HUMMELS WHARF — A spokeswoman for Giant Food Stores announced plans Thursday to open a 70,000-square-foot supermarket on the Golden Strip by early 2009.

The new Giant Super Food Store will be built in the Monroe Marketplace shopping center on Routes 11-15 in Snyder County. It will replace the supermarket chain’s current 45,200-square-foot location two miles north at 1 Baldwin Boulevard.

“We are excited to announce plans for a new Giant,” said spokeswoman Tracy Pawelski, who added that the current store will remain open until the night before the super store’s grand opening.

“We anticipate the new store will be the size of our new prototypes, which have square footage in the range of more than 70,000 square feet,” she said.

The new location will include “expanded emphasis on health and wellness and natural and organic foods,” as well as “state-of-the-industry, customer-friendly technology in the form of in-store conveniences,” an expanded section of ready-to-eat products and more overall floor space.

“There will be some other bells and whistles, too,” Ms. Pawelski said, although adding it was too early to go into further detail.

Giant Food Stores becomes the second vendor, joining Target, to announce plans to put locations in Monroe Marketplace — a 17-store, 700,000-square-foot shopping center under construction along Routes 11-15 in Monroe Township.

Asked why Giant Foods decided to switch locations along Routes 11-15, Ms. Pawelski said, “We like to keep our facilities up to date and modern. Sometimes we move where the population is growing, sometimes it’s a matter of access and roads. All of these things factor into location.”

She said the new super store has no bearing on discussions about whether to build a new location in Lewisburg.

“There are a number of appeals pending and we continue to work with PennDOT and the community for (a) resolution,” she said.

Giant built its Shamokin Dam store in October 1989 and expanded it in 2001. Its new store could be open as early as late 2008.

The company owns 143 supermarkets throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

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