Meijer

[tamias6]

Cascade Meijer renovation update:

The meat dept. is in a temporary location at the SW corner of the store. Secondly new wood flooring has been installed in what will become the clothing sections. The wood pattern emulates old rustic planks which gives the area an "Old Navy" or "Ambrocrombie & Finch"(Sp?) look. Also a diamond shaped area has been defined at the center of the sales floor where four raceways converge. Within this diamond shaped area, the new "Customer Information" desk along with its own enclosed offices behind it is currently under construction. From what I can tell this desk will supplement the main customer service desk at the front of the store. Speaking of which. The main customer service desk has been replaced by a new desk situated to one side of an enlarged alcove. Where the old desk was located is now an empty area.

In the grocery section, a large area just behind the deli and Delicious to Go where aisles 1 through 4 were located has been sectioned off with plastic and under heavy amounts of construction. Meanwhile aisles 5 and 6 have been nudged eastward towards the center of the store by 40 feet to line up with the repositioned frozen food aisles.

Just off the west end caps of the repositioned aisles one can see a section of the new grocery action alley (concourse) taking shape. When completed this new action alley will divide the grocery section in half. To one side will be the grocery aisles while on the other will be located most of the grocery section's specialty departments such as meats and seafood, wines, etc. This configuration is unlike other Meijer stores where the grocery action alley divides the grocery section from the retail section.

Next to the grocery entrance a new cart room has just been completed. However the retail entrance still has no cart room yet.

Lastly, back to the SW corner of the store, a new wall behind the relocated meat and seafood counters has sealed off the old cafe area. This leads me to believe that this new prototype taking shape inside the Cascade store does not feature a cafe or relocates the cafe to another area of the store.

Its still a very long way from making any judgment calls. But what's transpired so far is shaping up quite nicely. If this renovation turns out as good as the renderings posted in the retail entrance depicts, the Cascade Meijer will definitely reassert itself as being Meijer Inc. flagship store in a very big way.

[Rybak 187]

Maybe the cafe will be in the area where the service desk uesd to be?

Edited July 14, 2007 by Rybak 187

[pcdoctor]

Go over to meijer's remodel site and if you click on the cascade store location, it now contains sketches of what it may look like.

[Rybak 187]

Looks good, very good.

[tamias6]

^ Thanks for the heads up PC doc. These are the same renderings that are posted in the retail entrance of the Cascade Store itself. Everybody, as I said in earlier posts, the interior of the Cascade store will have a very upscale look that is unlike anything Meijer has ever done before. So I'm posting a direct link to the Cascade Store's remodel page for everybody to check out the renderings.

Meijer Remodel page> Cascade Store

As you can see, not even the current Rockwell prototype that resulted from the company's 2003 restructuring and image overhaul is comparable to what's happening to the Cascade store.

What still baffles me is why Meijer has departed from the current prototype only three years after its implementation to create this new one and why they are being very quiet about the radical changes being made to the Cascade Store other than the renovation webpage. I've searched all over the 'net and kept a heads up on local new feeds yet to come up empty handed up to this point.

In Addition, since we will only see the interior of the this new "Mystery Prototype" being installed in the Cascade store, is there another store somewhere in Meijer's chain that's testing out the new prototype's exterior design? If there is, perhaps this...

posted rendering of Birch Run Twp. Meijer now under construction

...along with this...

Rendering of a proposed Meijer Store for Northfield Twp.

...may provide a clue.

Either way , folks that regularly shop the Cascade Store are in for a real big treat once construction crews put down their tools for the last time.

Edited July 14, 2007 by tamias6

[Rybak 187]

^ Thanks for the heads up PC doc. These are the same renderings that are posted in the retail entrance of the Cascade Store itself. Everybody, as I said in earlier posts, the interior of the Cascade store will have a very upscale look that is unlike anything Meijer has ever done before. So I'm posting a direct link to the Cascade Store's remodel page for everybody to check out the renderings.

Meijer Remodel page> Cascade Store

As you can see, not even the current Rockwell prototype that resulted from the company's 2003 restructuring and image overhaul is comparable to what's happening to the Cascade store.

