What If?

Have you ever thought about what might have happened if something had occurred or if you had done something differently? It is no different for a town.

In 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression, the 50 year old barber Hendrik Meijer decided to start a grocery store in the rental property that he owned next to his barbershop because he couldn’t find anyone to rent the property. Shaves and haircuts were considered luxuries during the depression and he was often paid with farm produce in the small farming community of Greenville, Michigan. He bought $338.76 worth of grocery items and started North Side Grocery. His 15 year old son Fred was the first employee.

That humble beginning has grown into the Meijer supercenters, which first introduced hypermarkets to the USA in 1974. Sam Walton often studied Meijer and was said to consider it to be one of the best retailers in the country. It wasn’t until Sam passed away that Wal-Mart started to compete head to head with Meijer, because of Sam’s tremendous respect for Fred Meijer.

In the late 60s Meijer moved their growing headquarters to Grand Rapids, 30 miles to the south. Today their 160+ stores, still privately owned by the Meijer family, are run from there rather than Greenville.

Fred Meijer, who celebrated his 85th birthday last week, has donated millions to his hometown. His store no. 1, which has been replaced with a new store on the outskirts of Greenville sits empty. Meijer has offered to sell the 140,000 sf centrally located store to the city for $1, hoping that it can be reused by the city or non-profits in the town.

Let me finish with some of the “what ifs” that went thru my mind as I toured Greenville last week. What if Hendrik Meijer had rented that empty space out to someone rather than starting a grocery store? What if he had decided to start a furniture store instead of a grocery store? What if Fred Meijer hadn’t moved the company headquarters to Grand Rapids? What if Sam Walton had moved out of Bentonville, Arkansas with his headquarters when he went public?