Drake B.
Yelp
If you consider yourself someone who values their time and effort, or someone who goes to the store hoping to find what they need, please take my advice and avoid the 8 Mile Meijer at all costs. If you don't, a series of annoyances and predicaments will surely ensue.
First of all, before you even arrive, you will find that what looks on paper to be a convenient location, at the corner of 8 Mile and Woodward, is actually a trap; The parking lot is tight, crawling with clueless drivers, and spots are competitive and hard to come by.
When you do finally carve out a parking spot, once inside the building you'll find that the layout is an absolute nightmare; a wide expanse with seemingly no sense or order to navigate. Products which should be found together lie at disparate ends of a vast empty space. I recall my first time at this Meijer was spent running around like a headless chicken looking for a Brita water filter, asking around only to find that many of the employees are also bewildered by the frequently shifting arrangement of things. I assumed the water filter would be near the water products, or the kitchen appliances, but through the help of one employee I discovered that it was in fact in the far, far, opposite corner of the store, near the sports section of all places.
Though confused, I took for granted my luck in actually finding what I was looking for. This brings me on to my next point: I hope you don't have anything in particular you need to buy, because they won't have it. It always seems as though the shelves are fully stocked, but once you look a little closer, you'll find that the precise item you need, which they had only one week ago, is suddenly somehow missing, with an empty space left behind to taunt and tease you. This effect can encapsulate many items at once depending on your necessities. Looking for, for instance, avocado oil, any kind? Here's a surprise for you: The entire section is completely stocked out. I swear to you, not once have I gone to this place and found everything I needed. Things have always been in disarray and impossible to find, with little help from the equally bewildered staff.
Most of the time, the staff puts in at least some semblance of effort to guide you through the bog of the 8 Mile Meijer, and are able to retain some humanity and joy. However, some cases succumb to the quagmire and become complacent in it, losing themselves in the process. This brings me on to my final point: I hope you don't like what you see on the shelves, because you can't buy it.
While deciding to write this review I also decided, although it is the supermarket closest and (ostensibly) most convenient to me, I will never go back again. The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back came with today's visit. My girlfriend and I went today and hoped to look for a protein-rich snack. Whenever an item on the shelf would pique our interest, we would look and see that the item that we wanted to check out had no price tag. It was strange the first time, suspicious the second time, and dubious the third. I ended up picking up a pack of beef sticks that looked delicious, with good ingredients to boot.
For once, we did not have to wait in line for 10 minutes to self-checkout, and when it was our time to go, I scan the beef sticks only to see it come up red, telling me that the barcode is not in the system. An employee comes by and does... something, probably nothing, only for me to try it again and for it not to scan, again. At this point, she tells me that the item was not meant to be on the shelf. "But that's impossible," I protest, "there were plenty of them on the shelf". To no avail, as this is when she simply repeats herself, takes the beef sticks and walks away. "Could she be fixing something in the system?" I think to myself. "Is she actually going to help me?" My hope persists until she unceremoniously drops the bag of beef sticks in a shopping cart stacked full of presumably similarly rescinded items. Items which should belong to the consumer, but now are rotting in some cart that will never get emptied, the problem never remedied, only to repeat and fester and persist for ever more.
Things like this make you want to talk to someone directly and give them a good shake, and say to them "Why can't you just have the things that I need? Why can't I just buy the things that I see? What the hell is wrong with this place and why won't you fix it!?"
But this is the final twist of the dagger: There is no one to speak with. No one is in charge. No one even has a clue. Everyone is lost, and nobody can help you.
Stay away from this godforsaken place, unless you'd like to go mad like I have.
