New $20M Meijer Store Opens In Detroit
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Detroit's new $20 million Meijer store is officially open for business.
Frank Guglielmi, Meijer spokesperson, said the store at 8 Mile Road and Woodward Avenue is one of the company's largest. He said customers familiar with other Meijer stores will notice a big change to the this store's floor plan.
"There's 600 types of produce, a fresh meat counter, a fresh bakery, a great new pharmacy that offers clinical services in addition to filling prescriptions, and over 100,000 different items inside the store," Guglielmi told WWJ's Mike Campbell.
Dozens of Detroiters were waiting in line before the store officially opened for business, including Carolyn Coleman.
"I'm ready for shopping, the good deals," she said. "I'm just going to grocery shop, I'm just going to go around and browse around and see what they have in here," she said.
Ray Anderson, a former Detroiter who now lives in Royal Oak, said he was excited to get all the welcoming freebies.
"I wanted to see the new store and get free stuff, if you want the truth," he said with a laugh.
Guglielmi said the company is looking to build additional stores throughout the city, including at the site of the old Redford High School.
"Right now, that site is prepped and ready to build. We don't have a date assigned to it, I mean, our focus right now is to get the 8 Mile store up and running and get this one rolling and then we'll start looking at where our next location will be," he said.
A grand opening will be held this Sunday. The Meijer store is the centerpiece of a $72 million Gateway Marketplace shopping plaza, which will also have a Petco, K&G and Marshall's clothing stores, and about a dozen other retailers.
The project follows the opening of a Whole Foods store in Midtown. It also comes one week after the city's state-appointed emergency manager – seeking to erase as much as $20 billion in debt – took Detroit into the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.
Meantime, a developer this week announced plans to build apartments, town houses and small-scale retail along Detroit's downtown riverfront. Groundbreaking for that project could come next spring.
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