Remember when Meijer was... Square?

Meijer, Southfield, MI

Does anybody remember Meijer Square?

Has anybody ever even heard of Meijer Square?

If you have, that would surprise me a little bit, because it was a short lived concept by Meijer that didn't go that far.

But what exactly was Meijer Square?

Well, that's what this post is all about, but before we get to that, we need to go over what Meijer as a whole was, and what it is today, to better understand the concept of their Square stores

This is what they are today. Meijer is a hypermarket, or a superstore as it's more commonly referred to

It wasn't always that way, however,

When Meijer was founded in 1934 it was originally just a supermarket chain

From the 50's until the late 70's and even going into the early 80's, discount department stores were a huge trend, with there being probably over 30 chains in the U.S. alone at one point (much more choices than your average Walmart & Target, eh?)

Meijer, Burton, MI

Meijer was no exception to the discount craze. In 1962, Meijer launched Thrifty Acres, a chain of discount department stores. Meijer did something different than most discounters, however. They put their discount store, and their supermarket, all under the same one roof. No retailer has done this before that point, and thus, the hypermarket, or "Super Center" was created.

For anyone wondering, the Thrifty Acres brand name was finally phased out in 1986 after Meijer decided to go all in with the superstore concept and put all of the grocery/discount store combos under the Meijer name.

Okay, now we're finally onto the main concept of this post, Meijer square, and what it was

Again, as previously mentioned, discounting was a huge crazy in the entire retail industry, it almost seemed that every company, person, and their mother wanted a piece of that sweet discount pie, and Meijer was, of course, no exception.

Meijer Square logo
(Image via Newspaper.com The Cincinnati Enquirer 10-12-81)

Meijer wanted to branch out and start their own discount store chain, not hypermarket chain. But there was a dilemma with this plan. They couldn't use the Thrifty Acres brand name, because that was basically the discount store section of the Meijer markets, if they opened stand alone Thrifty Acres stores, it could only be assumed that people would think that the supermarket would be included, A new brand name needed to be made, and thus, Meijer Square was born.

Basically think of your current day Meijer store without any of the grocery, or a stand alone Thrifty Acres store, that's what Meijer Square was. Stand alone discount department stores.

(Image via Newspaper.com, The Cincinnati Enquirer 10-12-81)

The first Meijer Square opened in 1981, and it actually got kind of a weird start, it all started when Meijer decided to acquire the Twin Fair (another discount store chain) locations in Ohio, not the entire chain, just the stores in the state of Ohio.

(Image via Newspapers.com, The Cincinnati Enquirer 11-30-82)

After the acquisitions of the Twin Fair locations, not only did the first Meijer Square store open, but Meijer actually kept the acquired Twin Fair locations in operation for a while, with ads featuring both branding from Meijer Square & Twin Fair, as seen above.

Most, if not all, of the Twin Fair locations in Ohio were later converted to the Meijer Square concept.

So what exactly happened to Meijer Square?

Well, the first Meijer Square store opened in 1981, and there isn't any mention of them in newspaper archives after 1983, so it can only be assumed that the whole Meijer Square concept was shut down halfway through 1993, after a solid less than 4 years.

So what happened to the original locations, and where were they?

Well, fear not, because I did some research and came across some locations

These stores only operated in Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan. With Ohio being where the main store base was, with the other two states having less than 3 locations.

so, without further a due, lets finally put the history lesson aside, and take a look at some old Meijer Square locations

* = Meijer square stores that originally started out as Twin Fair locations

3901 Winston Ave, Covington, KY 41015*

5350 W Main St, Kalamazoo, MI 49009

This location originally started out as Turn-Style (yet another discount store chain) before becoming Meijer Square, and than Target (Which opened in 1994, less than a year after Meijer stopped advertising their Square stores, making the "halfway through 1993" assumption more likely to be the actual closing date for the whole Square concept)

1838 E Seymour Ave Suite 1, Cincinnati, OH 45237

This location was later sold to Zayre, but for one reason or another, it never became an Ames store.

3825 Montgomery Rd, Norwood, OH 45212*

There's not much to see with this one

No I mean that literally, as in, there's noting to see here, the original building has since been torn down, and its currently an empty lot

4020 E Galbraith Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45236*

This store appears to have since been subdivided

5291 Delhi Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45238*

This building currently operates as a storage facility

Photo of the building before the storage facility moved in

7528 Beechmont Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45255

This store was torn down for a Kroger

8421 Winton Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45231*

And so was this one

1400 Reading Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45202

This store was torn down and was replaced with a parking garage and one of the oldest Staples stores that I have ever seen

510 Patterson Blvd, Fairfield, OH 45014*

This store was torn down with some new construction taking place, and some empty pieces of land

655 N University Blvd, Middletown, OH 45042

There isn't much info left on these stores, but it's still interesting to see what once was. I know this post was more text-based, rather than photo-based, as I normally do with these blogs, and that I wasn't able to go as in-depth as I usually do, so thanks for reading.

All images are from Google Maps / Google Street View (unless stated otherwise). I take zero credit for any of these photos