Dive Brief:

• Meijer is seeking approval from city officials in Fishers, Indiana, to build a Meijer Grocery store in the Indianapolis suburb.
• The 75,000-square-foot store would carry food, baby and health products and pet supplies, as well as include a drive-up pharmacy and a gas station, according to a Monday presentation at a Fishers City Council meeting by Ross Beyer, a real estate manager for Meijer.
• The proposed store is the latest indication by Meijer that it plans to expand its nascent supermarket format, which includes stores that are significantly smaller than the company’s signature supercenters.

Dive Insight:

The supermarket Meijer wants to build in Fishers would join another Meijer Grocery location the retailer plans to open later this year in nearby Noblesville, Indiana, and a pair of Meijer Grocery stores the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based company already operates in its home state.

The new store would be located in Fall Creek Marketplace, a shopping center near the intersection of Southeastern Parkway and North Cyntheanne Road. It would be about 20% smaller than the Meijer Grocery store in Noblesville, which will span about 90,000 square feet, according to Beyer’s presentation. 

The vast majority of stores Meijer runs are supercenters that typically occupy between 150,000 and 250,000 square feet. The company opened three supercenters in a single day earlier this month in Ohio and Michigan.

Meijer is currently hiring employees for the Noblesville grocery store, which is set to open this summer, a spokesperson for the retailer said in an email, adding that the company is not ready to comment on when the store it hopes to bring to Fishers might open.

Beyer told the Fishers City Council that Meijer is prepared to work with people who live nearby to help ensure they are not adversely affected by the store, which he called a “big change for the community.”

“Fishers has had a wonderful success story. It’s a community that’s had a lot of growth and has done very well, and we need to adjust our approach to fit in with our community,” Beyer said.

Ross Hilleary, planning and development director for Fishers, told the city council during the meeting that the development where the new store would be located will be designed to allow pedestrians and people on bicycles to access it.

Meijer has been developing the Meijer Grocery format for several years. The company received local approval for the first location, in Orion Township, Michigan, in 2021, and opened that store in 2023. Meijer opened a Meijer Grocery location in Macomb Township, Michigan, last year as well.

Meijer also operates five small-format neighborhood market stores in Michigan and Ohio, including a 40,000-square-foot store known as Fairfax Market that opened in Cleveland in January.