Giant Food Stores (aka Giant-Carlisle) operates 200 supermarkets and superstores under the Giant and Martin's Food Markets banners in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Not to be confused with its Landover, Maryland-based sister company, Giant Food, both firms are divisions of Ahold USA, which operates some 775 supermarkets along the East Coast. Giant Food Stores was founded in 1923 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and acquired by Amsterdam-based Royal Ahold (later renamed Ahold Delhaize) in 1981. As a result of the latest reorganization of its US operations, the grocery chain's Dutch parent has positioned Giant-Carlisle for growth by separating its support functions from those of its other US chains.