Mid-Michigan Dining

• 6200 S. Pennsylvania Ave.
• Lansing, MI 48911
• (517) 393-5100
• Website

This is the Meijer I usually shop at.  I don’t go here often, but when I need something besides grocery, this is usually it.  I don’t like going to this store because it’s really hard to get in and out of.  It’s situated between Pennsylvania and Cedar which is a wierd enough tract of land as it is, but add in a mega-mart and the roads just get goofy.  I’ve found it’s almost impossible to enter off Cedar Street because the ramps from the Interstate merge right in front of the entrance.  Your only choice really is to cross traffic on Pennsylvania.  Like most other Meijer stores, this place is HUGE and very hard to navigate.

We went to Meijer on this day for two reasons.  We had a hundred and five cans to return and we needed charcoal.  While I appreciate Michigan’s bottle bill for what it does for the environment, I loathe actually taking the bottles an cans back.  I always feel dirty brining garbage bags into a store, but I do like turning them back in at the store because it makes my shopping bill a little lower.  It sounds like I’m flip-flopping and I guess I sort of am.  There are things I like and things I don’t like, but I am glad Michigan does it.  Anyway, the bottle return is visible from the main entrance just past produce.  So we wheeled our way around the fruits to get back to the machines. 

After getting our ten bucks back, we grabbed a few grocery items for our impromptu cook-out.  Like I mentioned earlier, we made an unplanned trip to Merindorf Meats in Williamston to get some meats.  We didn’t have any buns for my girlfriends brats and I needed a few pantry items.  The aisles at Meijer are so wide and so long, it takes a while to get through the grocery section even when you just want a couple things.

Next, we needed to get back to lawn and garden to get charcoal.  I’m really picky when it comes to charcoal.  I never use briquettes.  It defeats the purpose.  Briquettes are packed with chemicals which leave the flavor on the food.  I only buy hardwood lump charcoal which is a little harder to find, but most stores have at least one brand. 

Now that we were in the back corner of the store, we had to walk a half mile or so to the front to check out.  I was having a Pepsi craving and just wanted a bottle before we hit the check out line and even that was hard.  My girlfriend finally noticed a cooler that was hidden in the chekc-out aisle. 

It may sound like I’m complaining about Meijer, but in reality, the store is a necessary evil.  The one-stop shopping is nice and since there aren’t a whole lot of retail stores on the south side of Lansing, it prevents us from having to make trips out to Delta Township.  I wish the store was about half the size, but other than that, I don’t have a whole lot of complaints.