Meijer family wealth increases by $1.5 Billion, putting their combined wealth at $16.5 Billion

In January of 2023, GRIID made a post about how the Meijer brothers – Hank, Doug and Mark, had split their family wealth into 3 separate accounts.

I noted that previously, Hank and Doug Meijer were always listed as having their wealth combined, such as in 2020, where their combined wealth was $10.2 Billion at the beginning of the pandemic. Eighteen months later, the combined wealth of Mark and Doug DeVos was $16.9 Billion, which means that during the first 18 months of the pandemic, their wealth had increased by $6.7 Billion. This is an astounding increase, considering that so many people could not work, while others had contracted the COVID virus and many had died. 

In 2023, I also noted that the Meijer brothers had added another brother (Mike Meijer) and another account, where they each listed that they had $5 Billion, according to the Forbes Real Time Billionaires listing. 

A little over one year later, and each of the Meijer brothers are now worth $5.5 Billion, for a combined total of $16.5 Billion. However, at the same time, the Meijer brothers used to be in the top 250 billionaire list on Forbes, but this year they are listed at as 541, 542 and 543rd on the Forbes Real Time Billionaires site.

To put the Meijer family wealth into perspective, the Grand Rapids City Budget is $643 Million. The Meijer family wealth increased by $1.5 Billion over the past year, which is nearly equivalent to 3 years of the Grand Rapids City budget. 

Some other ways that the $1.5 Billion that the Meijer brother made over the past 12 months could be used to benefit the most vulnerable residents of Grand Rapids could be:

• For $1.5 Billion you could build 6000 homes that cost $250,000 each.
• For $1.5 Billion would provide 12 months of rent – at $1500 per month – for 83,333 people.
• For $1.5 Billion you could pay people at wage of $25 an hour for 40 hours a week, which would be $56,000 a year. The $1.5 Billion would cover the wages of 26,785 people for a year at $25 an hour. $25 an hour is what the Low Income Housing Coalition has stated that this is what people need to earn in order to afford the average rental costs for Grand Rapids.

These 3 points about what $1.5 Billion could do to transform people’s lives is astounding and it says something not only about the wealth gap that exists in the US and in Grand Rapids, but it also provides an opportunity for all of us to think deeper about the banality of wealth, especially when it benefits so few. Lastly, it is worth noting that if the $1.5 Billion of the Meijer family wealth were to be redistributed to the community, that would still leave them with $15 Billion. Somehow, I think they could manage.