Local Meijer's Closing

  OK, yeah, I know I missed a couple days over the weekend .... So sue me.  my grump today is a bit more local, but one that is closer to my heart than most.  Meijer's is closing their Newark Ohio store.  This is where I do almost all my shopping, and the next closest Meijer's store is almost an hours drive one way.  Many people may not realize this, but the Newark store was the first Meijer's store in Ohio.  Now it is the smallest store the company operates.  They have repeatedly over the years tried to find excuses to close it down, but since it has always done a brisk business (enough to carry larger stores not doing so well) they always wound up leaving it open.  Well now, the last few years, they have allowed the store to fall into enough of a state of disrepair, that to remodel the store "to suit our customers needs" will be costly enough to justify their shutting it down.  Even if the other larger Meijer's stores were a bit closer, I would probably not bother to go there, as one of things I like about our Meijer's Store was the fact that it is smaller, and I don't have to spend forever walking about to get from section to section.  That is one of the reasons I don't care to shop at walmart.  I don't know very many people who will be willing to drive clear out to reynoldsburg to shop at Meijer's.  So basically, they are telling everyone in our city who shops there that they don't really care about us as loyal Meijer's customers, and that they are ok with all of us going to their competition to do all of our shopping? ? ?   How does this make any business sense?  Not to mention all of the local people that this will put out of work.  Yeah, they say they will try and find positions for all of their employees with other stores nearby, but really, there aren't any close enough for any but the highest paid full timers and managers to afford the commute.  Since they have increasingly been replacing full time employees with part timers, there will be a bunch of people looking for work in town, and the job market here is already fairly thin.  I just can't believe that they are doing this to us.  Why, as a business, would you seek to deliberately alienate an entire city of your customers?  I just don't get it.  The worst thing about this, (anyone who knows me should know this much already) is that I hate being forced into doing something I don't really want to do, and will never be happy about, period.  But they are now forcing me into changing all of my shopping habits, including forcing me into shopping at places I don't really like, and don't currently shop at because Meijer's is a better store.



Vitam Libertatem Honorem