Christopher Gordon wrote:No, I might be at The Fresh Market, Lake Forest.

Are they taking over the location of the former "Don's" on Western?

yes

Meijer's Niles, IL

G Wiv wrote:One thing, I remember reading an old LAZ post where she says one of the reasons she shops at Meijer's is they are 24/7 and she keeps late hours. I thought about an early visit to Meijer and called to make sure of the hours, not 24/7, but 6am to 11pm seven days a week.

Well, that's disappointing. The point, to me, of Meijer is not so much their food stock as the fact that you can buy food and get other items, such as auto parts or tennis shoes or plumbing supplies, all in one trip ... at 2 in the morning. I guess I'll continue to go to Rolling Meadows.

When it comes to food, Meijer tends to be less expensive than Jewel and Dominick's on national brands, but it doesn't compete with smaller independent stores on produce or ethnic items. For example, when I was buying Gerber baby food for my cat, it was usually 30 percent less at Meijer than anywhere else.

Things I buy regularly at Meijer include various of their house-brand items, including cranberry soda, potato and corn chips (we especially like their salt-and-pepper potato chips), crackers, Amish potato salad and rotisserie chickens (marked down after 8 p.m.). I also shop there for some national brand items -- frozen foods, paper goods, soda pop, etc. -- that tend to be pricier or nonexistent at the stores where the bulk of our groceries come from (Shop-and-Save, Jos. Caputo's, Harvest Fresh and Garden Fresh). They also have a somewhat different mix of international foods, with more British items, for example. (Note that this is all based on Rolling Meadows; I haven't been to the Niles Meijer, yet.)

Meijer stocks Faygo, for those with a yen for Red Pop.

LAZ,

Not having gone to Meijer in a while. Do you think those British items may be Canadian in origin? Their buyers located in Michigan are easy access to Canadian sellers.

Regards,

I drove by the Niles store today. The parking lot looked fairly full which dissuaded me from stopping. Well, that and the temperature. BTW the Rolling Meadows Meijer is a smaller store. There was a some concern about about shoehorning a full size store into that parcel.

I like the stores. They're not the cheapest but they're ususally within reason. The sale prices are generally attractive, the produce is acceptable, and the house brands are generally OK. I divide most of my shopping between fresh markets (Valli's, Caputos (both kinds), Shop n Save et al) and Meijers. Plus Aldis for some of the stuff they price really well.

"The point, to me, of Meijer is not so much their food stock as the fact that you can buy food and get other items, such as auto parts or tennis shoes or plumbing supplies, all in one trip ... at 2 in the morning."

I will echo this sentiment as someone who grew up down the street from the FIRST Meijer's store in Grand Rapids... They were called Meijer's Thrifty Acres at that time and the logo featured a little dutch boy (Dutch Thriftyness!)

This is where you went when you were a teenager and bored and high or drunk or on acid at 1 am, to wander the aisles and wreak havoc. And totally was "all in one shopping".. they had a hair salon on the upper floor, an ice cream counter where my mom would bribe us with West Michigan favorites like Blue Moon ice cream and Superman ice cream... It sounds like the Niles Meijer is not the Meijer of my youth, sadly.

emdub wrote:This is where you went when you were a teenager and bored and high or drunk or on acid at 1 am, to wander the aisles and wreak havoc. And totally was "all in one shopping".. they had a hair salon on the upper floor, an ice cream counter where my mom would bribe us with West Michigan favorites like Blue Moon ice cream and Superman ice cream... It sounds like the Niles Meijer is not the Meijer of my youth, sadly.

I have similar memories of Meijer, except they are from my college years in South Bend. Meijer and Steak N Shake were the only two places open 24 hours in the South Bend area, and I have some very good memories of wandering around Meijer with my friends at 3am looking for snack foods after they had kicked us out of the Linebacker at closing time.

Ahh, good times...

On a side note, I often make the trip out to NW Indiana to shop at Meijers while availing myself of free childcare from my parents. I've consistently found that the low prices and quality of their produce far exceed what I can find here in the near NW burbs. I've also found that the rest of their staples like cereal, crackers, dairy products and meat can be very cheap if you shop their sales.

Cathy2 wrote:Do you think those British items may be Canadian in origin?

I haven't read labels in detail to check on the importers. From memory, on a recent trip to Rolling Meadows, they had things like Wheatabix, mushy peas, barley water, canned spotted dick, wine gums.

We did not buy any of those items on our 2 a.m. trip. What we bought was replacement bulbs for a burned-out car headlight, navel and Moro oranges, limes, 10 pounds of Michigan potatoes, a pork loin, Meijer brand salt-and-black-pepper potato chips, Amish potato salad, crackers, shampoo, Meijer brand tonic water, Faygo seltzer and some other odds and ends. The Moro oranges were five for $2, and the limes 10 for $1, which I think is as good as anywhere. I don't remember the other prices off hand, but the pork and crackers were on sale. I think the tonic was 85 cents for a liter.

But, of course, the reason we went there at all was because of the headlight.

As another ex-Michigander, I also have fond memories of relieving late-night boredom by wandering through Meijer's Thrifty Acres during my college years in Ann Arbor. (I think the store was actually in Ypsilanti.)

