Giant cuts ‘Giant Direct’ delivery jobs in Camp Hill; company addresses future of other locations

CAMP HILL, Pa. (WHTM) — The service will still exist — and GIANT employees will still do the shopping — but someone else will soon be delivering “GIANT Direct” orders in the Camp Hill area.

The company confirmed it is eliminating all driver positions at the Camp Hill store, which is one of six of the chain’s “e-commerce facilities.”

“After a careful review, the decision was made to transition operations at the Camp Hill GIANT Direct wareroom,” the company said in a statement. “With this move, GIANT Direct orders for that area will be picked by store team members in area stores and delivered by a third-party partner.”

The company said the changes will happen by the end of April and didn’t say how many driver jobs it is cutting.

One driver said Instacart — which rose to prominence during the pandemic — will handle the outsourced work; GIANT didn’t name the supplier.

The driver asked not to be identified because they said the company instructed drivers not to tell customers about the upcoming change, although “I did anyway because these people — these people are family to us, a lot of them,” the driver said.

abc27 News contacted GIANT after hearing from worried drivers and disappointed customers.

The driver who asked not to be identified said rumors began circulating in late 2023.

“I kind of dismissed it, because you know how people talk,” the driver said. But then “less than two weeks ago, they came and told everybody this was happening.”

The driver, who has children, said they were offered a similar position — but with an unspecified schedule — in Lancaster, an hour’s drive away, which would mean higher commuting and daycare costs.

“Or they offered me a position at the Camp Hill store, which I can’t take either,” the driver said, estimating their pay would drop 40% because of the loss of tips; the driver said they currently earn between $25 and $30 per hour, including tips.

The driver said the cuts are — in a sense — worse than a layoff, because the company isn’t offering severance packages to employees who decide the other options are unacceptable. And if the employees file for unemployment compensation, managers have told them GIANT would inform the state it had offered them other positions, which could hurt their changes of receiving benefits.

In its statement, GIANT said its “focus is on supporting our team members. All team members were offered comparable positions at our other e-commerce facilities, perishable distribution center or stores. The conversations continue, but so far more than 67% of those impacted have already accepted positions elsewhere in the company.”

Steve and Rainie Bodley, retired middle school teachers who live in East Pennsboro Township, said they were devastated to hear the news. They said they have grown particularly close with two of the 10 or so drivers who show up with their groceries at different times.

“When we know ‘x’ driver is coming into our house, we actually have conversations ready to go because of each one of our interactions with them,” Steve Bodley said. “It’s been really, really positive.”

The Bodleys said they taught some of the drivers’ children before they retired.

“I believe in capitalism,” Rainie Bodley said. “I don’t believe in capitalism without a soul.”

The Bodleys said they’ll stop shopping at GIANT if the company doesn’t change its decision or offer better options to the drivers whose positions are being cut.

Carlisle-based GIANT is a unit of the Dutch-Belgian company Ahold Delhaize, which also owns another chain, Landover, Maryland-based Giant, with similar store formats and products but a different logo and — unlike the Carlisle-based unit — a unionized workforce at its stores, which dot the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

Mark Federici, president of the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400, which represents workers at the more southerly Giant, said unions can’t prevent all job losses, but “our provisions within our collective bargaining agreement would allow individuals to have further options.”

For example, he said the union might be able to negotiate one-time payments of $5,000 or more for employees accepting positions farther from home as compensation for the hardship — and severance packages, with extended pay and health benefits, for employees who don’t stay with the company.

“Under federal labor law, in a union environment, an employer would be compelled to sit and do what’s called ‘effects bargaining’ for the group,” Federici said. “‘Effects bargaining’ is literally bargaining over the effects of the decision.”

GIANT said the impact on customers of the Camp Hill delivery model changes will be positive. The company said customers will be able to schedule deliveries as soon as two hours from when they place their orders, schedule smaller one-hour delivery windows and make changes to their orders as late as two to three hours before the orders arrive, down from four to six hours under the current system.

Might GIANT also outsource delivery work at its other hubs?

“There is no change in operations at our five other e-commerce facilities at this time,” the company said.

As for why it is making the change, GIANT said “the grocery delivery business is always evolving so it’s important our service does, too. We’ve learned over the past few years that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to our e-commerce business, particularly our fulfillment model.

“Customers need different things from us at different times,” the statement continued. “This is why we regularly review our portfolio to ensure we are operating as efficiently as possible and are best positioned to meet their needs.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.