SHARON JOHNSON, better known as Mickey, right, worked at the Shakespeare Street Giant Eagle in East Liberty for nearly 45 years until the store closed on July 23. Also pictured is Larry, the Shakespeare Street store leader. A new store will be built there by 2024. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)
Sharon Johnson, affectionately known as “Mickey,” got a tip from her sister-in-law’s stepfather. He worked at a Giant Eagle, and told Mickey and her best friend to apply for a job at the Giant Eagle on Shakespeare Street in East Liberty.
Mickey and her friend obliged. And they got the job.
That was 44 years ago.
The friend is no longer a Giant Eagle employee, but Mickey still is.
COURIER
EXCLUSIVE
That’s why it was such an emotional day for Mickey, as 6 p.m. approached on Saturday, July 23, 2022, about a month ago. The famous all-capital letters “GIANT EAGLE” were already gone from the front of the store. Most of the shelves were already empty. The lottery section was already closed.
But people like Pittsburgh Public Schools board member Sylvia Wilson trickled into the Shakespeare Street Giant Eagle one last time to say her hellos and temporary goodbyes to Mickey and other employees who had been there for decades.
SYLVIA WILSON, A PITTSBURGH PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER, TOLD THE COURIER SHE HAD TO COME TO THE SHAKESPEARE STREET GIANT EAGLE ONE LAST TIME, JULY 23. A NEW STORE WILL BE BUILT BY 2024. (PHOTO BY ROB TAYLOR JR.)
“It’s sad, I’m going to miss it,” Mickey told the New Pittsburgh Courier exclusively. “It was family-oriented, a community store.”
As most African Americans who reside on Pittsburgh’s East End already know, the Giant Eagle company decided to close its Shakespeare Street location in East Liberty and build a new Giant Eagle in the same Shady Hill Plaza, as the owner of the property, Echo Realty, is redeveloping the property into apartments and other retail. There won’t be a Giant Eagle at that location for the next two years.
In an exclusive interview with the Courier, Giant Eagle spokesperson Daniel Donovan acknowledged the many concerns some residents in the area expressed with closing the store. Those concerns were mirrored by some African Americans who shopped at the Shakespeare Street location one last time on July 23, telling the Courier they thought the decision was “horrible,” and that it was yet another phase of gentrifying East Liberty.
That Giant Eagle location, which had been there since 1973, was a major hub for African Americans who lived in pretty much every part of the East End for the last 49 years, especially with its proximity to the bus lines. The Shakespeare Street location was, at one time prior to the Market District Giant Eagle coming to Shadyside, one of the top-performing locations for Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh.
“I’ve been closely engaged with the Shakespeare Street East Liberty community on this topic since before the pandemic,” Donovan told the Courier, Aug. 18. “It has been eye-opening and heartwarming to know that the existing store has meant so much to so many in the community, so that’s been great and that’s been a powerful learning moment for me and for so many at Giant Eagle.”
A RENDITION OF THE APARTMENTS AND RETAIL SHOPS THAT WILL LINE SHADY AVENUE. GIANT EAGLE WILL SIT ALONG PENN AVENUE.
Echo Realty, which owns numerous properties in multiple states, has plans for 230 apartments across five stories above the retail shops along Shady Avenue on the East Liberty property. Fifteen percent of the apartments are to be classified as “affordable;” the others will be market-rate. The new Giant Eagle will be about 15,000 square feet smaller than the old store, but Donovan said that customers won’t see a marked difference, as the old store had a lot of “back room” space that will be eliminated. The new Giant Eagle will be built much closer to Penn Avenue and have an entrance on Penn. Parking will be “behind” the store, as a parking garage with more than 400 spaces will be built.
In its proposed redevelopment brochure, obtained by the Courier, Echo Realty touts the East End as quickly becoming “the diamond of Pittsburgh’s recent revitalization. A neighborhood full of history and culture is now accompanied by some of the best living, shopping and dining options the city has to offer.”
