Vantaggi
Opportunities for less-educated employees. A cleaner environment than most of it's competitors. Until 2003, there was much more opportunity for advancement and wage increases and bonuses were much better. Watch for a merger or buyout that will result more opportunities and a generally more positive work environment. I sincerely wish I could be more positive. It used to be a wonderful company, but when people feel insecure in their job, the tension can be overwhelming.
Svantaggi
Meijer was the pioneer of "Big Box" retailing, and continued that tradition of innovation until about 2002. But due to constant "restructuring" since then and a non-innovative, simplistic focus on "price" at the expense of "service", an employee's ability and performance have not been the main factors in gaining promotions or even retaining employment at Meijer. There is a serious problem with the competency of store and district level management due to a concerted effort to "dumb-down" management positions, especially at the store level by taking advantage of IT systems to transfer control to the corporate level: Move the product to the store, get it on the shelf and price it. Because they no longer have the personnel, customer service is a shell of what it once was, store cleanliness has suffered and well-conditioned shelves and creative merchandising is no more. Also, Meijer is a private stock company and is not obligated to reveal it's financial status. There have been store closings and job cuts since strong competition from WalMart, Cosco and Target began in earnest about 2002. Because Meijer is not a publicly traded company, they have had to make creative partnership arrangements to finance growth, which has resulted in much slower than their competitors. The profit center for Meijer is it's supermarket and pharmacy, where it competes well, but the General Merchandise side is in serious trouble. The vast majority of management cuts have been in the GM area: At the beginning of the decade, there was a manager for each department, at least six line managers (Service, Two Night Store Managers, GM, Supermarket and Hardlines) but by 2007 that number has been reduced to four lines managers (Supermarket , one Night Store Manager, Service and GM) and one "department" manager each to cover Hardlines, Fashion, Video/Electronics and Night Stocking in GM, plus Produce, Prepared Foods and Grocery and HBC, in the Supermarket area. Meijer made what could be a fatal decision in 2002 to price-compete with WalMart rather than service the niche (between Kroger & Target on one end and WalMart on the other) that they had. That niche preferred the cleanliness and well-stocked and conditioned character of Meijer stores as well as access to managers and clerks in each department but now, the cost-cutting is beginning to show and they might as well rename the company "WalMeijer".