The Chronic Consumer

There are four “big box” retailers within a 15-minute drive from my house: Target, Wal-Mart (and Sam’s Club), Super K-Mart, and Meijer. Meijer is the newest of the bunch and just came on the scene in this area a few years ago. While I used to divide my time pretty evenly at Target and Wal-Mart, I’ve slowly converted into a Meijer fan. Here’s a quick rundown of the reasons that I prefer Meijer over the other stores.

• Cleanliness. I know it’s hard to keep these huge retail sites clean, especially with hordes of people pawing through the merchandise on a daily basis, but Meijer does a relatively good job. The displays are usually orderly, the clothes are folded, and the bathrooms are actually usable.
• Convenience. This is the only one of the stores I mentioned that’s open 24 hours. Wal-Mart used to be open around the clock, but now they go from 7am to 10 or 11pm (or something like that). I frequently keep odd hours and/or suffer from insomnia, so there’s no telling when I’ll want to go shopping at 2am. Meijer is the only place to go at that time!
• Selection. I like the selection of merchandise available at Meijer. They’ve got a full grocery store with most of the brands that I usually buy, plus they have all the usual products you’d expect from a big box retailer, like cheap clothes, office supplies, automotive supplies, toys, video games, DVDs, etc.
• TV shopping carts. Yeah, the ones that play Barney, Bob the Builder, and The Wiggles videos. For just one dollar, my son can be occupied for the entire visit. It’s so nice to be able to do my shopping in peace, without having the boy whine to go home. Yes, he still gets out of the cart to walk through the toy aisles, but remains quietly seated the rest of the time. I’ll take that trade-off!
• Prices. I’ve found that Meijer offers cheaper prices than Wal-Mart on most items, and is comparable with Target on a bunch of others. While I think Target has the best prices on a storewide basis, I still prefer shopping at Meijer.

I think Meijer is only located in the Midwest, but I’m not too sure on that one. At any rate, if there’s a branch in your area, I highly recommend shopping there as opposed to Wal-Mart, Kmart, or even Target!