Meijer opened a new 159,000-square-foot supercenter in Northern Indiana, bringing its retail experience to customers in Elkhart.
"This new store reinforces our ongoing commitment to serving the needs of local families, who are looking for more value and convenience," Executive Chairman Hank Meijer said. "We are honored by the warm welcome and will be a strong community partner in the Elkhart area."
The new store features digital shopping solutions, including Shop & Scan, which allows shoppers to scan barcodes via a mobile app and bag their items as they shop to make checkout convenient. The store also features discounts on surplus food via the Flashfood app, expanded areas to manage orders for Meijer Home Delivery and Pickup services, as well as mPerks rewards to help customers earn on every dollar spent.
Known for grocery options like more than 600 varieties of farm-fresh produce, 150 USDA-certified organic items, and a deli and meat department, the new Meijer store also offers a pharmacy and general merchandise items. The store features baby and pet departments, apparel, beauty care and a floral department offering more than 45 varieties of flower bunches.
The store also features new larger, height-adjustable changing tables in the family restrooms for the added convenience and dignity of customers with disabilities and their caregivers. The Elkhart store also offers free access to Aira, an app-based service that provides live navigation assistance to blind and low-vision customers using the camera of their smartphones.
Prior to opening its doors, Meijer made $30,000 in donations to three local organizations. Meijer donated $15,000 to the Elkhart Education Foundation to sponsor the school store, which provides necessary school supplies free of charge to students and teachers in the district. In addition, the retailer donated $10,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Elkhart County to support one-to-one mentoring relationships between youth and adults, and $5,000 to Faith Mission of Michiana, which provides more than 200,000 meals annually for individuals experiencing homelessness.
Meijer, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich., donates more than 6% of its net profit to charitable organizations 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 $80 million for its food pantry partners throughout the Midwest.
Meijer has invested heavily in Indiana since opening its first store in 1994. The Elkhart store is the retailer's 42nd store in the state, in addition to its manufacturing facility in Middlebury. Meijer employs more than 10,000 team members statewide.
