Meijer

[Veloise 46]

Hello UPers, this is just my very first post on here.

 

I would like to know the exact opening dates of the three original Meijer stores in the Downriver Detroit communities of Taylor, Woodhaven and Southgate. ...

 

...

BTW, Taylor is store #35, Woodhaven is store #70 and Southgate is store #123. Taylor and Woodhaven have the grocery area to the right, while Southgate has it's grocery area to the left.

 

And from one subject to another: I would like to share these Sketchup visualizations showing what three Super Kmart sites would look like if Meijer took the leases over and completely remodeled them. They all use the Meijer store model by UP-er tamias6 from the 3D Warehouse, but slightly modified.

...

 

Thanks and don't forget the welcome messages!

Welcome to the Planet, mtburb! Meijer's is one of our local businesses here in GR, so you came to the right thread. And Tamias is one of our own local posters. [waves hello to the squirrel]

 

I lived in Dearborn and nearby a decade ago, and always wondered why Uncle Fred didn't take over that Super K on Ford Rd.

[mtburb 10]

Welcome to the Planet, mtburb! Meijer's is one of our local businesses here in GR, so you came to the right thread. And Tamias is one of our own local posters. [waves hello to the squirrel]

 

I lived in Dearborn and nearby a decade ago, and always wondered why Uncle Fred didn't take over that Super K on Ford Rd.

 

In fact, Meijer has had a long loyal following not only in Grand Rapids, but across the Lower Peninsula as well.

 

And about the Dearborn Super Kmart-well, it's been taken over by that infamous smil-oh wait, they've replaced that with a sunburst.

 

EDIT: Well, here's a spreadsheet I started. Feel free to tell me what I should fill in in anything that's still blank in it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApXRcMSC1oqcdDlpS1hZclVoc2VFNXlrdzY0RmpJZXc&usp=sharing

Edited November 6, 2014 by mtburb

[mtburb 10]

Well, I have just created a Sketchup model depicting the grocery aisle signs Meijer used to use. Download them here: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=uc0ae6395-9e55-450f-9e4f-38d59d19346c

 

And here's a screenshot to show you:

 

They were based on signs in this image used in this article.

[Veloise 46]

Well, I have just created a Sketchup model depicting the grocery aisle signs Meijer used to use. Download them here: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=uc0ae6395-9e55-450f-9e4f-38d59d19346c

 

And here's a screenshot to show you:

 

They were based on signs in this image used in this article.

 

The older ones had various burg names using nearby communities, e.g. Ecorse, Delray, Taylor. I can't recall if the aisles were numbered as well.

[mtburb 10]

The older ones had various burg names using nearby communities, e.g. Ecorse, Delray, Taylor. I can't recall if the aisles were numbered as well.

I did not even know that. Did that also apply to the old italic teal general merchandise signs?

 

And speaking of which-is there still a Meijer store that's at most a half-hour or an hour from Wyandotte (or at least located right along a SMART bus route) that still has a timewarped interior (for example the red and teal signs I mentioned, italic numbers on the checkout signs, very tall shelves in the cereal aisle and the E4 area being broken up into three-to-four separate departments)? I only have a limited time for an answer before every single one has been remodeled with the Rockwell interior or the Cascade interior. Had I asked this a couple years ago the answer would've been "Taylor's the closest" but that has since been remodeled.

Edited November 10, 2014 by mtburb

[Rybak 187 1]

I know it is outside of your range but one of the Bay City stores has an early but unnamed e4 department. It has all the pArts of an e4 department except the photo department in it. It opened in 2000.

[tamias6 33]

Hello UPers, this is just my very first post on here.

 

I would like to know the exact opening dates of the three original Meijer stores in the Downriver Detroit communities of Taylor, Woodhaven and Southgate. Taylor opened sometime in 1978 (and received a remodel in the 1990's, receiving the Knapp's Corner-style entry gables, the "MEIJER Fresh" logo and the red Times New Roman grocery aisle signage), Woodhaven opened sometime in early 1990 and Southgate opened sometime in 1994. All three stores have since been remodeled into the David Rockwell interior layout prototype-Southgate in late 2006, Woodhaven in late 2010 and Taylor in the summer of 2013-Taylor, in fact, was remodeled in a way similar to the Alpine Avenue store in the earlier pages on this thread.

