Meijer cuts prices on 100 items, raising the bar for value retailers

Meijer cut prices on more than 100 Meijer brand items by as much as 50% through July 7, putting summer staples like buns, chips, lemonade, freezer pops, s’mores supplies, paper plates, napkins and charcoal on the deal table. For Big Lots workers, that kind of promotion is not just a pricing story. It is a reminder that shoppers at value chains compare every basket, and they bring those expectations to the register, the endcap and the associate who has to explain why one store looks cheaper than another.

The Grand Rapids, Michigan, chain framed the markdowns as a way to help customers celebrate America’s 250th birthday for less. It also tied the promotion to mPerks, its loyalty program, which offers exclusive offers, bonus points, digital coupons and rewards. On select weekends, including a quadruple-points event that began June 26-28, customers could earn extra points and later redeem them for fuel discounts at Meijer Express stations or in-store savings.

That mix of price cuts, digital rewards and fuel perks shows how value retail now competes on more than shelf tags. Store teams have to know which items are on sale, which rewards apply and how to steer shoppers toward the lowest-cost basket without slowing the line. In a store built around volume and quick decisions, promotions like this can mean more questions about private-label quality, more requests for cheaper substitutes and more pressure on associates to make the savings easy to see.

The broader market is still moving in that direction. A 2025 NielsenIQ report said private label continues to gain value-seeking shoppers, and Mintel said nearly seven in ten U.S. adults are more open to shopping private label brands this year. That leaves stores like Big Lots in a familiar fight: proving that closeouts and store brands can still beat the competition on value, not just on price.

Big Lots filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 9, 2024, and Variety Wholesalers later acquired 219 Big Lots stores out of bankruptcy. The chain has long relied on closeouts, private-label brands and bargain pricing, with Broyhill topping more than $700 million in sales last year and Real Living generating more than $600 million. As rival chains sharpen their value message, the daily job at Big Lots gets harder: every promotion outside the company resets the standard inside its stores.