Meijer

[tamias6]

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

What what I heard Meijer would like the have a density of 1 store for every three miles where ever the market can support it Also like Walmart and Target Meijer seems to be wanting to penetrate deeper into population centers which is why we are starting to see a 150,000 sq. ft. light weights as compared to the standard 200,000 plus sq. ft. giants. Wal-mart is creating a new super center format of only 90,000 sq. ft. for the sole purpose of squeezing into higher population density markets. Maybe this will prompt Meijer to go even smaller or finally do a multiple story version of there prototype. After all it would be a sad day to see a Wally-World pop up deep in the heart of GR before Meijer could.

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.

Agreed. As Meijer reduced the cost of constructing new stores, tree islands seem to have become an endangered species.

One of the side effects of reducing the cost of construction in the way Meijer seems to have done is encountering the same local resistance that is snarling Wal-Mart's bid for continued expansion. The biggest example of this is the hoopla in Acme TWP that has been a thorn in Fred's side for over a year. Hopefully the far better looking Birch Run store and those like it are a sign the Meijer has learned that building on the cheap isn't everything. What I would really like to see is for Meijer to not have a set building design other than the basic shape and layout dictated by the store prototype and allow local architects to design the exterior to fit the community receiving the new store.

[Rybak 187]

Maybe they are working on a multi-story concept to replace the 28th/Kalamazoo location.

[tamias6]

The Knapp Corner Meijer is a big Meijer store. Isn't it? Step though one of its entrances and one is blown away at its overwhelming vastness. At 237,500 sq. ft. its a sumo wrestler of the big box retail world. Some, including myself would dare say it's the biggest Meijer store in the GR area. Well I've got a surprise for you. It's not. But which Meijer is the biggest. Is it the Alpine Meijer? After all its renovation added a 20,000 sq. ft. addition it its south side, bringing it up to 229,000 sq. ft. But no. Knapp Corner is bigger. How about the Jenison Meijer. Nope not that. An exact copy of that store located in Lansing shows its to be the same size as the renovated Alpine Meijer. So how about the store on 54th street and Clyde Park Ave. It's a big store. However is not that one either. It's 227,000 sq. ft, about 2,000 sq. ft. smaller than the Alpine store. Well if none of these Goliaths are it, what store is. At a whopping 253,777 sq. ft. the biggest Meijer in the GR area. is unexpectedly the Cascade Meijer. Here's why.

Meijer has increased the size of the building as the company constantly made countless changes to the Cascade store. Three previous renovations have done this. The first one, that occurred some time back in the nineties added the now former cafe to the southwest corner of the building. The second one which resulted in the current Village square facade, added a 12 foot bump out that defines the "barn" section of the facade. It also added a large addition to the east side building. The third renovation that took place in 2003 added the appendage containing the seasonal department. The result of this growth has made the Cascade Store the biggest Meijer store in the GR metro area and possibly the largest store in Meijer's entire chain.

So there you go. Folks that shop the Cascade Meijer have something else to brag about in addition to getting first dibs on enjpying Meijer's latest and greatest innovations at the retailer's flagship store.

Below is a foot print of the Cascade Store showing Sketchup's calculations.

Shot at 2007-07-31

[tamias6]

Standdale Meijer:

Today while picking up some last minute items at the Standdale Meijer I noticed that its e4 department is being reconfigured to accommodate bigger and more numerous flat panel TV's. This reconfiguration seems to be affecting the video game section, a/v gear, along with a few other aisles as merchandise was haphazardly arranged along with missing graphics.

Opened in 2004-2005, the Standale Meijer is one of the first few stores built under the David Rockwell designed prototype that was the result of Meijer's 2003 corporate and image make over. Since then the prototype has seen some improvements and changes esp. in how e4 is arranged. Perhaps the Standale Meijer's e4 is being rearranged to reflect those updates.

[egrguy]

I see that Meijer is opening a new store in Colerain Township, Cincinnati, OH this Sunday. I also like to see new Meijer stores opening in other states. I would just like to see them expand westward more then to Ohio/Kentucky.

[tamias6]

At this point Meijer has no intention of expanding outside its midwest coverage. Instead Meijer has made the wise choice of bolstering its existing territories with new stores and renovating existing ones.At this point Meijer is better off investing into what its already got than break into new states as this will slow Wal-Mart's advance into the midwest.

[snoogit]

I think he was thinking more wisconsin and minnesota.

Hate to use a sports analogy but Meijer should own the States of the Big 10 conference

Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania

Edited August 7, 2007 by snoogit

[Rybak 187]

I think that Meijer should buy the following K-Mart Supercenters:

The one near the corner of 8 mile and Telegraph in the Detroit area.

The one on 32nd Street in Port Huron.

The one in Fremont, OH.

The one in Terre Haute, IN on US 41.

The ones in Tinley Park, IL and Homewood, IL (both are in Chicago's southern suburbs).

[tamias6]

I think that Meijer should buy the following K-Mart Supercenters:

The one near the corner of 8 mile and Telegraph in the Detroit area.