 

Below are pictures of the three stores I'm talking about.

 

Taylor:

 

Woodhaven:

 

Southgate:

 

BTW, Taylor is store #35, Woodhaven is store #70 and Southgate is store #123. Taylor and Woodhaven have the grocery area to the right, while Southgate has it's grocery area to the left.

 

And from one subject to another: I would like to share these Sketchup visualizations showing what three Super Kmart sites would look like if Meijer took the leases over and completely remodeled them. They all use the Meijer store model by UP-er tamias6 from the 3D Warehouse, but slightly modified.

 

Bradley, Illinois:

Madison Avenue in Indianapolis, Indiana:

 

Frazho Road and Gratiot Avenue in Roseville, Michigan (this would be the second Meijer in Roseville):

 

Thanks and don't forget the welcome messages!

I do like this lay out. And BTW welcome to UP its good to see another fellow Meijer buff here. Also I like the teaks you did to the model.

[mtburb 10]

Well, as you may know, the Meijer website first debuted in 1996, so, I decided to look on archive.org and I found this from November 10, 1996.

 

Below is a screenshot from this page to give you an idea of what that site looked like back then.

 

Even more unbelievably, when you click on the link, the page that appears is identical to the screenshot-pretty amazing for having been around for 18 years! Not only that, but I now know that they were already in Kentucky by November 1996.

 

It's unbelievable that back then the site looked more like a shoestring-budget website when you compare it with the current Meijer website.

 

And finally, I now know what my local store in Southgate offered back in November 1996: three restaurants (Fred's American Grill, Pizza Pan Pizzeria, Wonton's Oriental Restaurant), a Michigan National Bank branch and ATM and a shoe repair place called Pell's Shoe Repair Bank.

Edited November 14, 2014 by mtburb

[Rybak 187 1]

I've eaten at two of the restaurants I've never seen any of the wonton's ones though. One of the Bay City stores had Fred's American Grill until a few years ago.

[egrguy 117]

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2014/11/meijer_investing_750_million_i.html#incart_river

 

Meijer looking to jump into Wisconsin in a big way. About time!

[Veloise 46]

I did not even know that. [aisles named after nearby cities] Did that also apply to the old italic teal general merchandise signs?

 

...

Nope, just grocery. In thinking about this more, it was before alcohol moved to its own aisle within the store. If memory serves, booze was sold from a separate location upfront, which was locked up per the then-current state law.

 

Otherwise, there might have been some inadvertent typecasting/profiling on the part of corporate. Consider the possibilities: the alcohol aisle named after Ypsilanti Twp/Roseville/Taylor. (YMMV)

 

I went looking for evidence, no can find. It's likely that corporate would supply a photo if you asked 'em. (In my experience, they are very forthcoming regarding sincere queries that are not antagonistic.)

[Rybak 187 1]

It looks like Meijer is going to the Cleveland-Akron area in northeast Ohio as well because they just got approval for a store in Stow, Ohio. I am sure we will be hearing about more soon because it would not make sense to go into an area that big with only one store.

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/meijer-grocery-store-could-be-coming-to-former-stow-kent-plaza-instead-of-residential-neighborhood-1.540410

[mtburb 10]

And I did some more digging into archive.org and I discovered something interesting. If you click here, you will notice that the logo used is the old one, but if you click on the right-pointing arrow at the top to go to the next iteration, the site magically changes and the current logo appears.

 

Plus, check out the store locators on the 1996 site-it's amazing how they had to resort to making their own maps and directions since Google Maps (which they use now) didn't exist back then.

