We are missing the point of the Meijer controversy: Profits over people

Last week, the Meijer Corporation had an employee arrested at one of their stores in Ohio for eating food that was going to be tossed anyway.

The arrest, along with bodycam footage made it’s way to social media, where people were outraged by what happened and some are calling for a boycott of the Grand Rapids-based hyper-market retailer.

I completely get why people are outraged over the treatment of a 19 year old employee. The Meijer Corporation humiliated the 19 year old and subjected him to arrest. Such treatment should piss us off. Yet, this is merely an isolated incident and what we need to be doing about corporations, indeed, about the economic system of Capitalism, is interrogate it on a systemic level. 

While the treatment of the 19 year Meijer employee was abhorrent, we need to ask larger questions and have an analysis of why these kinds of incidents generate so much attention, but they daily exploitation of workers does not.

According to GlassDoor, which is an online job search platform, Meijer cashiers can make between $13 – $16/hr, Pharmacy Technicians $17 – $21/hr, Overnight Stocker $14 – $18/hr, Grocery Clerk $14 – $17/hr, and Produce Clerk $14 – $17/hr.

The wages for these jobs are not a livable wage, no in Michigan or anywhere else that Meijer stores are located. Right now in Michigan, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, you need to make more than $25 an hour just to afford the average cost of rent in this state. And that is just rent, so add on to that the cost of utilities, car payments, groceries, gas, and other basic necessities, and people out to be making at least $40 an hour to meet those needs. 

Now, lets compared what Meijer store employees are making and what the Meijer brothers are worth. According to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires ranking, as of August 26th, Mark Meijer, Doug Meijer and Hank Meijer are each worth $6.8 billion, making their collective wealth a total of $20.4 billion.

A fundamental principle about Capitalism is that the ownership class makes most of the money, while the working class barely survives. In March of 2024, I wrote a post entitled, Meijer family wealth increases by $1.5 Billion, putting their combined wealth at $16.5 Billion.  This means that over the past 17 months the three Meijer brothers increased their collective wealth by $3.9 billion. 

If we take that $3.9 billion that the Meijer brother made in 17 months and used it to pay their stores workers $40/hr, that would be a $90,000 annual salary, which is more than double what most of their store employees make. With the $3.9 billion that the Meijer brothers made in 17 months, they could hire 43,333 employees at $40/hr. This would leave the Meijer bothers with a mere $16.5 billion. I think it is safe to say that they would be fine.

Of course, Meijer won’t do this, because this would send a really bad message to Capitalists, since workers everywhere would be demanding a livable wage. Since many people will be celebrating Labor Day this coming Monday, why don’t we talk with Meijer workers about this wealth gap, support them in organizing a labor union, with increased wages and whatever other demands they might want to fight for. This is how you fight against Oligarchy, and this is how you fight against Capitalism. Calling for a boycott in this instance is reactionary, not strategic.