Meijer Prioritizes Inclusivity on Store Shelves

9/29/2020

Meijer Launches First Supplier Diversity Summit

Meijer is looking for diverse suppliers in the following categories: beauty and personal care; over-the-counter and wellness; general merchandise; and grocery.

Meijer will host its first virtual Supplier Diversity Summit on Nov. 12, giving diverse-owned businesses an opportunity to showcase their offerings for Meijer merchants. Certified minority-, LGBTQ-, woman-, veteran- and disability-owned businesses in the beauty and personal care; over-the-counter and wellness; general merchandise; and grocery categories can apply by Friday, Oct. 9.

"At Meijer, we believe our partners should reflect the communities we serve," said Jamie Akemann, group vice president of indirect procurement and supplier diversity. "This event gives us the opportunity to partner with diverse suppliers to empower them and provide economic support that will be felt throughout our communities, allowing us to better embody our mission of enriching lives in the communities we serve."

Meijer is partnering with Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing (ECRM) and its subsidiary product discovery tool, RangeMe, to host this event through the company's ECRM Connect virtual platform. ECRM has powered similar events for other retailers such as Dollar General, which held its virtual 2020 Supplier and Diversity Innovation Summit on Sept. 16

Once applications for the event are submitted, Meijer teams will review and select the vendors they would like to meet at the virtual summit. Suppliers not chosen for the summit will still be accessible through the RangeMe product discovery platform and may be reviewed by Meijer merchants again in the future as business needs change.

"ECRM is excited to be working with the Meijer merchant and leadership team," said Wayne Bennett, SVP of retail at ECRM. "We are honored that they will be leveraging RangeMe's online discovery capabilities and the ECRM Connect virtual meeting platform to help quickly and efficiently support their supplier diversity and inclusion efforts."

Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Meijer operates more than 245 supercenters and grocery stores throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. The company is No.19 on PG's 2020 PG 100 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.