 

It looks like Meijer is going to the Cleveland-Akron area in northeast Ohio as well because they just got approval for a store in Stow, Ohio. I am sure we will be hearing about more soon because it would not make sense to go into an area that big with only one store.

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/meijer-grocery-store-could-be-coming-to-former-stow-kent-plaza-instead-of-residential-neighborhood-1.540410

 

Great news-this may open up a window of opportunity for expanding into western Pennsylvania and eventually into West Virginia and the Buffalo, New York market. Plus, right now, Clevelanders have to travel all the way to Sandusky for the nearest Meijer.

 

And by the way, here's some Sketchup predictions of what I think the store in Stow will look like.

 

View from within the Stow-Kent Plaza:

 

View from the grocery entrance:

 

View from the GM (general merchandise, not General Motors) entrance:

 

E4:

 

Produce area:

 

Pharmacy and HBC:

 

Seafood and meat counters:

 

Clothing:

 

Looking towards the grocery entrance from pets:

 

Checkouts:

 

Floor plan:

 

And finally, here's a screenshot of a Meijer I had created to go in at Jefferson Avenue and Conner Street (southwest corner) on Detroit's southeast side. It is identical to the Stow store, but the floor plan is mirrored, placing groceries on the right. I also added an interior to this.

 

The stores both use modified versions of the same model by our fellow squirrel. I also took cues from photographs of Meijer stores that opened this year.

Edited November 15, 2014 by mtburb

[Veloise 46]

mtburb, since you seem to be a Fan of Fred, here are some interesting stores for you to look at further. And news bits. With sixty pages in this thread, you might find a lot of interesting posts upstream.

 

[email protected] - cool facade. Looks like individual little DT shops, complete with faux old-timey streetlights

Also its doors were not locked up tight at 8 pm on Dec 24 one year.

 

Kalamazoo & 28th - reconstruction plans, zoning. Re-use of original interior beams. Solar-lit bus stop a l-o-n-g walk across the parking lot. Check out the interesting layout, with the freezers adjacent to clothing.

 

Acme Township - Traverse City Record-Eagle stories abound. Zoning! Site plans!

 

Fred himself is interred at FMG. He died in 2011, on Black Friday (fittingly).

 

State Fairgrounds store in Detroit - the only one in the chain not open 24 hours, with only one entrance. Gateway Marketplace

[mtburb 10]

It appears that Acme Township wasn't the only recent controversy regarding a new store-Meijer has also hit trouble in planning a store in Flat Rock, but this time, the store will actually be built. Here are some links from earlier this year and last year.

• Monroe Evening News: http://www.monroenews.com/news/2013/sep/13/meijer-hopes-open-flat-rock-store-2015/
• The News-Herald: http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2014/07/10/news/doc53bf2291713e3732016506.txt
• WDIV-TV: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/Flat-Rock-approves-new-Meijer-store-plan/20799404

Below are renderings from the website of the subdivision it's located in.

 

The Flat Rock store will look similar to the new look of the Knapp's Corner store, but will have right-handed groceries, unlike the left-handed groceries used at Knapp's Corner.

 

Gas station:

Site plans (it seems weird to place a new Fred right in the middle of a residential area, then again, the lot was zoned residential before the rezoning):

 

 

 

Maybe I or The Squirrel should fire up Sketchup and predict the interior of this store.

 

EDIT: Here is a complete list of stores that will open next year:

• Kenosha, Wisconsin
• Machensey Park, Illinois
• Rockford, Illinois
• Alpena, Michigan
• Grafton, Wisconsin
• Oak Creek, Wisconsin
• Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
• Manistee, Michigan
• Acme Township, Michigan (finally!)
• Old Redford, Detroit, Michigan
• Terre Haute, Indiana

Edited November 18, 2014 by mtburb

[mtburb 10]

Here's pictures of the Meijer in Southgate, Michigan.

 

Store Number: 123

Address: 16300 Fort Street, Southgate, Michigan 48195

Phone Number: (734) 284-5300 (since December 1997, originally (313) 284-5300)

Opening Date: August 30, 1994 at 7 AM as the third Meijer store in the Downriver Detroit suburbs.

