Meijer highlights shopper cleaning, organization trends

During the heightened period of the COVID-19 pandemic to now, Meijer noticed a change in the cleaning habits of its shoppers.

“We saw our customers focus on home cleaning in a big way over the last year and many of those habits aren’t going away any time soon,” Angie Pagel, director of merchandising for household consumables at Meijer said. “In fact, we're already seeing some of those cleaning habits evolve as they begin to start opening their homes up to more guests.”

In the spring of 2020, the retailer saw an increase of more than 60% in bath and surface cleansers, as well as a 50% increase in the purchase of bleach.

“More time spent at home means more meals prepared in the kitchen, more people using the bathrooms more often and more messes overall,” Pagel said. “Most families found themselves cleaning more frequently and thoroughly than ever before. Through this experience, they realized they have different priorities for different spaces in the home — wanting to disinfect high-touch areas like bathrooms and doorknobs, but opting for more natural ingredients for kitchens, nurseries and children's play spaces.”

Though it wasn’t just cleaning surfaces that shoppers focused on. Organization was also a key focus, as Meijer also highlighted how in the past year it has seen a spike in closet organization products over the last year. Closet systems sales increased 50% and drawer storage sales rose by more than 40%, the company said.

“Having already organized their closets earlier this year and having left much of their wardrobe undisturbed since they lived their lives at home, many customers weren’t in a hurry to re-organize their closets,” Meijer home organization buyer Rachel Turner said. “Instead, this spring our customers focused on their kitchens.”

In addition, there also has been a spike in the sales of kitchen baskets and counter organization items. There also has been an increase of more than 40% in the sale of such daily kitchen cleaning basics as scrub brushes and sponges, the company said.

“A lot of us developed a new love of cooking over the last year and discovered ways we might want to improve our kitchen’s layout that we hadn’t given as much thought to before,” Turner said. “Customers are also starting to think about inviting guests into their homes and entertaining again, which is driving additional interest in kitchen organization.”