USA | Meijer’s Canton store has celebrated five decades of serving the community.
When the Canton, Michigan store opened its doors on the 19th of November 1974, it was the first Meijer store in the Detroit market and the largest store in company history at 250,000 square feet.
The new store was called Meijer Thrifty Acres and was a “hypermarket,” a popular European format. Special features of this new format included an outer concourse with specialty stores, tall vertical wire shelving, and a complete range of home appliances and furnishings.
Introducing the hypermarket to the United States generated extensive discussion and speculation in local news and retail industry publications.
Fifty years later, the Canton store celebrated its golden anniversary with an in-store celebration for customers and a donation to the Plymouth-Canton Optimist Club.
Retail Administrative Assistant Lynn Wadsworth has been with the store for as long as it has existed. She started as an hourly team member in high school and was offered a full-time position following graduation. She was glad to accept, seeing excellent opportunities to move up in the company and make a career with a family-owned company.
Wadsworth started her first administrative position in 1986 at the Canton store. She found the store team to have a family-friendly atmosphere and also met her husband through the job. Together, they raised three children while both keeping their careers with Meijer.
As she reflected on her 47-year career with the company, Wadsworth reminisced about how much has changed over the years.
While there have been many innovations, what stood out the most was that everything from applying for a job and onboarding to restocking and even shopping for some customers has now become computerised.