What still baffles me is why Meijer has departed from the current prototype only three years after its implementation to create this new one and why they are being very quiet about the radical changes being made to the Cascade Store other than the renovation webpage. I've searched all over the 'net and kept a heads up on local new feeds yet to come up empty handed up to this point.

In Addition, since we will only see the interior of the this new "Mystery Prototype" being installed in the Cascade store, is there another store somewhere in Meijer's chain that's testing out the new prototype's exterior design? If there is, perhaps this...

posted rendering of Birch Run Twp. Meijer now under construction

...along with this...

Rendering of a proposed Meijer Store for Northfield Twp.

...may provide a clue.

Either way , folks that regularly shop the Cascade Store are in for a real big treat once construction crews put down their tools for the last time.

I think that maybe the next store with it will be in Davison. It is supposed to be a prototype store I heard.

[Veloise]

...

What still baffles me is why Meijer has departed from the current prototype only three years after its implementation to create this new one and why they are being very quiet about the radical changes being made to the Cascade Store other than the renovation webpage. ...

Competition and re-branding at a higher percieved quality than Smiley.

Rendering of a proposed Meijer Store for Northfield Twp.

This was a major zoning battle and Fred had all sorts of conditions imposed.

...

Either way , folks that regularly shop the Cascade Store are in for a real big treat once construction crews put down their tools for the last time.

Already are! Last week I got a lesson on laying flooring (those interesting barn-like strips). One can learn a lot by watching the pros install carpet/flooring/electrical. The store is packed with construction dudes who are very happy with the job site: A/C! Indoor plumbing! Food!

Also there are many Meijer shirts walking around. Last week several of us civilians were waiting at the hot food counter. A shirt pulled his phone off his belt, called Bakery, and deployed an employee to help cover the back-up. The shirts then refused to accept their turn in line, making sure that everyone else was waited on first.

[Rybak 187]

Also there are many Meijer shirts walking around. Last week several of us civilians were waiting at the hot food counter. A shirt pulled his phone off his belt, called Bakery, and deployed an employee to help cover the back-up. The shirts then refused to accept their turn in line, making sure that everyone else was waited on first.

Customer service at its best.

[Veloise]

Customer service at its best.

I offered the one his rightful place, "you're next in line at Meijer." He turned me down.

[tamias6]

I remember watching the floor tile workers at work at the Alpine Meijer a few months back when the rear action alley was receiving new tiles. Even through they are professionals, its mind boggling how easy they make the work look and how fast they get the job done. . What would take you, me, or any other John/Jane Doe an entire day or more, theses guys did in ten to twenty minutes.

...

Recalling a visit to a brand new Meijer on US-31 somewhere north Holland as well as the Ionia store, I must admit that Meijer's current exterior designs have gotten a bit cheap looking. It was this negative aspect that got Meijer in a whole heap of trouble when they proposed the Northfield Twp. store. In fact, I've been reading quite a few articles about proposed Meijer stores meeting heavy resistance or being rejected outright for the same reasons Wal-Mart is being rebuffed. Wal-Mart is responding to this anti-big box resistance by drastically improving the look of their stores inside and out. Hopefully the Cascade Meijer along with the revamped Northfield proposal and the Birch Run store under construction are clues that Meijer is doing the same.

Competition and re-branding at a higher percieved quality than Smiley.

This was a major zoning battle and Fred had all sorts of conditions imposed.

Already are! Last week I got a lesson on laying flooring (those interesting barn-like strips). One can learn a lot by watching the pros install carpet/flooring/electrical. The store is packed with construction dudes who are very happy with the job site: A/C! Indoor plumbing! Food!

Also there are many Meijer shirts walking around. Last week several of us civilians were waiting at the hot food counter. A shirt pulled his phone off his belt, called Bakery, and deployed an employee to help cover the back-up. The shirts then refused to accept their turn in line, making sure that everyone else was waited on first.

[highwayguy]

Wow, trying to find things in the Cascade Meijer is becoming somewhat of an adventure! By the way, if you go in there looking for a lightbulb, for some reason they're all over in the grocery area, at least for now.....