The one on 32nd Street in Port Huron.

The one in Fremont, OH.

The one in Terre Haute, IN on US 41.

The ones in Tinley Park, IL and Homewood, IL (both are in Chicago's southern suburbs).

Here's a Google Earth shot of a Super Kmart that was converted to a Meijer store. This is located in a Detroit suburb called Lincoln Park.

[Veloise]

I think he was thinking more wisconsin and minnesota.

Hate to use a sports analogy but Meijer should own the States of the Big 10 conference

Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania

Hold up the back of your left hand and locate Fred's distribution center. (There's one here, another along I-275 south of Detroit, another someplace else; I forget right now).

Now look how far away Minnesota and Wisconsin really are. (Hint: mucho aqua in between.)

Northern Kentucky is a lot closer than the Twin Cities, and there's a captive population running up and down I-75 (besides the delivery trucks). That's partly why Fred hasn't gone further north than Traverse City.

HTH

[Rizzo]

I had to stop at a Meijer's near Downtown Battle Creek. I've been accustomed to the bland older designed facilities, the ones I really appreciate -- but this one.... This one has a facade of random buildings including a barn and general feed store -- it was terrible. Is this the new Meijer's architecture that everyone is raving about?

Now I'm sure that customers of Meijer's are loyal enough to look past the superficial, but jeez does it need to imitate a country road/cartoon main street?

Edited August 7, 2007 by Rizzo

[Rybak 187]

No, that is a concept that they had before the Rockwell prototype.

The distribution centers are in Grand Rapids, Lansing, Newport MI, and Tipp City, OH.

Edited August 7, 2007 by Rybak 187

[Rizzo]

Do you have an example of this "Rockwell prototype?" I'm really unfamiliar with the specifics to Meijer's architecture. I've come accross different designs that have me confused.

I was really surprised to find a store like that, because I'm use to visiting stores looking like the 54th ST. design.

[Veloise]

Do you have an example of this "Rockwell prototype?" I'm really unfamiliar with the specifics to Meijer's architecture. I've come accross different designs that have me confused.

I was really surprised to find a store like that, because I'm use to visiting stores looking like the 54th ST. design.

Check out Tamias' illustrations in this thread and the Alpine reno one. The faux barn/city street look is also at Cascade (and had been for many years).

[suydam]

Do you have an example of this "Rockwell prototype?" I'm really unfamiliar with the specifics to Meijer's architecture. I've come accross different designs that have me confused.

I was really surprised to find a store like that, because I'm use to visiting stores looking like the 54th ST. design.

I'm pretty sure the West Ottawa one (US-31 and Riley) is their design for when they build from scratch

A somewhat fish-eyed version is visible here:

http://www.meijer.com/storelocator/images/...tionsheader.gif

[tamias6]

The Meijer stores featuring the main street facades are examples of the defunct "Village Square" prototype that debuted in 2000. This format was quickly axed not too long after that due to cost of building this prototype and failing to catch on with customers.

The Village Square look was replaced by what Meijer called "The Signature Series". One of the first and best preserved examples of this prototype is the Rivertown Crossing Meijer. This format debuted Meijer's drive up pharmacy and the current prefabricated method of construction which drastically reduces the cost of building new stores. Stores like Rivertown crossings is a transition from old school Meijer stores to the current prototype.

In 2003 Meijer, in response to increasing competition and Wal-Mart's aggressive push of its supercenters into the midwest, underwent a top to bottom corporate and image make over and refocusing which resulted in a brand new logo, marketing campaign, and the current Rockwell designed prototype.

This store located on US-31 somewhere between Holland and Grand Haven is an example of the Rockwell prototype in its current iteration.

Stores like this one range from as small as 150,000 sq. ft. to more than 210,000 sq. ft. with an average size of 207,000 sq. ft. The newest store under this prototype will be a 195,000 sq. ft. replacement store at the Plainfield Ave location.

This is a sketchup model of the new Plainfield Store depicting what it may look like when finished.

However, there are signs that Meijer may drop the current look and even Rockwell prototype all together. The first sign is the proposed Meijer store for Northfield TWP. MI and its 150,000 sq. ft. sibling under construction in Birch Run, MI. This is a sketchup model of the Birch Run store I custom tailored to fit on the 28th and K'zoo Ave. site.

As one can see, the exterior appearance looks a thousand times better than the current eyebrow entrances look.

The second sign that Meijer may drop the Rockwell format is an ongoing store wide interior renovation of the flagship store in Cascade, Despite debuting the Rockwell Format only three years ago. this renovation is replacing the Rockwell prototype with an extremely upscale and quite beautiful prototype that will quite frankly make Target stores and Spartan Foods operated stores look like Family Dollar and Aldis respectively. However rather Meijer will propagate this format into new or existing stores or otherwise remains unclear.

