While Tops is on the way out of Lakewood and Congressman Dennis Kucinich is waving red flags over labor and antitrust implications of Giant Eagle’s acquisition plan, shoppers can expect a gas and grocery combination to be an element in any food retailer’s effort to capture customer loyalty and market share along Detroit Avenue.

The asset purchase agreement between Tops Markets LLC and Giant Eagle, Inc., which includes the Detroit Avenue store among the eighteen of forty six targeted for acquisition, portends a fuel perks program, offered through GetGo convenience stores.

Should Giant Eagle prevail and acquire Tops, a GetGo convenience store is certain to set up shop somewhere in the vicinity.

Fuel perks programs put the squeeze on independent gas station owners, and Manor Park Sunoco, with a GetGo manual recently observed inside, is evidently in Giant Eagle’s claws. However, a deal could not be confirmed at this time.

Congressman Kucinich expressed concern about possible market domination by Giant Eagle in Northeast Ohio at a press conference with union leaders and Tops management on October 20. While not focusing attention on the gas and grocery combination, Kucinich distributed an October 18, 2006 letter addressed to him from Jerry Hoffman, Senior Partner, Retail Group Partners Inc. a private equity fund, located in Kennesaw, Georgia. Hoffman’s letter, expressed the interest of Retail Group Partners Inc. in buying all forty six Tops stores and honoring “existing employment without interruption.”
Even if the sale of Tops store to Giant Eagle is to be stopped and Retail Group Partners is deemed a viable buyer for the properties, Lakewood shoppers would likely have a food and fuel connection at “Boxcar,” the palletized supermarket concept that hopes one day to compete with Sam’s, Costco, and Price Club. According to the business model described on boxcarstores.com, the company would expect to bring at least twelve fueling pumps to its operations and capture the grocery market with “extreme value prices.”