PITTSBURGH - Giant Eagle has reduced the price on 300 of its most popular items, including bakery, dairy (excluding eggs and milk), deli, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and prepared foods, from now until Jan. 2, 2013, the Tribune-Review reports.

The convenience store and supermarket chain launched its Low Price Lock initiative to combat increasing costs of commodities and fuel. "I think it has affected the customer because it results in an unpredictability and/or an increased grocery bill, and we all feel that," said Rob Borella, company spokesman.

Retailers freezing prices is not that unusual, but most merchants avoid doing so because if the prices rise significantly, the company loses money, said Jeff Inman, marketing professor at the Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. However, the retailer could gain in consumer goodwill.

More than half of the price freezes will be on Giant Eagle-branded products, said Borella. The company will lower the prices on most products before locking in the cost, making the pride reductions as much as 49% of recent costs.

"So this is something new for us, and we??re going to learn some lessons, get some feedback from customers and see where it goes from there," said Borella.

Giant Eagle has diversified with its Market District stores, GetGo c-stores and Giant Eagle Express, "which has a little bit of everything," said Borella. The company recently partnered with Coinstar to offer fee-free Giant gift cards for coin redemption.