The Associated Press
and The Cincinnati Enquirer

Meijer will open two new stores in Greater Cincinnati by the end of the summer, bringing a Starbuck's coffee shop and drive-through pharmacy to each location, company officials said Tuesday.

The Michigan-based retailer said the two new stores - to be built at 6550 Harrison Road in Green Township and at 4825-B Marburg Ave. in Norwood - will also have a different layout than other stores in the area, although the basic big-box format will remain.

"We're going to move a few things around to make it easier for the shopper to navigate the store,'' said John Zimmerman, a spokesman for Meijer. "For example, where moving the pharmacy to the front at the new stores to make them more convenient.''

The two new stores will bring the number of Meijer locations in Greater Cincinnati to 10, Zimmerman said.

Although the two stores will be built in the traditional format of the Meijer stores already in the area, the retailer is preparing to make some major changes.

"We have to transform ourselves, as we've done since the beginning of our company," said Hank Meijer, chief executive officer of his family-owned business, Meijer Inc.

With the superstore format that Meijer Inc. created 41 years ago now an industry mainstay, the company is facing increased competition in its back yard from giant retailers Wal-Mart and Target.

The Meijer transformation includes a new look, logo and product lines - featuring such brands as Levi's. There will also be more of an emphasis on electronics.

Some changes will be more immediate than others. Beginning this week, Meijer stores are introducing a new slogan for the back-to-school shopping season: "We get high marks for low prices."

The catch phrase comes from a New York advertising agency that has entered into a long-term, $40 million contract with the company.

The retailer also hired New York architect and designer David Rockwell, the man responsible for the look of Planet Hollywood restaurants, to enliven the appearance of future Meijer stores.

There are no plans to revamp the exteriors of existing stores, but future projects will get the still-evolving new look.

"As of 2005, we're going to build simpler stores with clean lines and less (fixtures) to display our products," Meijer said. "We want to reduce by 25 percent the cost of building a store."

Meijer was light years ahead of the competition in 1962 when it opened its first combination grocery and general merchandise store, called Meijer Thrifty Acres, in Grand Rapids, Mich. The company is based in the Grand Rapids suburb of Walker.

"The good news is, people really like our format. The bad news is, among the group who like our format are our major competitors," Meijer said.

Part of the challenge is a matter of economics. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, with 2,800 stores worldwide, "has economies of scale that no one else can begin to approximate," Meijer said.

Meijer has 156 stores in five states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio.

Though less of a threat, Target stores, too, have taken away business from Meijer. The Minneapolis-based retailer has 1,176 stores in the United States, including seven in Greater Cincinnati.