Giant Food walks the talk on diversity, equity and inclusion

At Giant Food, inclusion is a way of life. From its engaged leadership team to unconscious bias training for all managers to associate-led empowerment groups to minority-owned supplier initiatives, the Ahold Delhaize subsidiary is inspiring and nurturing diversity, equity and inclusion in its organization and its stores every day.

“This is a company that is mission driven and stands by what they say,” Jamie Joshua, Giant DEI manager, told The Packer.

Joshua, who recently marked her two-year anniversary with the Landover, Md.-based grocer, calls the support she has received in her role “tremendous.”

“I arrived in August 2021. It had been a little more than a year since George Floyd's murder. Giant already had some DEI initiatives in place,” Joshua said.

“My first step was to understand who we are as an organization and what we are already doing. I didn’t want to bulldoze existing efforts. People had already been putting a lot of work and heart into it,” she said.

Among Giant’s inclusion initiatives are six associate-led business resource groups that include Women’s Inclusion Network; THRIVE People of Color; Young Professionals; Giant’s Veterans; Pride; and Corporate Council, which serves as a liaison between associates and business leadership.

“Our associates lead these groups to create spaces of connection and community for whatever that identity group is,” said Joshua, who adds that the grocer launched a Giant Village resource group late last year for young parents and caregivers.

Topics for Giant Village have ranged from a Healthy Living team-led conversation about how to feed kids a nutritious diet to a conversation around supporting children and others with autism.

“The group is meant to be an opportunity for being seen,” Joshua said.

The business resource groups also work across the company and with store locations to create enhanced DEI programming.

For example, during Black History Month, THRIVE People of Color created a booklet with profiles on excellence that highlighted current Black leaders in the community and nationwide. The booklet was shared with all of Giant’s retail stores, corporate office and distribution centers. THRIVE also worked with the merchandising team to create in-store endcaps featuring products from Black-owned businesses.

Giant offers the group meetings in different ways to accommodate its entire staff. Some are live and all are available to be streamed by its associates in its 165 stores, corporate office and distribution center.

Supplier diversity

Giant is also committed to sourcing products from a diverse group of suppliers, Joshua says. Its supplier diversity initiative aims to enhance the procurement process by developing strong business relationships with businesses that offer quality products and services, excellent customer service, competitive costs for its customers and have been certified by a third-party agency.

Certifying agencies include Minority-Owned Business Enterprise, representing Asian-Indian-, Asian-Pacific-, Black-, Hispanic- and Native American-owned businesses; Women-Owned Small Business; Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender Business; Veteran-Owned Small Business; Veteran-Disability Owned Business Enterprise; and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business.

Giant spotlights this diverse and inclusive network of over 3,100 products from more than 200 suppliers with shelf tags to make it easier for customers to identify product attributes that are important to them. Giant’s website and mobile app shoppers can also see digital versions of the shelf tags.

“During pride month, we highlighted LGBT-owned groups to elevate awareness,” Joshua said. “They're already in our stores, but we want to help our shoppers who might be conscious shopping to be able to find those products much more easily.”

But Giant does more than spotlight minority-owned businesses to reach shoppers in its stores.

“Our support of diverse suppliers isn't just on the shelf; it's behind the scenes as well,” says Joshua. “During Pride month, we partnered with a pride brand to purchase shirts with our Pride Business Resource Group logo for our associates who wanted to wear them. Our bids don’t just go to any vendor. For pride month, we wanted to put our dollars into the hands of an LGBT-owned supplier.”

Unconscious bias training

This spring and summer Giant required all of its leadership team to participate in unconscious bias training. The company hired a facilitator and offered a combination of online and in-person programming.

Giant started with its directors and director-plus-level employees, and then involved all of its managers in the training, Joshua said.

The leadership team has also received gender inclusivity training, which can be particularly important in the pharmacy, she said.

“In the pharmacy, there’s a different level of understanding and way to engage with the customer because now there’s a second level with drug interactions and getting necessary information while being respectful,” Joshua said.

The gender inclusivity training was held virtually to accommodate both the number of people who needed the training and to allow for anonymity when asking sensitive questions, Joshua said.

“Our customer base is diverse. How do you navigate it with empathy and with understanding? Our intention has been to give everybody the language they need,” Joshua said. “We do gender inclusivity training to empower our people and to make sure that if they don't know the answer to something, they at least know where to go for guidance and don't feel alone in the whole process.”

Authentic customer care

How is Giant engaging with its community of shoppers around DEI?

“That’s an area that we hope comes through naturally with our inclusive marketing practices, our shelf tags, profiles on excellence, and what we post online and on [in-store] signage,” Joshua said. “Hopefully they're seeing the intentionality in what we do as being both inclusive as well as equitable.

“I think our customers don't necessarily notice it,” she continued. “I think people notice when it's not happening, right?”

Giant works with its store managers and teams, who know their communities best, to be as inclusive and representative of the populations its serves as possible, Joshua says. “That being said, as with every company, I think there's still work for us to do.”

Part of that work is asking challenging questions, she says. Does this feel right? Is this the right choice for our company?

“We need to be authentic in our actions, make sure that we are being respectful and that we are welcoming as a store,” Joshua said. “Everyone has product on the shelves, but what's your experience when you come into Giant? We want you to feel like you're coming to a place where you can find what you need, but also be who you are as you do it.”