In-Store Tenants: Chase Bank & ATM, Subway

232,182 Square Feet

 

This Meijer was constructed from 1993 to 1994 on the former site of two different movie theaters: the Fort George Drive-In Theater and the indoor Southgate 4 Theaters. It is located right along an S-curve on Fort Street just north of Pennsylvania Road in the east central Downriver Detroit area and two SMART bus routes stop conveniently right at the general merchandise entrance. The extent of it's market reach covers most of Southgate, much of Wyandotte south of Ford Avenue (Northline Road), far northeast Trenton and northern Riverview, all of which were previously served by the Taylor store until 6:59 AM on August 30, 1994. It once served the northern ends of Southgate and Wyandotte, Lincoln Park, Ecorse, River Rouge, eastern Allen Park, Melvindale and southwest Detroit until the Lincoln Park store opened on November 9, 2004.

 

The store originally opened with three restaurants (Fred's American Grill, Pizza Pan Pizzeria, Wonton's Oriental Restaurant), a Michigan National Bank branch and ATM and a shoe repair place called Pell's Shoe Repair Bank as the in-store tenants. However, all of these have since been removed. There was also briefly a Cingular wireless store in the mid-2000's. Beginning in 2005, the store was reconfigured into the Rockwell prototype, which ended in early 2007 when the current Meijer logo was placed on the building, gas station and road signs. However, some features from the classic interior have been retained: the bottle return is still at the back of the store next to dairy and cursive signage for the bottle return and cheese areas still exists. This store seems to be doing real well, considering that on November 18, 1998, a Super Kmart opened right across Fort Street that closed permanently on October 12, 2014, as well as facing competition from a "Wally World" that opened on September 14, 2011 in another part of Southgate on the site of a former shopping center, which itself replaced another drive-in theater.

 

And now for the pictures:

 

The grocery entrance. The facade is a typical example of the Indiana Pineapple style, which was the first in the Original Glass Curtain Wall Series, which ran until 1997, when it was replaced by the Presidential style debuted by the Knapp's Corner store. The Indiana Pineapple style is so named because Meijer wanted to enter the Indiana market with a prototype that would introduce the state to the store as a "store of discovery". Different shaped facades were used, including the yellow pineapple-like appendage that housed either Wonton's or Pizza Pan, as well as a facade with red gable roofs on all sides and four windows each on each visible side. These are why the Indiana Pineapple style is my favorite Meijer architectural style.

 

The Pharmacy Drive-Up window and the garden center entrance. The wall above the canopy in this area originally had a "Why Pay More!" sign. And like all other classic Meijers, the pharmacy was originally located next to the bottle return at the back of the store, however, to confirm to the Rockwell prototype, it was moved to the front of the store (displacing the photo counter, which itself moved into E4) and received the drive-up window. This also shows how the construction went so well the building shows no sign of deterioration or damage despite having existed for two entire decades.

 

And now to the interior. Here's what you'll see when you enter through the grocery entrance. The bakery counter (background left) was originally the deli.

 

From the opposite direction. The Subway, which opened in very late 2012, is located within the yellow pineapple appendage. I am not sure whether Wonton's or Pizza Pan were in that appendage originally.

 

The remaining cafe. This was originally Fred's American Grill and there are still some remnants from Fred's, which include the windows, the black-and-white tile (both of which made it resemble a 1950's roadside diner) and the fact that there is/was a counter behind where I stood here. Out-of-frame to the right is the former bakery counter, now blocked off by shelving units.

 

Meat and seafood counters:

 

A little further up.

 

Back room:

 

Looking towards the bottle return area. What was the location of the pharmacy in the classic interior is now pets.

 

Inside the bottle return:

 

The back of the pets area. Nearly out-of-frame to the left are the fish aquariums, which are located where the pharmacy counter was. The green tile you see at the bottom-left is possibly a remnant from the pharmacy, as well as the low ceiling.