[Veloise]

Wow, trying to find things in the Cascade Meijer is becoming somewhat of an adventure! By the way, if you go in there looking for a lightbulb, for some reason they're all over in the grocery area, at least for now.....

Consolidation is a Good Thing. They used to be in Grocery, Electrical, and Housewares, with different items in each place.

Ditto brooms, mops, and cleaning supplies. C'mon, Fred, I stash these items in one place at home. Why can't you? It's almost like you want me to wander all over the "acres" looking for them.

Oh, wait...

[tamias6]

E4 is a great example of consolidation or what Meijer refers to as adjacencies. Before, one had to go to the toy dept. to get a video game. Then head over next to H&B at the back of the store to grab a CD, DVD, or VHS then scamper back across the store and back up front to an area next to the jewelery counters to buy A/V gear. Oh and to get photos developed, how about checking out first then heading its own in-store tenant alcove? Now everything is thankfully in a single department.

Edited July 18, 2007 by tamias6

[Rybak 187]

Here is another potential Meijer store. This one in Fairfield, OH. Edited July 20, 2007 by Rybak 187

[tamias6]

Today the family and I were on a trip to Indian Trail to do some sight seeing. But knowing me, I had to squeeze in some shots of a couple of Meijer stores along the way to add to this Rogue Gallery of Fred's hangouts.

Meijer 1:

On the way up we made a pit stop in Cadillac to grab a some travel munchies at this Meijer store on the the north side of town.

A seen here this Meijer is a smaller version of the massive Knapp Corner store complete with dutch gable entrances and the distinctive glass curtain wall between the entrances. Inside, this store has not yet been upgraded to the new format. However it does feature the latest generation of U-scanners and 4 full size self checkout lanes like those at the Alpine Ave. store. It also has tobacco lanes as well. So even though the interior is starting to look a bit dated this store has been keeping up technology wise. The only weak point is sparse deli offerings.

Next door to this Meijer is a Wal-Mart Supercenter which replaced a discount retail only Wally World across the street a couple of years ago. However the Cadillac Meijer seems to be holding its own and running neck and neck with the smiley face. However a renovation to the latest format would deliver a one-two punch to the evil smiley face and send this Meijer over the top. So let's hop to it Fred and whip the Caddy Meijer into shape!

Meijer 2:

At the end of the day we began our drive back home. However, before that we took a little side trip to Traverse City to check out this Meijer store located on US 31 just off the city's SW side.

Any of you think your local Meijer is busy? Forget it. As the busiest store in all of Meijer's entire chain, the Traverse City Meijer is a maelstrom of frantic shoppers picking shelves dry and frantic red shirts barely able to keep up with demand. At 225,000+ sq. ft., this behemoth is at least as vast as the Knapp Corner Meijer. However even at just a gargantuan size this store was severely congested. With so many people jamming their way though the aisles, one felt more like a sardine inside a can. Many items throughout the store were out of stock as they are picked dry faster than employees could restock. Being over 150 miles from the nearest distribution center, namely the one here in Walker, don't help matters any. But thats not to blame.

What is to blame is despite its Massive size, this store simply cannot keep up with demand as evident by help wanted signs posted in every check out lane. The overload on this store is also quite clear in other ways. The sales floor is cluttered, while furnishings and fixtures are worn. Also the tile floor is already showing excessive wear and tear from all the traffic. The restrooms are in need of a good bath. Lastly despite nearly every checkout lane being open, lines were long. We spent about ten minutes in the express checkout lanes. We could have used the U-scanners but even the lines there were ridiculously long. The point here is this Meijer has obviously been a huge hit among the locals. But run away success is starting to take its toll.

However, relief may soon be in sight as Meijer has plans to build a second store just to the NE of the city.

Edited July 22, 2007 by tamias6

[Veloise]

...

Meijer 2:

At the end of the day we began our drive back home. However, before that we took a little side trip to Traverse City to check out this Meijer store located on US 31 just off the city's SW side.

...

