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Plainfield Ave. Meijer Construction Updates


tamias6

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I was there at about 7:45 this morning. Fred was standing just inside the front door giving an interview to FOX 17. Lots of people with ties and name tags were walking around. However, one of the most amusing things I noticed was in the grocery aisle I walked down - everything was 100% stocked! Probably the only time I'll ever see that at a Meijer store! Also interesting was seeing a cameraman slowly walking around the store with a camera in a cart getting footage for the news.

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Stopped in for a bit today, ironically to use the bottle return, I must say it is rather annoying that you can't acess the main store from the bottle return area, it's also relatively crowded by the door as the return machines don't stop by the door leading for a cluster of people stuck in that one area, I think the typical bottle return is better, the Standale Meijers actually has a good one, same goes for the Alpine Meijers.

Didn't get much other chance to look around, but was hounded three times by the same man to apply for a credit card, that got rather old, i'm also wondering what the timetable for destruction of the old building is...

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Like a moth to a flame...

The new store is laid out almost identically to Alpine's reno (except that you can't use the blue HBA entrance yet). Tam's photo of the bikes parked by the green eyebrow also shows some interesting metal support cylinders, and those are j-u-s-t small enough to work with a bike cable lock. I suspect that the rationale for the separate bottle entrance is to keep the Sunday afternoon cartloaders separate from those arriving to spend money. (Watch, they'll change it in a few months.)

Concrete floor: it's pretty. The expansion joints are laid out on a diagonal. The mixture has some interesting color shading, making it look more like a painted designed surface (similar to "ragging" different shades on a wall).

The place also seems small, though gleaming. Perhaps I've been spoiled by my workplace proximity to M@C. This might be a demographic thing; the deli counter has maybe 6' of salad-y items. (Must...resist...urge...to comment on the adjacent land use out back of the store.) In my travels I have found that some Fred's carry grab & go Mediterranean foods (tabouli, grape leaves); some have a self-serve food bar with these items, and some have them in the wait-in-line deli case. New Plainfield is the latter.

Towards the rear of the store is a huge wide open space between the general merch (located roughly in the middle rear) and the back wall of office, sports, auto, hardware, and E4. I'm guessing that will change as they add another row of shelving and more product (might be a grand opening thing). Right now it's occupied by pillars and a couple of benches.

The vacated store has all its lights on, including the exterior illuminated logo names and the little diamond-shaped accent lights.

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Like a moth to a flame...

The new store is laid out almost identically to Alpine's reno (except that you can't use the blue HBA entrance yet). Tam's photo of the bikes parked by the green eyebrow also shows some interesting metal support cylinders, and those are j-u-s-t small enough to work with a bike cable lock. I suspect that the rationale for the separate bottle entrance is to keep the Sunday afternoon cartloaders separate from those arriving to spend money. (Watch, they'll change it in a few months.)

Concrete floor: it's pretty. Laid out on a diagonal. (Anyone conversant in construction, please provide the name for the groove that appears in poured concrete.) The mixture has some interesting color shading, making it look more like a painted designed surface (similar to "ragging" different shades on a wall).

The place also seems small, though gleaming. Perhaps I've been spoiled by my workplace proximity to M@C. This might be a demographic thing; the deli counter has maybe 6' of salad-y items. (Must...resist...urge...to comment on the adjacent land use out back of the store.) In my travels I have found that some Fred's carry grab & go Mediterranean foods (tabouli, grape leaves); some have a self-serve food bar with these items, and some have them in the wait-in-line deli case. New Plainfield is the latter.

Towards the rear of the store is a huge wide open space between the general merch (located roughly in the middle rear) and the back wall of office, sports, auto, hardware, and E4. I'm guessing that will change as they add another row of shelving and more product (might be a grand opening thing). Right now it's occupied by pillars and a couple of benches.

The vacated store has all its lights on, including the exterior illuminated logo names and the little diamond-shaped accent lights.

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I think Veloise might be talking about the grooves in the concrete outside the doors which is a detectable warning device for sight impaired folks letting them know they are about to enter a vehicular area. It is required by the Michigan Barrier Free code.
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Kinda sorta.... :)

Expansion Joints will typically have a black (typically) filler strip between the two pieces of concrete. This is when there are separated pieces of concrete and it allows the two to move around, similar to the freeway example, and reduce cracking.

Control Joints are most likely what everyone is referring to and those are for controlling the cracking of the concrete as mentioned above. Concrete will crack, even in doors, so instead of having unsightly cracks in the middle of your nice polished floor, the control joints provide a 'weak' spot in the concrete that will crack as it cures. For indoor floors like at Meijer, those joints can be much further apart. For outdoor sidewalks, you'll notice them very frequently (after 3-4 squares, you can also see the expansion joints on a quality sidewalk)

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  • 2 weeks later...

From the retail entrance of the new store, you can get a great view into the demolition site. The barrel roof sections that were the cause of the low ceilings are visible. The demolition has uncovered a chunk of 70's era exterior facade from the original NW wall of the mezzanine section, approximately above where the ice cream counter was. This means that part of the grocery section was added sometime after the original conversion to a Thrifty Acres (ca. 1971). Anyone know when that was? I'm guessing there was a major renovation sometime in the 80's.

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There was a major renovation about that time. I was fairly little but if I had to guess I'd say it was around 1981 to 1983. That's when the grocery section moved to that end of Meijer.

I don't remember much about the old store layout but I can remember the toy and sporting goods area in the middle of the store right about where the changing rooms were.

The facade improvements were done in late 80's or very early 90's.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Update:

I did some shopping at the Plainfield Meijer today. I noticed that the retail entrance is now in operation along with the garden center done and open to the public. Thus the new store is fully complete. Also the drive along the front of the store is now open from end to the other. Lastly the area where the old store once covered is fast becoming more parking lot for the new store. Tree islands are in and paving is being laid down. So from the way things are looking construction should be all wrapped up by the end of August to early September.

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