Giant and Safeway are both large supermarket chains primarily located in the United States. Both sell groceries and other household items to hundreds of thousands of customers every single year. But, between the two, which one is better. More specifically, should you shop at Giant or should you shop at Safeway.
To help you decide between which store is right for you, I compared 3 factors for both Giant and Safeway:
- Price
- Product Quality
- Product Variety
Through this article you will be able to see which store has cheaper prices, higher quality products, and more product variety.
Which is Better: Giant or Safeway? In terms of price, Giant is easily the cheaper option. However, Safeway offers higher product quality and product variety.
Is Giant More Expensive Than Safeway?
Arguably the largest decision factor that most shoppers consider when choosing between stores is price. In other words, which grocery store has the cheapest prices. So, I compared Giant and Safeway’s prices on their store brand items to see which one is more affordable.
| Category | Giant Brand | Safeway Brand |
| Beverages | ✓ | |
| Baking Goods | ✓ | |
| Canned Goods | ✓ | |
| Dairy | ✓ | |
| Dry Goods | ✓ | |
| Frozen Foods | ✓ | |
| Personal Care | ✓ | |
| Cleaners | ✓ | |
So, which one is cheaper? Giant is cheaper than Safeway across multiple shopping categories.
To be more specific, Giant is the cheaper option in 6 out of the 8 most common shopping categories. This means that you are likely to save more money if you shop at Giant versus if you shop at Safeway.
The only two categories that Safeway was cheaper in were dairy products and personal care products. It should be mentioned that while Safeway was the cheaper option for these two categories, they were not cheaper by much. Giant had very close prices, they just happened to be a tad bit more expensive.
If you are a shopper that prioritizes price over everything else, then Giant is the right choice for you.
Product Quality: Giant vs Safeway
To get a better understanding of which store offers consistent quality, I decided to check the FDA’s product recall website. This allows anyone to see how many recalled products that a store has had in recent years.
So, whichever store has more recalled items, likely has the lower quality products.
| Category | Giant Recalls | Safeway Recalls |
| Animal & Veterinary | 0 | 0 |
| Biologics | 0 | 0 |
| Cosmetics | 0 | 0 |
| Dietary Supplements | 0 | 0 |
| Drugs | 0 | 0 |
| Food and Beverages | 22 | 11 |
| Medical Devices | 0 | 0 |
| Radiation Emitting Products | 0 | 0 |
| Tobacco | 0 | 0 |
According to the FDA, Giant has had more recalled items in recent years. They have had virtually all of their recalled items within their ‘Food & Beverages’ category. In fact, Giant has had almost twice as many recalls as Safeway.
So, it is pretty easy to see that Safeway has more consistency in their product quality, leading to less product recalls. Thus, Safeway has higher quality products available for purchase at their stores.
So, if you are a shopper that prefers product quality over everything else, then Safeway is the right choice for you.
Product Variety: Giant vs Safeway
Another aspect to shopping that some customers look for in a store is product variety. They like to have multiple brands and options to choose from. So out of these two stores, which one has the most product variety?
Both of these stores are considered supermarkets, which means that they generally sell produce, consumable items, and household items. This means that they should sell the same types of items.
| Total Giant Products | Total Safeway Products |
| 30,000 | 33,000+ Products |
Surprisingly, both stores sell a very similar amount of items, but Safeway happens to sell a bit more. This means that Safeway has a bit more variety when it comes to products to choose from.
So, if you are a shopper that prioritizes variety over everything else, then Safeway is the right option for you.
Which Has More Locations: Giant or Safeway?
Between these two stores, which one is more dominant throughout the country. The amount of locations that each store has is a good indicator as to how dominant they are in the industry. So, which store appears to be more dominant?
| Giant | Safeway |
| 4 States | 35 States |
| 190 Stores | 1300 Stores |
It is clear that Safeway has many more store locations than Giant. More specifically, Safeway has over 1300 stores which are located in a total of 35 states, whereas Giant has 190 stores in 4 states.
Which One Should You Shop At: Giant vs Safeway?
When to shop at Giant: Giant had a clear advantage in comparison to Safeway, price. For any shopper that wants to save money, they should shop at Giant. Not only did they offer the cheapest price for almost all shopping categories, but they weren’t even that much more expensive in the categories where they were considered the more expensive option.
When to shop at Safeway: Despite being more expensive, Safeway offers better product quality and product variety. So if you prefer to purchase higher quality items and have more products to choose from, Safeway is your store.