Any of you think your local Meijer is busy? Forget it. As the busiest store in all of Meijer's entire chain, the Traverse City Meijer is a maelstrom of frantic shoppers picking shelves dry and frantic red shirts barely able to keep up with demand. At 225,000+ sq. ft., this behemoth is at least as vast as the Knapp Corner Meijer. However even at just a gargantuan size this store was severely congested. With so many people jamming their way though the aisles, one felt more like a sardine inside a can. Many items throughout the store were out of stock as they are picked dry faster than employees could restock. Being over 150 miles from the nearest distribution center, namely the one here in Walker, don't help matters any. But thats not to blame.

What is to blame is despite its Massive size, this store simply cannot keep up with demand as evident by help wanted signs posted in every check out lane. The overload on this store is also quite clear in other ways. The sales floor is cluttered, while furnishings and fixtures are worn. Also the tile floor is already showing excessive wear and tear from all the traffic. The restrooms are in need of a good bath. Lastly despite nearly every checkout lane being open, lines were long. We spent about ten minutes in the express checkout lanes. We could have used the U-scanners but even the lines there were ridiculously long. The point here is this Meijer has obviously been a huge hit among the locals. But run away success is starting to take its toll.

However, relief may soon be in sight as Meijer has plans to build a second store just to the NE of the city.

Adam, do you think that was mostly local traffic, or travelers stocking up for their cottages/trip home?

[mpchicago]

Adam, do you think that was mostly local traffic, or travelers stocking up for their cottages/trip home?

There could be some addtional tourist traffic at this time of year, but as tamias said this is one of the busiest stores in the chain. I think this and Knapp Corner are neck and neck. Meijer's efforts to build a second TC store have been meet with huge delays, and I believe some time in court. Acme Township, where the store is to be built is really giving Meijer a hard time.

Edited July 23, 2007 by mpchicago

[tamias6]

The Traverse city Meijer is a very isolated store. The nearest Meijer is in Cadillac over an hour's drive away. There are a couple of Wal-Mart supercenters along the way taking up the slack. But based on what I heard from a couple of friend up in the area, folks up north hate Wally World with a passion and would switch to Meijer the moment a new store opens its doors. Tourists are one factor on the Traverse city Meijer's hectic pace. On our trip up north we stopped there to grabs some snacks to get us home so we we're a few of those tourists. But isolation from the rest of the chain and demand from locals has to be at play here.

As for the Acme Twp. legal issues I don't remember too many details but I think it has more to do with its very controversial Twp. master plan. Meijer was caught in the legal whirlwind because Acme basically wanted Meijer to bend over backwards in drastically reducing the size of the store and do an absurd amount of modifications that would have sent construction costs through the roof. I believe Acme and Meijer may a settled as the current store design calls for the omission of the gas station and for the complex to be hidden away in amongst a dense thicket of preserved trees. So if the current design is built this Meijer would look like it was built in the middle of an isolated forest.

Adam, do you think that was mostly local traffic, or travelers stocking up for their cottages/trip home?

[tamias6]

Cascade Meijer Renovation Update:

Entering the store via the retail entrance, one will immediately notice a bank of windows peering into an adjacent cart room taking shape. While stud work was going u inside the new cart room, one could see cut marks on the exterior brick wall to make way for the cart room's doorway.

In the pharmacy area items along the front wall have been clear away and the area enclosed by plastic for work on the new cart room and modifications to the pharmacy area. The pharmacy counter is still open and fully functional.

Moving to the seasonal area one will find that area along with the entire side wall in disarray as aisles are being shuffled around to make room for new flooring that is currently being laid.

Across the retail action alley, one will find that the new shoe dept. is now complete. It features new fixtures and graphics all clustered in a 50 foot square area defined by a dark brownish gray haring bone pattern carpet.

Renovation work has spread into e4 as most of its graphics have been taken down while plaster work was put up to patch up holes left behind.

The back of the sales floor now contains new graphics applied to the rear wall. The main motif are the joy dots from the letters "i" and "j" in meijer's current logo intermixed with various billboard sized photographs of people and items pertaining to each dept. Also some of the overhead graphics are up as well and look fairly pleasing. So when all is said and done with, the sales floor will be like walking though the graphic design of a high end brochure.

