spreads easier on matza.
The underground parking is convenient in inclement weather or the humid summer. 2 hour parking is a fair amount of time and it’s free, but be sure to validate at checkout.
My favorite thing at this store is the samples of healthy, delicious and various natural smoothies. Picked up a 3 lb ready cooked chicken (garlic & herb) Empire for Ten bucks (on sale), and I zap for 22 minutes add potatoes to the gravy and it is delicious and easy. Oh wow they also have a BBQ one, not bad.

This review is for the STARBUCKS at the Giant:
I have been to this Starbucks on multiple occasions and have been disappointed each time. The employees don’t know how to make basic drinks, have poor attitudes, and are not familiar with various Starbucks promotions. Take your business to the other Starbucks in Potomac Yard.

I came here on opening day. And I concur with Jess’ review and would like to add that the parking garage entrance should have the safety mirrors so cars know when pedestrians are crossing. I noticed that cars just zip right out of the garage rather than slowly and carefully approaching it. I noticed this right away and told one of the employees who was standing alongside it to make that suggestion to mgmt. There should also be signs posted so both parties are made aware of this safety hazard.
I also noticed people were taking the shopping carts from the store to one of the nearby apt buildings. (The one I’m referring to is the subsidized housing that sits on top of the firehouse and currently has petsmart and shoppers carts strewn in front of it and the main entrance of the building looks unkept). Talk about uncouth! I’m sure within a short period of time, orphaned carts will be littered about in the community. It’s so sad too because Potomac Yard with its new sleek and expensive housing of mixed rental and ownership properties could start looking Trashy instead of how it potentially can be Classy. To avoid this, Why can’t Giant put a lockdown on the carts like other places? You know what I’m talking about with the carts containing some magnetic device that prevents the carts from leaving the premises.
I do like the hours, open early and closes at midnight. I also like how the deli/​hot foods are right near the front entrance and wish the bakery was right beside it instead of being all the way in the back. Maybe the can incorporate a small kiosk in the deli with a few selection of pastries and cheese platters and a small cooler also nearby with milk and juice and chilled beer/​wine. At least try to entice customers to want to walk back there because most of the time if it’s inconvenient or if I have to spend time trying to find something that should be easily accessible, I won’t bother.

Overall this place is great. It’s in a great location, always stocked and a wide selection in some areas. I don’t know what the reviewer a few slots down is talking about. My wife, son and I were always attended to and the staff is very respectful and friendly. I guess it’s the manner how you as a person approach someone plays a major factor.
I do suggest having a wider variety of fresh veggies and fruits. Also, add in larger variety of international foods/​spices.

I have mostly positive things to say, but some concerns linger. To start with some of the positive: The staff has always been friendly — almost to a shocking degree, given how apathetic service can often be at grocery stores. It certainly helps put me in a better mood for shopping.
Lingering concern #1: I don’t understand why they built a new store without a Scan-​It lane. Scan-​It may not be popular, but one of the incentives for using it is a devoted lane. Eliminating that perk won’t help it succeed.
Lingering concern #2: Although I’ve seen worse grocery store garages (e.g., the nearby Harris Teeter), there is a major safety flaw in the design of the Giant garage — the elevator lobby exits directly into a traffic lane, with no sidewalk or other protection. This is an accident waiting to happen — shoppers won’t expect and aren’t likely to see oncoming traffic. Needs to be fixed.

Beautiful store! Large variety of products. Very clean. Easy parking. Love it!

We keep trying to avoid this Giant, but it’s very convenient for where we live. However, I regret every trip made to this store. No matter what department we’re in, we’re met by rude, slow, inconsiderate, and disinterested service. For example, we go there quick for bread in the bakery and the attendant tries to ignore us until we verbally get their attention. Once we have her attention, she’s unbelievably rude and cops an attitude because we asked for our bread to be sliced. For such a great location with its new construction, this store is just a disgrace.

The store itself is beautiful. Very clean (as to be expected for a new store), well stocked, nice assortment of products. The staff, on the other hand, leaves quite a bit to be desired. I don’t know if this is a function of them being new and willing to hire anyone or if it’s something about this Giant in particular but the few times I’ve been in and have asked a question, I’ve essentially been met with complete apathy or looks of exasperation.
It seems they don’t yet have all of the bugs sorted out in their computer systems in terms of sales prices to the point where I’m not sure I should even go anymore. The first time I got an item that I thought was on sale, I asked the cashier if it was in fact on sale. There was a long line behind me and this woman couldn’t be bothered to check the price. I told her to just forget about it since I don’t want to hold folks up. This week, I stopped to get multivitamins. I saw that there were women’s multivitamins that were buy one get one. When the cashier rung them up, the discount wasn’t removed. A manager came over and kept asking where I got them as if I would remember what aisle they were in. I told her at least 3 times that I got them near where the rest of the vitamins were. She stormed off in a huff and came back to tell me that these weren’t on sale and that it was the ones next to them. Oddly, I was in last night and I double-​checked the tags and they were buy one get one! Maybe there wasn’t a tag there at that point but seems odd to me that the folks hired don’t want to do their jobs. It’s not everyone there but when the manager has an attitude, you have to wonder. She was there last night and were she not talking with someone at the time, I would have asked her what the story is on those damn vitamins!

