The "Supercenter" — That Giant One-Stop Store — Was Invented in Grand Rapids

That enormous store where you can buy groceries, socks, motor oil, a fishing rod, and a prescription all in one trip? That idea has a Michigan birthday: June 1962, in Grand Rapids.

The Meijer story starts even earlier and humbler. In 1934, during the Great Depression, a Dutch immigrant and barber named Hendrik Meijer opened a little grocery store in Greenville, Michigan, with $338.75 of merchandise bought on credit. His first employee was his 14-year-old son, Fred. The family was scrappy and innovative — among the first in the region to offer self-service shopping and shopping carts.

Then in June 1962, Hendrik and Fred made a big bet. They opened a 100,000-square-foot store at 28th Street and Kalamazoo Avenue in Grand Rapids called “Thrifty Acres” — the first store in the United States to combine a full supermarket with a full range of general merchandise, a café, and a pharmacy, all checking out through one set of registers. People said it would never work. They were reportedly so unsure that they built the store with thick floors so the non-grocery half could be converted into a car dealership if it flopped. It didn’t flop. It became the model for the American supercenter — the format Walmart and others would later chase.

Fred Meijer also left Michigan a gift: the gorgeous Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids.