Chesterfield Township shoppers should be seeing some more locally made products on store shelves at Meijer, thanks to a new Michigan-made initiative.
Meijer has expanded its program that supports Michigan small businesses to feature 55 new Michigan-made grocery products in all its stores statewide, Meijer co-Chairman Doug Meijer announced this week.
“Meijer is committed to supporting Michigan businesses, and the Made in Michigan initiative is a great opportunity to highlight some fantastic small businesses throughout the state,” Meijer said in a news release. “The response we received from our customers last year about this initiative was overwhelming, which is why we decided to further invest and expand this selection into all our Michigan stores.”
Meijer launched the Made in Michigan initiative in January 2012 with the Michigan State University Product Center for Food-Ag-Bio. Its goal is to help strengthen the state’s economy by supporting Michigan small businesses.
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The initial offering of 49 grocery items – including marinara sauce, blueberry butter and gluten-free baking mixes – resulted in an estimated economic impact of $400,000 statewide.
This year’s lineup of 55 Michigan-made grocery products will be more visible in all of the 102 Meijer stores in Michigan, including stores in Chesterfield Township at 23 Mile and Gratiot.
Items including barbeque sauces, cherry butter, salsas, guacamole and kettle chips are expected to have an estimated economic impact of $900,000 statewide, Matt Birbeck, High Impact Venture Action Team project manager for the MSU Product Center, said in the news release.
“It’s been a fantastic opportunity for all Michigan businesses to have this local section at Meijer; many of them see amazing results,” Birbeck said in the news release. “Now that it’s in every Michigan Meijer store, everybody gets to see and taste the diversity of this great state.”
The new brands include products by Bon-A-Rose in New Hudson, Brownwood Farms in Traverse City, Fesslers in Brighton, Food for Thought in Honor, Great Lakes Potato Chips in Traverse City, Herkner Foods in Traverse City, Johnny Secreto in Rockford, La Cantina in Paw Paw, Let'zEet Food in Waterford, Morano Foods in Norton Shores, Mrs. DeVaney's in Jackson, Safie's Pickles in Chesterfield, Sansonetti Foods in Holly, Sauce Gone Wild in Portland, Schaws Sauce in Iron Mountain, Scoville Farms in Grand Rapids, Slabtown Corn in Traverse City, Sleeping Bear Farms in Beulah, TCB Processing in Bangor, Teta Foods in Clinton, Uncle Gene's Backwoods Products in Traverse City, Wee Bee Jammin in Manistee, Wild Bills Root Beer in Williamsburg and Zalza Foods in Eastpointe.
What is your favorite Michigan-made product? Tell us in the comments.
