Frederik Meijer is Not Fred Meyer

This is what happens when you forget to bring your
own bag to Meijer. You get a gazillion plastic bags. 

Just one of the challenges about moving to a completely different state is adjusting to buying groceries. While growing up in Oregon, there was a comforting grocery store called Fred Meyer. It was the one-stop-shopping headquarters where one could find food, clothes, housewares, electronics, garden supplies, etc. When I moved to Seattle I missed the joys of one-stop-shopping, until a a big Fred Meyer opened up near my neighborhood in 1999. I was back to one-stop-shopping.(Admittedly, there was a Fred Meyer in Seattle that at the time I didn't consider a true Fred Meyer because it didn't sell food, until last year). 

Imagine my surprise when I learned there was a store here called Meyer. Everyone shops at Meyer! Could it be that Michiganders don't call it Freddies like we do out west, and instead call it Meyer? I was over the moon. I went grocery shopping there, and even though it was spelled Meijer, I was convinced that it was the same Fred Meyer, my childhood friend who sold my family groceries, here in Lansing. I learned that the Michigan Meijer was actually Frederik Meijer. He has a huge garden near Grand Rapids and was apparently a philanthropist. Fred was a Midwest philanthropist? They had to be the same!! I decided to Google it. 

Needless to say, Fred Meyer and Frederik Meijer are not the same person. Even so, they do have the same grocery store philosophy. Meijer is expansive, and one can find food, clothes, housewares, electronics, garden supplies, etc.