Meijer set to hire 9,000 in 5 states

450 sought among 5 stores in Toledo area, B.G. location

Lee Greenwood of Southfield, Mich., loads his car after shopping at the Meijer that recently opened in Detroit. The chain is boosting its staff in response to growth and the looming holiday season.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Midwest retailer Meijer Inc., which operates five stores in the Toledo area and another in Bowling Green, plans to hire more than 9,000 employees in five states in the coming months.

About 1,600 of those hires will be at the retailer’s Ohio stores, and approximately 450 employees in total will be hired at the five Toledo-area stores plus the Bowling Green store, a company spokesman said Thursday.

Frank Guglielmi, a spokesman for Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijer, said the company estimates it will need about 40 added employees at each store. A typical Meijer store employs between 200 and 250 workers, he said.

In the Toledo area, Meijer operates stores in Toledo, Rossford, Northwood, Maumee, and Sylvania Township. Meijer also has a store in Monroe; that site also plans to add 42 employees, the firm said.

Meijer needs the new hires in response to company growth and to help the retailer prepare for its fall and holiday selling seasons, said Janet Emerson, Meijer executive vice president of operations.

“Meijer has already opened five of the six new stores planned for this year, with another nine opening next year,” Ms. Emerson said in a statement. “Our continued growth, along with the upcoming holiday selling season, make it imperative that we increase our staffing to properly operate our stores and deliver on the Meijer promise of providing exceptional customer service.”

Meijer says it plans to hire 4,400 workers in Michigan, 1,800 in Indiana, 1,600 in Ohio, 900 in Illinois, and 500 in Kentucky. One of those new stores recently opened by Meijer was a 190,000-square-foot supercenter in Detroit — the retailer’s first store to be inside the boundaries of the Motor City.

The retailer says most of the new positions will be part-time but added that many of those jobs likely will lead to full-time positions as the retailer grows and needs to fill full-time openings as they arise. The starting pay of the positions will vary because a variety of jobs will be available.

The company said all hiring of new workers will be done through online applications at jobs.meijer.com.

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.