Meijer Extends Teacher Discount Program
Teaching is a stressful and expensive job in the best of times — and the ongoing pandemic is hardly the best of times. To help ease some of the burden, Meijer will extend its 15% discount on classroom essentials for the entire school year.
As well, the retailer will offer that discount on purchases of face masks and hand sanitizers — not only a reflection of current supply crunches in many recently opened classrooms, but another signal of how much the world has changed in 2020.
"There are so many uncertainties as teachers head back to classes and we've heard the plans may change throughout the year, so our goal is to help them shop with confidence whenever they need to refill supplies," said Brandon Pasch, director of back-to-school merchandising for Meijer. "We hope that extending the 15% discount for the entire school year helps reduce the stress to their pocketbooks as they continue gathering supplies for their classrooms and home offices.”
A recent Meijer survey found that that teachers expect to repeatedly adjust, refill and update their supplies multiple times in the coming months, as more than 80% expect the new normal for their students to be a back and forth mixture of virtual and in-person learning.
And as a recent Center of Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing survey found, 94% of public school teachers say they spend their own money on notebooks, pens and other supplies without reimbursement.
Other experts have estimated the average teacher spent more than $745 out of their own pockets during the last school year.
Additional items available for the discount range from spiral notebooks and schoolroom essentials like Crayola, Elmer's Glue, Sharpies and Post-It Notes to planners and journals, and memo boards. Teachers can also stack their mPerks Rewards with the 15% discount and take advantage of additional price drops on more than 400 items as part of the retailer's everyday back-to-school savings through Sept. 26.
Teachers can get the discount, in the form of a paper coupon, by presenting a current school ID at their local Meijer Customer Service desk. The coupon can only be used for purchases made in-store and some restrictions apply. Teachers can take advantage of the coupon repeatedly by obtaining a new one any time they return to Meijer throughout the back-to-school shopping season.
Normally, the retailer expects more than 80,000 teachers across the Midwest will take advantage of the teacher discount.
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.
