If you’re not familiar with Meijer, it’s a Midwestern chain of superstores that are basically a much better Walmart. Be it said that I love Meijer! I’d probably get a Meijer tattoo across my bicep if it had the necessary real estate. I’ve written about the chain before, but today’s subject is a thirty-two-year-old VHS tape titled A Video Tour of Your New Meijer Stores!
I’m a Meijer fan but not a Meijer scholar, so I had no idea this tape even existed until now. Fortunately, my friend Dylan stumbled across a copy on eBay for ten bucks, digitized the footage, and sent it my way. What unfolded was a glorious time capsule from 1994, right as the Grand Rapids-based chain prepared to push deep into Indiana. The video opens with moody dramatic footage of a truck driver rolling into a dark parking lot in the middle of the night.
Over it all, a narrator solemnly declares: “Soon, thousands of people will witness the grand opening of some exciting new stores. A hardware store. A sporting goods store. A brand-name fashion store. In fact, thirty-five new stores will open, including a massive supermarket with the biggest selection and some of the lowest prices.” Right on cue, the trucker throws on a bank of floodlights as the narrator delivers the payoff with movie-trailer gravitas. “…Even more remarkable, all these stores are in one store. Meijer. Come see it for yourself. You’ll find it quite…illuminating.”
The chunky old red-and-yellow Meijer logo comes into view as the camera pulls back to reveal the whole thing playing on a television. “Wow, but if you think that’s exciting, wait until you see what they’re actually talking about,” exclaims someone named Paul Eisenhower! Soon, we’re up and about as Eisenhower takes us on a guided tour of the gleaming new Meijer experience in a store representative of the newest outposts the store was advertising at West Pike Plaza in Indianapolis and Carmel’s Carmel Drive.
The whole production radiates peak early nineties energy. I won’t narrate the rest of the nine-minute video, which you can see a version of in the player embedded above, but here are some quick takeaways: did you know that, in the nineties, an average Meijer sold more than 100,000 items across thirty-five departments? That included more than 450 varieties of produce, fresh seafood (remember the lobster tank?), self-serve and specially-cut meat, a one-hour photo department, and a video rental service.
A typical Meijer in 1994 was enormous, sprawling across 211,000 square feet. That was more than three times larger than Indiana’s biggest and newest Marsh supermarkets at the time. The place practically functioned as its own small city, but thirty-four checkout lanes helped keep the masses moving. At the customer service desk alone, shoppers could mail letters, send faxes, cash checks, buy stamps, and pick up money orders. Before it was time to leave, kids could take a ride on Sandy, Meijer’s beloved penny pony, near the exit.
After marching viewers through the entrance, photo department, video rental section, toy aisles, clothing departments, grocery rows, and checkout lanes, the tape shifts into full sales-pitch mode. We’re encouraged to apply for a Meijer 1Card before being invited to the grand openings of the Pike Plaza and Carmel Meijers at 7:00 p.m. on May 10, 1994. Then comes the final touch: viewers are instructed to bring the VHS tape back to each location’s video department in exchange for a free digital sports watch.
More than three decades after it was produced, A Video Tour of Your New Meijer Stores! is satisfying and comforting to watch. Plenty has changed, of course.: the video rental counters are gone, the lobster tanks disappeared, the color scheme is different, and nobody’s sending faxes from the customer service desk anymore. Still, so much of the Meijer experience remains instantly recognizable from when I first stepped into one around 1996. That’s probably why this goofy tape works so well as a time capsule.
Beneath the dated graphics, dramatic narration, and cheesy enthusiasm, this promotional tape captured something genuine about the place. Meijer understood that it wasn’t just selling groceries, toys, and tube socks. It was selling an experience, a sprawling store of discovery, and the company knew it well enough to put that feeling on VHS and market it like a blockbuster movie release. I’m glad they did!