No British products at the Niles Meijers. In fact a pretty poor selection of "ethnic" products in general.

rickster wrote:No British products at the Niles Meijers. In fact a pretty poor selection of "ethnic" products in general.

The Sun View Market, just next door to Meijers, has a great selection of ethnic goods, including many types of bread from local bakeries. They carry many Greek and Eastern European products, as well as South and East Asian goods. I called them, and they are not only still in operation, but have no current plans to move, despite the new competition in the strip mall. Sun View is open until 10pm, 7 days per week.


Sun View Market
9020 W Golf Rd
Niles, IL 60714
(847) 298-3355

rickster wrote:No British products at the Niles Meijers. In fact a pretty poor selection of "ethnic" products in general.

There is a whole shelf of British goods in the McHenry and Algonquin stores.

Skokie lands big-box Meijer store

http://skokie.suntimes.com/news/busines ... 13:article

Hi- That is good to hear about the Skokie store, but it sounds like it will be at least two years before it opens. I much prefer Meijer's to Walmart. That store is not going to be that far from both the Mariano's and Walmart stores that are being built in Skokie. Thanks, Nancy

As another ex-Michigander with fond memories of wandering around the Meijer stores near East Lansing in the wee hours, I'm excited about the Skokie location. None of the other suburban locations are a reasonable distance from my Edgewater apartment. They just better stock Faygo.

Hi- I went to school at Michigan State, and so I shopped lots at the Okemos store. I love Faygo rock and rye, and the few stores that carry Faygo around here, do not stock rock and rye. I have not checked the Niles Meijer's store, which is the only one that is remotely close to me. It still takes me a half hour to drive there, and it is one of their mostly groceries only store.

merkay wrote:They just better stock Faygo.

I'm not sure about Faygo, but all of the local Meijer stores that I have been to carry Vernor's, so there's hope.

Do they have Koegel and Kowalski stuff, if you've noticed? Really nice natural casing, pork and beef wieners from both. Essential for Coneys (Koegels has Coney sauce in an old fashioned chub that looks like liverwurst or breakfast sausage) and a nice change of pace from our local dogs (also great, but apples and oranges). Fresh walleye and yellow perch are other MI staples that I've wondered about in Chicago area stores. Might need to make a trip before the turkey fryer comes out (I fry fish and oysters in mine before the bird drops, and afterthought).

stevez wrote:

merkay wrote:They just better stock Faygo.

I'm not sure about Faygo, but all of the local Meijer stores that I have been to carry Vernor's, so there's hope.

It will be nice to have a Vernor's supply as well. Nothing better when you have an upset tummy.

And, speaking of Koegel, it would be great if they stock the ring bologna. I miss it.

This is, perhaps, way off topic. I also went to Michigan State. During the late 70s/early 80s I was on the Men's Gymnastics team. During that time, the Men's team from the then Soviet Union, featuring the great Nikolai Andrianov, came through town for an exhibition at Jenison Fieldhouse. We had a dinner in their honor at the Kellogg Center. They had toured the town including a stop at Meijer's Thrifty Acres. At dinner, the translator memorably asked what credentials were necessary to allow a person to shop at this store?

By the way, Andrianov and the rest of them smoked all through dinner. Would have been 1978 or 1979.

Wow, there are quite a few Spartans here. Although, technically, I'm both a Spartan and a Wolverine, I consider myself a Spartan.

When I was at MSU, taking foreign students on their first trip to Meijer was always great fun.

merkay wrote:

stevez wrote:

merkay wrote:They just better stock Faygo.

I'm not sure about Faygo, but all of the local Meijer stores that I have been to carry Vernor's, so there's hope.

It will be nice to have a Vernor's supply as well. Nothing better when you have an upset tummy.

And, speaking of Koegel, it would be great if they stock the ring bologna. I miss it.

The Meijer on Golf in Niles has the Kogel ring bologna.

bw77 wrote:This is, perhaps, way off topic. I also went to Michigan State. During the late 70s/early 80s I was on the Men's Gymnastics team. During that time, the Men's team from the then Soviet Union, featuring the great Nikolai Andrianov, came through town for an exhibition at Jenison Fieldhouse. We had a dinner in their honor at the Kellogg Center. They had toured the town including a stop at Meijer's Thrifty Acres. At dinner, the translator memorably asked what credentials were necessary to allow a person to shop at this store?

Hi,

During Soviet times, this was not an unreasonable question. There were shops available to everyone and shops available to certain tiers of society. It was not unusual if a company cafeteria also sold hard-to-buy-otherwise products like canned crab and caviar.

Everyone had rubles, what everyone did not have was access to goods.

Regards,

Go Green!

Go Green!

. . .and you're going to the Rose Bowl, for the first time in over two decades! Congrats. GREAT game.

They hsve great michigan dried cherries.

Go White!

Go green.

I have been to the store in Niles and in Michigan City, IN. They had reduced rate tickets for Cedar Point-one of the best amusement parks in the nation. Have only been a few times and each time the place had few customers. I thought the food selection was 'eh' but I did by a pair of New Balance shoes for husband and a terrific kitchen garbage can.