Meijer opens 3 new supercenters in Northeast Ohio
Meijer opened three new 159,000-square-foot supercenters in the Northeast Ohio region—Austintown, Medina and Richmond Heights.
Meijer said it offers an expansive farm-fresh produce section featuring hundreds of USDA-certified organic items as well as a great deli and meat department. Meijer supercenters also feature full-service pharmacies and general merchandise, including baby and pet departments, apparel, beauty care, floral departments and garden centers.
[Read more: Meijer opens Independence Market to Clarkston community]
The new supercenters offer digital shopping solutions, including Shop & Scan, which allows shoppers to scan barcodes via the Meijer mobile app and bag their items as they shop to make checkout more expedient. The stores also feature deep discounts on surplus food via the Flashfood app, convenient shopping through Meijer Home Delivery and Pickup services and mPerks rewards to help customers earn on every dollar spent.
"As a family company that's been serving Midwest customers for 90 years, we are humbled to be able to continue bringing our unique shopping experience to more communities," executive chairman Hank Meijer said. "Meijer invests in the communities we serve, and we look forward to partnering with local organizations and helping to strengthen each of these communities."
Meijer opened its first store in Ohio in 1981. In the last few years, the retailer has invested more than half a billion dollars into Northeast Ohio by opening and remodeling nearly 25 stores, creating jobs and contributing to the missions of local nonprofits. Meijer employs more than 12,000 team members statewide at 58 stores and distribution and manufacturing facilities in Tipp City.
"Our three new store teams are already working hard to deliver value and convenience to our customers, and we're thankful for their dedication and passion," Meijer president and CEO Rick Keyes said. "We are confident Austintown, Medina, and Richmond Heights customers are going to love having Meijer be part of their community."
Meijer store directors Patrick Hughes, Carol Lester and Marcella Mathis and their teams welcomed customers into the stores with a round of applause when the doors opened. This was later followed by ribbon-cutting events attended by Keyes and members of the Meijer family.
Prior to opening the new stores, Meijer demonstrated its support of all three communities by making $90,000 in donations to 10 local organizations. In Austintown, Hughes and the store's team members donated to The Hope Foundation of Mahoning Valley and the St. Vincent DePaul Foundation of Youngstown.
In Medina, Lester and her team donated to The Children's Center of Medina County, Feeding Medina County, Cups Café, Medina County Habitat for Humanity, and the Medina Fire Department's "After the Fire" program.
In Richmond Heights, Mathis and her team donated to the Richmond Heights Education Foundation, the Community Partnership on Aging, and Empowering Epilepsy.
Meijer donates at least 6% of its net profit to the community annually, and each of its stores works with local food banks and pantries to help fight hunger. Since 2008, the retailer's Simply Give program has generated more than $100 million for its food pantry partners throughout the Midwest. The stores each selected their first Simply Give partners, which include Austintown Community Church for the Austintown store, Feeding Medina County for the Medina store and The Bin Food Pantry for the Richmond Heights store.
[Read more: Meijer Simply Give Hunger Relief Program reaches $100M donation milestone]
Continuing the retailer's ongoing efforts to ensure accessibility for all customers, the stores feature new, larger, height-adjustable changing tables in the family restrooms for the added convenience and dignity of customers with disabilities and their caregivers. As in all Meijer stores, the new supercenters also offer free access to Aira, an app-based service that provides live navigation assistance to blind and low-vision customers using the camera on their smartphones.