Hendrick Meijer was born 28 December 1883 in Hengelo, Netherlands, the third of seven children. In his early years, he worked in cotton mills and served a short time in the Dutch army.

In 1907, more than 7,000 natives from the Netherlands were permitted to immigrate to the U.S. Over half of them headed for the City of Holland, MI. Hendrick was one of these people along with his father and one sister, they came to the USA in the summer of 1907 when he was 23 years old.

There was considerable unrest among the labor in Michigan at that time and he found himself going from job to job. This young man had definite goal which others did not. He wanted to start his own business. Meijer did do farming and ran a barbershop, he made a trip to Washington state and considered moving west but decided to stay in Michigan. In 1912, his fiancé, Zien, immigrated to the U. S. to join him. At one point, they had considered breaking the engagement, but their mutual feelings continued to keep them together.

In 1928, after running the barbershop, he decided to start something different. He was interested in agriculture and already had a milk delivery service so he opened a small grocery store to sell his milk and other foods. In 1934, he opened his first store and within a few years opened other ones.

In 1962, he made history by opening the first hybrid superstore in Grand Rapids, MI. It was originally called, "Thrifty Acres" and was the first store to combine groceries and general merchandise. Critics said it would never work but he gave it time and, the stores continued to expand at a slow rate. He was personally attacked for lowering prices by competitors.

Fred Meijer, Hendrick’s son, was slowly taking over the running of the store chain as Hendrick grew older. On 31 May 1964, Hendrick died in Grand Rapids at the age of 80. His wife, Zien, lived another 14 years and died 28 February 1978 at the age of 91.

He was a person who believed in hard work and competition; was politically active and a firm believer in service to his fellow man.