 

The rear corridor.

 

Looking towards the back-right corner from a checkout lane.

 

This area in the back area of the store once housed layaway before Meijer permanently discontinued it.

 

Jewelry counter:

 

Looking towards the pharmacy and HBC areas from another checkout. I believe they were formerly the photo and pets areas.

 

Front corridor:

 

Current store map:

 

And to give you an approximation of what this store (and Knapp's Corner) looked like when it originally opened, here's the original store map of a Louisville store archived from the 1998 Meijer site on archive.org. There are some slight differences with the Southgate store, though.

Edited November 21, 2014 by mtburb

[tamias6 33]

Wow the South gate store is a big one X33

[mtburb 10]

Wow the South gate store is a big one X33

 

Yep, that's how it came out when I imported a Google Maps aerial onto Sketchup and traced the outline over the building.

 

mtburb, since you seem to be a Fan of Fred, here are some interesting stores for you to look at further. And news bits. With sixty pages in this thread, you might find a lot of interesting posts upstream.

 

[email protected] - cool facade. Looks like individual little DT shops, complete with faux old-timey streetlights

Also its doors were not locked up tight at 8 pm on Dec 24 one year.

 

Kalamazoo & 28th - reconstruction plans, zoning. Re-use of original interior beams. Solar-lit bus stop a l-o-n-g walk across the parking lot. Check out the interesting layout, with the freezers adjacent to clothing.

 

Acme Township - Traverse City Record-Eagle stories abound. Zoning! Site plans!

 

Fred himself is interred at FMG. He died in 2011, on Black Friday (fittingly).

 

State Fairgrounds store in Detroit - the only one in the chain not open 24 hours, with only one entrance. Gateway Marketplace

 

About #1-it was the first store in what's referred to as Village Square, which ran in various incarnations from 1999 to 2005.

 

About #3-well, it's finally opening in late 2015.

 

Another interesting tidbit: it seems that Meijer almost always opens new stores on a Tuesday. Is there some sort of reason for that?

 

Yet another interesting tidbit: there are only five supercenters that Meijer has had to shutter, all except for one case to relocate to a newer supercenter a few miles away.

• Store #1, 1220 North Lafayette Street, Greenville, Michigan (closed 2001, gas station still on property). Is now a BMX store.
• Store #49, 1155 North 21st Street, Newark, Ohio (closed 2013, this one did not close due to a newer supercenter). Vacant.
• Store #59, 5800 Chantry Drive, Columbus, Ohio (closed 2008). Is now a used-car dealership.
• Store #60, 775 Georgesville Road, Columbus, Ohio (closed 2008). Is now a U-Haul storage center.
• Store #101, 2744 Harshman Road, Dayton, Ohio (opened 1991, closed 2008). Demolished.

One more interesting tidbit: when Meijer opened it's first two stores in the Cincinnati market on May 7, 1996, it invited several celebrities over at one of the stores-including, of all people, Batman and Robin! (source)

 

HOLY SUPERSTORE BATMAN

CINCINNATI, OHIO --May 2, 1996
Has Robin stumbled across the world's greatest superstores?
Can Batman find the words to describe these 230,00 square foot
stores?  You'll never know unless you visit Meijer.

On May 7, 1996, Meijer, Inc. will open two of its five stores
slated for the Cincinnati area.  A week of celebration will
generate hundreds of giveaways and enter to win contests,
including a chance to win a 1996 Ford Taurus.  To help celebrate,
Meijer has invited a few well known guests to stop by:

     Darney Scott, Cincinnati Bengals   Tuesday, May 7, 4 to 6 p.m.
     Linda Lael, Romance novelist       Tuesday, May 7, 2 to 3 p.m.
     Linda Ladd, Romance novelist       Tuesday, May 7, 11 a.m. to Noon
     Ellen Pasturzak, Miss Ohio         Friday, May 10, 5 to 8 p.m.
     Batman and Robin, characters       Saturday, May 11, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

MEDIA DAY, is scheduled for May 6, Noon to 4 p.m. at 888 Eastgate
North Road.  Media Day gives the media a sneak preview of the
230,000 square foot store.  The media will get an opportunity to
tour the store, meet Meijer Team Members and Executives and
sample food from the three restaurants within the store.