However, that “neighborhood” of East Liberty has been the center of attention in recent years, with many critics bringing out the G-word, gentrification. An East Liberty that was vastly African American in the late ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s boasted an array of stores and street vendors along Penn Avenue on a daily basis. But then, some stores closed, most notably Sears, which sat along N. Highland Avenue. It closed in 1993 after being open there for some 70 years. Major investment by the region’s largest corporations wasn’t happening in East Liberty. Crime increased, though violent crime, particularly homicides, increased in the ‘90s in many areas of Pittsburgh and the Mon Valley. Pittsburgh Police could be seen in the late ‘90s standing at the corner of Penn and Highland avenues, waiting for the first inkling of trouble. East Liberty had a reputation for being “dangerous,” whether true or not.
But in the early 2000s, change came to East Liberty. The Home Depot opened up shop where Sears formerly was stationed. Then came Whole Foods. Later came Target and Trader Joe’s. There was more investment coming into the historic neighborhood, while more African Americans somehow found their way on the outside. The Courier obtained a report from the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research from 2021 which examined population data for Pittsburgh’s various neighborhoods. The report found that East Liberty experienced a modest increase in population from 2010 to 2020 (5,869 to 6,187, a 318-person increase); but the neighborhood experienced the largest decline in Black residents in the city, losing 1,362 Black residents (3,976 to 2,614), a 34 percent decline, in that same time frame.
To have a neighborhood increase in population, yet lead the way in losing Black population, certainly fired up some community advocates. One of which was and continues to be Randall Taylor, who fought for years for the majority-Black Penn Plaza apartments not to be torn down in favor of building a new Whole Foods location.
That fight was lost, and on Aug. 10, the larger Whole Foods opened. Those who had never been to East Liberty before and were shopping at the new Whole Foods that day would have never known that hundreds of Black people were displaced from the location just a few years prior.
Some customers who left Giant Eagle’s Shakespeare Street location on July 23 labeled Echo Realty’s plans to redevelop Shady Hill Plaza as yet another form of gentrifying East Liberty; closing a coveted store right on bus line for two years while even more apartments with high rental prices are built, most likely to be occupied in the majority by people who aren’t African American.
For its part, Donovan told the Courier that Giant Eagle has pulled out all the stops to assist the community during this transition. It leased space down the street from the old store, inside the “Village of Eastside,” 6401 Penn Ave, as a temporary pharmacy location. Hours for the pharmacy are: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Giant Eagle’s “Mobile Market” brings healthy food choices to the Homewood YMCA (6907 Frankstown Ave.), Mondays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Kingsley Association (6435 Frankstown Ave.), Thursdays from 12:30 to 2 p.m.; and Bethany Center, in Homewood (7745 Tioga St.), Thursdays from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
Giant Eagle is providing two “Community Pickup Point” locations on the East End, where residents can shop online by a particular Sunday, and then pick up those selections at 200 Larimer Avenue (Larimer and E. Liberty Blvd. intersection) the following Monday from 3 to 5 p.m., or at 7049 Hamilton Avenue, in Homewood, Monday from 2 to 4 p.m. Convenience fees are waived at both Community Pickup Point locations.
And Giant Eagle teamed with nonprofit Just Harvest to clearly identify for the community nearby locations that accept “W.I.C.” (Women, Infants and Children supplemental nutritional program). Donovan said the Shakespeare Street Giant Eagle was a prime location for customers who use W.I.C. The nearby locations include: Save-A-Lot (725 Ross Ave., Wilkinsburg); Community Market (4401 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield); Giant Eagle Shadyside (5550 Centre Ave.); Giant Eagle East Hills (9001 Frankstown Rd.); Giant Eagle Edgewood Towne Center (1705 S. Braddock Ave.); and Giant Eagle Squirrel Hill (1901 Murray Ave.).
For “Mickey,” life will have to go on at another Giant Eagle; she’s now working at the Waterworks Mall location. There are some of her fellow Shakespeare Street employees also at Waterworks, while others are at Shadyside. Still others are at, well, other locations, Donovan said. No employees from Shakespeare Street lost their jobs.
“We have definitely heard from various community members who both very much love their existing store (Shakespeare) and are nervous about what a new store might be,” Donovan told the Courier. “What’s motivating, what’s encouraging is that while we appreciate what the store has historically meant, we know what we can bring with a new store…we’re really confident that when we get to the end of this journey, guests will appreciate and see why a new store experience was really best for the community.”
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