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MichaelMeckler.com: Blog: Food on Friday: Grocery shopping

Food on Friday: Grocery shopping

29 JANUARY 2016

I stopped into a Meijer store the other day. Here in central Ohio, Meijer, Kroger and Giant Eagle are the dominant grocery-store chains (leaving aside Walmart, which is very important seller of groceries among other items). I regularly shop at Kroger and Giant Eagle, but Meijer is only infrequently visited.

Of course, the fact that the nearest Meijer store is 9 miles from my home is one reason why I don't shop there frequently. But I find the store's layout time-consuming to navigate, as the items I tend to buy are mostly in the back of the store. Other than produce, the front aisles of a Meijer store — and the aisles in a Meijer store run horizontally — are dominated by processed, frozen and convenience foods. So I have to gather the produce in front, then trek to the back to get dairy items, eggs, baking ingredients and paper goods.

Giant Eagle also puts dairy and paper goods in the back — and Kroger has dairy in the back — but their aisles run vertically, so a shopper can pick up produce, then make a circuit around the store to get other staples and get out fairly quickly if one doesn't have a need for processed, frozen and convenience foods.

There's a Kroger store a mile from my house, and a Giant Eagle is being built even closer. And since I prefer the layout of these stores anyway, there's not much reason for me to trek to Meijer.

 

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