GRAND OPENING will be May 7, doors open at 7 a.m.  Meijer, Inc.
is a family owned and operated grocery and general merchandise
retailer operating 101 stores throughout Illinois, Indiana,
Michigan and Ohio.  For further information, contact John
Zimmerman, at 616/791-5267

Edited November 21, 2014 by mtburb

[mtburb 10]

Here are two vintage Meijer commercials from the 1980's.

 

1989 (recorded from a Traverse City television station):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGEyYIBdLZE

 

1985:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLm8QnVI7xc

Edited November 23, 2014 by mtburb

[mpchicago 590]

I haven't heard much about this, but Meijer is in the middle of a corporate campus overhaul in Walker that should wrap up this year.  Here is an article from The Advance from 2012.

 

http://www.mlive.com/walker/index.ssf/2012/11/meijers.html

 

In Rockford's 2013 year end newsletter it shows a rendering of this converted warehouse as one of their upcoming projects.  The 300,000 sf space will be used as "collaborative" office space for the retailer.  Looks interesting.

 

http://www.rockfordconstruction.com/wp-content/themes/sandbox/newsletter/Rockford-Construction-2013-Review.pdf

 

300,000 sf seems like a lot of space.  Have they run out of space in their current corporate buildings?  I don't think I'm getting the whole story.

 

The mystery surrounding the Meijer Corporate campus changes/upgrades continues.  Apparently Meijer has no interest in showing off or talking about their new glass cube, but  I guess you can see a lot if you do a drive by.  http://www.grbj.com/articles/81405-street-talk-new-meijer-office-building-is-clearly-intriguing

[GRDadof3 3948]

The mystery surrounding the Meijer Corporate campus changes/upgrades continues.  Apparently Meijer has no interest in showing off or talking about their new glass cube, but  I guess you can see a lot if you do a drive by.  http://www.grbj.com/articles/81405-street-talk-new-meijer-office-building-is-clearly-intriguing

 

I think if you did find out what was going on inside, you'd be pretty unimpressed. It's not Google or Centers for Disease Control, it's a grocery chain. Six Sigma Supply Chain Management on White Boards.

 

They forgot to mention the tunnel connecting the two campuses!

[mtburb 10]

What may be the start of another remodeling project has begun at the Southgate Meijer. It was last remodeled nearly ten years ago, where it received the interior layout it has today, thus this fits in with the "remodel every ten years" requirement. Went there today and noticed that the grocery entrance was closed off in blue tarp and that there were workers in the vestibule. I also heard loud noises coming from the tools that they were using from the deli counter, just about ten steps away.

 

In addition, the store's Chase branch is consolidating with a standalone branch a mile south on March 26th. I presume that Huntington will be replacing it, since they do have an exclusive contract for in-store branches.

 

And a final picture of the branch itself.

Edited January 14, 2015 by mtburb

[mtburb 10]

UPDATE: Other than the Chase branch alcove, it's business as usual at the Southgate store. The grocery entrance has been unchanged.

[mtburb 10]

One of the original Flint-area stores is closing.

 

 

Meijer will close its Mt. Morris Township location in May, the company said.

 

After notifying employees on Wednesday, Feb. 25, Meijer announced the store location and Meijer gas station will be demolished after it closes on May 22.

 

The store, 4333 W. Pierson Road, opened in 1972.

 

"Based on the age and design of the store and its current sales volume it would not be economically feasible to remodel the existing store to our current standard," the release said.

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/02/pierson_road_meijer_in_mount_m.html

[mtburb 10]

As of the beginning of this month, the Chase branch in the Southgate store has closed permanently. All signs have been removed and tarp has been put in over it's entrances.

 

It is unknown if Huntington will take the alcove over, though.