🚀 go-pugleaf

Many of you have mailed me asking for more about Meijer.  OK...

Meijer is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  And is a family owned
mega-monster enterprise.  The original founder, Hendrik Meijer and
his wife Gezina, were Scandinavian.  They came to the U.S. when they were
about 30...

Hendrik Meijer opened his first store, Thrifty Acres, soon after
showing up in America.  He sold primarily groceries, and his concept
was to have a store that offered a wide selection at cut-rate prices,
without sacrificing quality.  He also wanted the customers to rely
on themselves for service, reducing his workforce.

The store seemed to catch on, and before we knew it, there were more
and more Thrifty Acres appearing all over Michigan.  It wasn't until
later that the stores took in the Meijer name, adopted a new logo, and
style of thought.  (This is probably what killed that cheap bastard!)

Before long, the first Meijer stores showed up.  Offering more than
groceries, it seemed a brilliant idea had been born.  The idea was to
offer the customer EVERYTHING at one place, so while Mom was shopping
for the groceries, Dad could go check out the automotive section, and
Jimmy and Judy could run wild through the rest of the store.  With this
thinkingm Meijer hoped they'd be able to corner the market on goods that
otherwise would be sold elsewhere.  When Jane Doe was in the store, she'd
buy other things that she might have gone elsewhere for...I digress...

...I'll skip some stuff in the interest of time...

Hendrik & Gezina passed the empire over to the kids.  Meijer's HQs in
Michigan all have the kids names in the building or street name.  Meijer
is headed up by the oldest son, Hank?, who makes unscheduled visits to
ALL Meijer stores at least once a year.  He gets followed around like the
President of the U.S. by an entourage of people kissing his ass whenever
he opens his mouth...

The company does not sell stock to anyone.  They are owned entirely
by the greedy kids.

The sizes of the store are getting bigger.  In Columbus, the latest store
exceeded 80,000 sq. ft. of usable floor space.  And stock is even bigger.

The stores give new employees such a line about how valuable they are
and then never wnat you to leave.  But, in reality turn-over is high.
Meijer likes this...No raises for anyone, and no insurance to pay if
you don't stay.  (And that's from a manager's mouth!)

Management techniques are not very good at all.  Standard practices are
not even followed!  They go by whatever the kids say, and before this,
whatever Hendrik said...No deviation from his plan!  He assumed his ideas
would work for any given store, irregardless of the situations.

But don't be fooled!  Meijer is making the BIG $$$$!!  I've seen the
quarterly profit reports and projections...(It's the goose that laid
the golden egg.)

I was never impressed with the condition of the store behind the scenes.
You'd never buy anything from there if you saw it...And the people they
hired to work in food-preparation!  Oh My GOD!  I never bought anything
from the Deli Dept again!

For the work we did, pay was terrible!  I hear people say that we really
didn't deserve what we made.  But if they even had an idea of what hell
was placed on out shoulders, they'd think twice!  Standing up for four
hours at a time, scanning groceries is NOT easy.  Especially for a 6'4"
tall person, who has to lean over to reach the terminal...Visits to the
doctor for help were frequent.  (At my own expense.)  We didn't even
receive any sort of perks.  The ONLY discount we go was a 10% savings
certificate good on hard-goods (non-food) only...10%???  A slap in the
face.

Have you ever wondered why you couldn't charge food at Meijer?  It's
because the cheap-bastards don't want to loose any profit on food.
Companies like Visa, MC, Discover charge retailers a percent of the
sales for use of a card.  So, Meijer's profit margin on food was so small
they didn't want to loose more.

I have to end it here, due to space constraints, but I have more to
tell.  I'll post later...

Later,
-- 
  Matthew David Lammers, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH  USA
  For the latest about me, finger: mlammers@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
    Internet address: LAMBCHOP+@osu.edu -OR- mlammers@world.std.com
            "Who, ME?!  Are you calling on me, professor?!"