While in the back of the sales floor, I also noticed that automotive, hardware, and pet dept. where complete. What surprised me is the size of the new pet dept. At more than doubled its original size it's huge.

In the grocery area, the frozen food aisles are complete. As before there are three aisles devoted to frozen foods. The coolers of the center aisle are split in half by six foot wide gaps allowing customers to transverse from one aisle to another without the need to head all the way to one of the action alleys to change aisles. The end caps of the frozen food aisles have a real high end look straight out of Whole Foods. These end caps are display cabinets custom made from an ash wood veneered material. Made specifically for the specialty items they display. These end caps have a real tight finish to them.

Next to frozen foods, a five thousand square foot area is sectioned off by plastic and temporary plywood knee walls. Within this area, the concrete flooring has been removed exposing raw earth. This will allow workers to install infrastructure for a new deli and bakery that will replace the ones further towards the front.

Meanwhile, the produce section is in complete disarray as work continues on the front corner of the sales floor as well as the installation of infrastructure to support the new bakery and deli. However what appears to be the meat dept's new home in the front corner of the store appears to be taking shape quite nicely as drywall has already been put up and plastered. In contrast the walls of the meat dept's previous home are completely gone exposing the back rooms behind. On, that note I must say that the back rooms of a Meijer store look quite spooky so good luck to you red shirts out there braving these dark and dank places.

Last up is the front promenade. Needless to say, Meijer does not want its customers to forget that they are shopping at Meijer. A large eight foot high "meijer" sign hangs proudly on the center of the front wall and can be seen from anywhere in the store. The rest of the wall is painted a vivid cobalt blue. to match the rest of the sales floor walls. However its safe to assume that more graphics will be installed to tame the brilliance of this attention grabbing blue. Next to the sign the customer service alcove appears to be mostly complete.

Back outside, one can see that a new center service entrance has been carefully inserted in to one of the fake building facades between the two main entrances. I assume this door may be for some kind of curb side service. It could also be an emergency exit required by current building codes as well.

[Veloise]

Cascade Meijer Renovation Update:

...

While in the back of the sales floor, I also noticed that automotive, hardware, and pet dept. were complete. What surprised me is the size of the new pet dept. At more than doubled its original size it's huge.

...

Cascade phased out live animals (birds and rodents, keeping fish) a few weeks back. I saw that sign, and wandered around looking for the clearance endcap with scraggly hamsters and shopworn parakeets.

Outside they have some great scratch 'n' dent plants. I am on to daylilies and hosta.

[tamias6]

Size Correction:

In previous posts I had mention that the Knapp Corner Meijer was 225,000 sq, ft, in size. However after using Sketchup along with a Google Earth Snap Shot and some photos of the store as reference to recalculate its size, it turns out that the Knapp Corner Meijer is approx. 237,809 sq. ft. in size. Therefore the Knapp Corner Meijer is still the largest Meijer stores in the GR area. The 229,000 sq. ft. Alpine Meijer including its mezzanine is the second largest store. So there you have it. Knapp Corner is still Big Box king in these parts.

[Rybak 187]

Well, here is a possible 2010 Meijer. Hastings/Rutland Township

[tamias6]

Even though I've made this sketchup as an idea for a replacement store for the 28th street and K'zoo location, it should provide a good enough illustration of the form the planned 150,000 sq, ft. Hastings Meijer is likely to take. The building itself is an exact copy of the 150,000sq. ft. store under construction in Birch Run TWP.

Front View. The garden center is to the right while the grocery end as at the left.

Shot at 2007-07-30

This is an aerial view of the the model.

Shot at 2007-07-30

Well, here is a possible 2010 Meijer. Hastings/Rutland Township

[Rybak 187]

In rereading the article, I wonder what other areas around Grand Rapids they could be looking at?

[Veloise]

...

This is an aerial view of the the model.

Ran over to Cascade during lunch (how can I run out of kitty bitties? lucky I wasn't slashed in my sleep!) and observed:

Fred needs more tree islands in his parking lots.