Beautiful store, well stocked, great beer and wine selection, super friendly staff, veggies are really fresh, prices are competitive, and they’ve kept it up the past two months since opening. There is plenty of free parking and enough staff to get you in and out super quick.

TL: DR (again) The Giant has fixed the main points of concern of mine and Mariah’s review. Including safety mirrors in the garages, stop signs, patrons, and employees.
After a short 2 months of growing pains this Giant has really bloomed into one of my favorite places to shop in.
Two causes for concern in my original review have been assuaged. Everything positive has remained in place– hence the 5 start review!
My original major complaint were the surly patrons and uncouth people working here. To those remarks, somehow they have really «cleaned up». There are no longer workers hanging out right outside of Starbucks taking up the entire sidewalk with their loud, often curse filled, smoking breaks. They seem to linger around the area still on their smoke breaks, but at least they’re avoidable when walking to and from the Giant.
Perfect example, the other day I walked into Giant and I was promptly greeted while perusing the fruit section by a nice employee with samples of Starbucks lattes to offer me! I saw this same exact employee 1 month ago looking as unapproachable as everyone else. But this store is proof– if you get rid of, or at least hide in the back, the unfriendly, lazy workers that act as a cancer on the atmosphere of the store, everyone thrives. I’m consistently greeted by the fish market people, asking how I liked the last fish I purchased, etc, the banking employees, and the cash register greeters. It is now beginning to feel more like a friendly neighborhood store and not just like a scary place to be with a fresh coat of paint. I like that the employees assigned to the cash register stand at the end of the aisle clearly visible and ask if you’re ready to be checked out by them to usher you into their empty aisle. Kudos to management, this is a nice touch until the Giant is full enough to warrant them staying behind the registers all day.
The people that shop here have also improved. Thank goodness. I could not stand walking downstairs to people smoking in the garage with young children, or people cursing at their kids in the store– that environment is no longer here. So thanks to the management and security team.
There is a Starbucks and PNC here. There are also those nifty coin collector machines. There is NEVER a line at checkout thanks to the 10 self check out kiosks and plenty of employees on standby at the checkout aisles.
The aisles are constantly stocked. The fruit/​veggies are always fresh (unlike the Harris Teeter down the street). There is hot food available at any hour. The pharmacists are very friendly as well.
Overall this Giant is finally worthy of being one of the first businesses in the new and upcoming exclusive Potomac Exchange neighborhood.

We love the new Giant in Potomac Yard and are excited to have them in the neighborhood. We have found selection and pricing in every department to be excellent and they will have all our grocery business! I read all the reviews and can’t say that I have had any of the experiences mentioned (smoking, groups roaming the aisles but not buying, carts left in front of the apartments) but will say that I would stop going if at any time I did not feel safe (especially in an underground garage) or that the security guard was not doing his job. Giant managers– please keep this store clean and safe for our neighborhood as we love living here.

I live in Del Ray, and currently shop mostly at Harris Teeter and the local farmer’s market, with forays to Shoppers (for ethnic items) and Mom’s/Whole Foods/​Trader Joe’s (for bulk grains/​specialty items). I visited this new Giant about a week after they opened to check it out, with pretty high expectations, since I’d heard they had a large organic section and comparisons to Wegmans. First impression — the store is definitely large, and the employees were friendly, and were offering samples throughout the store, which was nice. I did not use their hand held devices that let you check out as you go, but they did have an employee stationed where you pick them up, presumably to explain them to people. At least for the shopping I do, however, I don’t think I’ll be switching over from Harris Teeter. Case in point — I was looking for a cucumber. One cucumber. Huge produce section, the only cucumbers they had were shrink wrapped in groups of 2 – 3, or were the ultra long seedless ones, which I didn’t want. I was also looking for the one item I used to regularly buy at the old Del Ray Giant — the Original Gardenburgers — didn’t have those either. Moving on… the fish counter was smaller than I expected — smaller than Harris Teeter’s. As for organic/​natural items, they did not have bulk grains like Wegmans, as I had hoped, and while they did have about 10 different brands of quinoa, they did not have bulgur, at least that I could find. I did find a few things to purchase, and checked out at the self-​checkout lanes. The touch screen machines are very non-​responsive — I had to tap at least 3 – 4 times each time to get it to register that I’d made a selection. I don’t think I’ve ever used self check out at a Giant before so I don’t know if it is a problem with all the machines Giant uses or just at this store. Clearly it’s a problem they’re aware of, as the employee assisting in that area was going around suggesting to people that they use their fingernails as that would help (though I found it didn’t really matter).

Nice new Giant at the corner of E. Glebe and Route 1 which just opened last week, so the place is still new and shiny, and hopefully it will stay that way as there are some Giant stores in the area that are pretty gross (hello, S. Glebe store!).
Big produce area, some prepared foods right when you walk in, Starbucks and lots of self-​check out lanes. I couldn’t figure out where to park at first (garage underneath, 2 hours free parking with validation) but you can drive right in and take the elevator up one floor (something this Bostonian finds fascinating).
I went today on an empty stomach which was a shame as there was some wine sampling happening (I know, I was in a GROCERY store where they were also sampling food) and the place was busy (probably not only for the free stuff, but groceries from a clean store. Hint, hint, S. Glebe location!).