Meijer - Meijer Store Design

Meijer Store Design

Meijer stores are typically designed with the supermarket section to one side and the general merchandise section to the other side. The chain's stores are almost always constructed from the ground up, with very few Meijer stores having been converted from other retailers. Exceptions include the Lincoln Park, Michigan store, which is a former Super K-Mart, the Traverse City, Michigan and Sterling Heights, Michigan stores, both of which were former Grant City stores, the Fraser, Michigan location, which Meijer converted from its failed SourceClub concept store, and the Newark, Ohio location, which is one of the stores Meijer purchased from Twin Fair.

Some stores built in the 1970s and 1980s included a balcony, containing service tenants such as a barber shop and nail salon. Until the late 1990s, McDonald's restaurants also operated inside Meijer stores, primarily in those with balconies; in addition, the first stores in the Detroit area featured a short-lived fast food concept called Thrifty's Kitchen. Most stores feature a sit-down café, while some also feature a Starbucks coffee shop.

Early in the 1990s, Meijer developed new integrated prototypes for their rollouts. One example was the "whimsical" design prototype introduced with the 1994 expansion into Indiana. Different shapes and roofing designs created the facade of the building. Most notable was the yellow pineapple constructed from yellow ceramic brick and glass blocks. The different shapes on the facade were to introduce Meijer to Indiana as a "store of discovery".

Also notable was the use of a large translucent wall above the grand concourse facing the registers. This allowed natural light to filter into the area above the registers without actual windows. Another feature of these stores was the introduction of grey concrete panels and silver framing on windows and doors.

The Presidential prototype evolved out of the mid-1990s prototype. The logo was moved to the center of the building. Later Meijer stores of this design introduced the Meijer Fresh logo with the standard Meijer logo and a large cursive "Fresh" on the right of the Meijer name. These logos are currently being phased out, with the lower case "meijer" (in red) with blue dots over the 'i' and 'j'.