Giant Food Stores, LLC is an American supermarket chain that currently operates stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia under the names of Giant, FoodSource, and Martin's. Giant is a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Royal Ahold. Giant Food Stores are often referred to as Giant-Carlisle.
Giant was founded in 1923, when David Javitch opened a small meat market in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Carlisle Meat Market, as it was known, began as a two-man butcher shop. In 1981, the Javitch family made a key decision to sell the company to Royal Ahold Corporation, a food retailing business based in Zaandam, the Netherlands. Ahold's roots date back to 1887, with the Albert Heijn grocery chain in Holland serving as their anchor business.