[egrguy]

I was thinking Wisconsin & Minnesota and from what I remember from visiting those states, aren't dominated by a grocer; albeit Wal-Mart. I think logically, it would represent a smart way to grow within the midwest as they're always seems to be rumblings regarding a new distribution center near the greater Chicago area (Id assume west or north if the target area would be Minnesota & Wisconsin).

Are they just yupping up the Cascade Meijer due to the local demographics to keep it inline with the area's spending habits?

[Rybak 187]

The Cascade store is a test store for Meijer.

[Rizzo]

I was thinking Wisconsin & Minnesota and from what I remember from visiting those states, aren't dominated by a grocer; albeit Wal-Mart. I think logically, it would represent a smart way to grow within the midwest as they're always seems to be rumblings regarding a new distribution center near the greater Chicago area (Id assume west or north if the target area would be Minnesota & Wisconsin).

Are they just yupping up the Cascade Meijer due to the local demographics to keep it inline with the area's spending habits?

A guy I know that works the Lansing distro says there's some talk about a distro near Schaumburg-Hoffman Estates. In fact he is considering a move to this area as he heard it was pretty close. I hate to make rumours, but I thought it was pretty interesting to hear your comment.

[Rybak 187]

That would be a good thing. Maybe they will have a rush of new stores in that area area like they did when they built both the Newport, MI and Tipp City, OH DC's.

[tamias6]

The Cascade Store is in a more affluent area of the GR metro. Yes. However, the market reach of this and any Meijer store is about 7 miles. Therefore the Cascade store reaches into EGR Forest Hills, Ada, and Eastern Kentwood. This means that the Cascade Meijer's location provides it with a very wide demographic customer base, from working class blue collars in Kentwood, to your typical soccer moms in minivans in Forest Hills and Ada, all the way up to the McMansion owning yuppies of Cascade and EGR. This unique aspect makes the Cascade Meijer a logical Flagship store to test the latest ideas and innovations Meijer has up its sleeves.

I was thinking Wisconsin & Minnesota and from what I remember from visiting those states, aren't dominated by a grocer; albeit Wal-Mart. I think logically, it would represent a smart way to grow within the midwest as they're always seems to be rumblings regarding a new distribution center near the greater Chicago area (Id assume west or north if the target area would be Minnesota & Wisconsin).

Are they just yupping up the Cascade Meijer due to the local demographics to keep it inline with the area's spending habits?

[tamias6]

As for the distro in Chicago's Hoffman Estates building one there would do two things. One, it would allow Meijer to build more stores in the Chicago Metro Area. Two, it would position Meijer for a head on assault into Wisconsin when the time is right to do so.

[suydam]

With regards to Wisconsin, I still swear I saw one in Beloit or Janesville once...did they ever expand into WI and then retract? I used to drive to Madison all the time (but haven't in 4 or 5 years) and I could have sworn there was one just over the border.

Oh well...a Schaumburg distro center certainly would open up the wisconsin market for Fred. Hopefully that happens.

The Cascade Store is in a more affluent area of the GR metro. Yes. However, the market reach of this and any Meijer store is about 7 miles. Therefore the Cascade store reaches into EGR Forest Hills, Ada, and Eastern Kentwood. This means that the Cascade Meijer's location provides it with a very wide demographic customer base, from working class blue collars in Kentwood, to your typical soccer moms in minivans in Forest Hills and Ada, all the way up to the McMansion owning yuppies of Cascade and EGR. This unique aspect makes the Cascade Meijer a logical Flagship store to test the latest ideas and innovations Meijer has up its sleeves.

Where are the McMansions in EGR? I'm pretty sure the homes there that qualify as mansions are almost 100 years old.

Edited August 8, 2007 by suydam

[MuskeMI]

Has anyone else seen the Big Rapids Meijer? It's somewhat in the same vein as the Cascade facade (which I love) but cartoonish, garish, just horrible. Looks like a barn. I can't find any pictures of it online but I sure hope it was the first and the last of its style.

[tamias6]

Has anyone else seen the Big Rapids Meijer? It's somewhat in the same vein as the Cascade facade (which I love) but cartoonish, garish, just horrible. Looks like a barn. I can't find any pictures of it online but I sure hope it was the first and the last of its style.

I haven't been to Big Rapids myself so I've not seen the store there. But based on how you described that store it probably looks something like this Meijer located about 12 miles to the south west of Lansing.

This store is an example of the Village Square prototype in its watered down state. I believe it was a desperate attempt to cut construction costs before this expensive prototype was axed in favor of the far less costly Signature series. There is also a reddish-brown colored variant of this store which looks just as abysmal. I do not have any pictures of that one yet though I'm hoping to get one on my way to Ohio next week. Anyway what one has to remember is that an aggressive influx of Wal-Mart super centers into the midwest combined with increasingly intense competition hit Meijer square between the dots of its "i" and "j". This resulted in a bit of a loss of focus and indecisiveness. The Village Square prototype is a result of that lost focus. If the company had not gotten its act together and embarked on its 2003 corporate refocusing and image make over than it would have likely suffered the fate of so many other businesses smashed to bits by Wal-Mart, Target, and other bigger badder fish.