11.28.11 Hero of the Day: Fred Meijer

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK! ------------------- ALL THIS WEEK, CHUCK69.COM WILL HONOR NOTHING BUT HEROES! TODAY'S SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY IS.... Name: Frederik Gerhard Hendrik Meijer Age: would have been 92 next month Occupation: former chairman, Meijer Last Seen: deceased Awarded For: not really being some ruthless rich man --- Normally, I hand out the Bee-otch of the Day everyday, but this week, I've found a few folks deserving of being heroes. These people changed our lives and made good decisions that, well, made our lives better. Our first choice was a man who, yes, was a conservative Republican whose innovation helped shut down several mom-n-poppers and died a wealthy man, but nonetheless, he was one of the lesser of all the evils when it came to the 1%. While the many brave souls were pushing, shoving and even pepper spraying their way to get the best bargains on Black Friday, Fred Meijer suffered a stroke. Later in the evening, long-time friend and former WOOD-TV 8 achor Susanne Geha announced on Facebook and Twitter that he had passed away. The official announcement was made from the family was made at 11 p.m. Fred Meijer came from humble beginnings in Greenville, MI, 40 miles north of Grand Rapids. When he was 14 years old, his barber father, Hendrik, a Dutch immigrant, owned a building that housed his barber shop and a space that he leased out to others. With the Great Depression causing people to not want to own a business, Meijer decided to purchase $300 of groceries on credit from a warehouse and sold them for little profit margin. Fred helped with the grocery business, doing everything from bagging groceries, stocking shelves to mopping floors. Eventually, young Fred became the chairman of the company his father created on a whim. The Greenville store expanded ninefold until fire reduced it to smithereens in 1946. Other locations were added in Ionia, Cedar Springs and yes, Grand Rapids in the 1940's and 50's. He even met his wife, Lena, who was a cashier at a Meijer store in the 1940's. However, Fred Meijer's greatest achievement came in the early 1960's when he convinced his father to build a hybrid grocery and retail super store in Grand Rapids. Hendrik disapproved of the concept, so Fred asked him, "if you were my age, would you do it?" "Yes," said father, and the Thrifty Acres concept was born. Their first store opened at the corner of 28th and Kalamazoo in Grand Rapids in 1962, the same year the first Walmart opened in Bentonville, AR. Thrifty Acres was a smash from the get-go, and all their new store from that point on would be big 150,000-square-foot monsters that provided one-stop shopping and low prices. Fred Meijer formally retired as Meijer chairman in 1990, giving the role to his sons Hank and Doug. True, Meijer does have its sad and gloomy side. The company has downsized its staff over the years, there's still thugs and beggars annoying customers at their newly-rebuilt 28th and K'zoo store, they tried to recall elected officials in the Traverse City suburb of Acme only because they didn't allow a new store to be built there, right-winged hate dominates their book department and they put blinders over Cosmopolitan Magazine at the checkout to please the Religious Right. But when your company makes money - nearly $15 billion in revenue this year - the bad's not that important. I'm not a religious man by any means, but if the 1% picked up a Bible once in a while, they would see the error of their ways. One of my favorite stories is about the young rich man and his chat with Jesus. He asked him what he could do to better serve him, and Jesus told him to sell off all of his possessions since it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven. Even though he was the 60th richest person in America when he died with a fortune of $5 billion, Fred Meijer did have money, but not many possessions. Material things didn't matter to him. He lived in a modest home and drove an older car. When he was young, Fred learned from his father the importance of giving people the most for their dollar and even giving back to the people who helped him move up in life. So, instead of living in multiple mansions and driving cars that would have given Alberto del Rio a run for his money, Meijer gave back. His notable contributions included the Frederik Meijer Gardens, a botanical park. He even donated to several colleges and schools, including Grand Valley State University. He donated many acres of land to the school and even the building that houses their WGVU PBS and NPR stations. After a bypass operation 15 years ago, Fred donated $16 million to Spectrum Health to build their Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center. He even donated $10 million to restore the aging Majestic Theatre downtown. It's not known the exact amount of money Fred Meijer spent over the years, but it might be enough to be on the Lord's good side. In his 92 years on Earth, Fred probably did more good than bad. He helped everybody from college kids to fans of NPR and even folks down on their luck by having them work a few hours at one of his stores. Like I said earlier, their hypermarts did run some smaller stores out of business, but when you look at their history, Meijer was a small mom-n-pop in the beginning. But, it was a crapshoot from an enterprising man like Fred Meijer who made them one of the midwest's largest retailers, with 197 locations and 72,000 employees. ---   Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @  chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com ! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!