INDIANAPOLIS — A regional department store chain is making a simple, but significant change to the way it displays its women’s clothing.

The Meijer chain, in the Upper Midwest, has taken into account how body image issues affect women and girls of all ages.

So, the stores are moving the plus-sized clothing on to the same racks as the rest of its women’s clothing.

“When you’re shopping with your friends you don’t want to say, ‘Ok, you guys can go put on these clothes, I gotta go over here,'” said Meijer spokesperson Jennifer Rook. “So,
we saw that, too. We said, ‘It’s time to make a change.”

That change came early last summer in a few Meijer stores.

They cut out the plus-size department and put that clothing on the same rack as the rest of the sizes.

It was a change Cheresha Taylor noticed right away while shopping with her friends.

Along with the size integration comes a price integration, plus sizes will no longer cost more. All sizes are the same price.

“Now a days it’s so hard,” Taylor said. “The young women trying to fit in, and feeling different about plus size and petite, pretty much putting a label on us.”

Rook said the feedback from Meijer’s test stores has been positive, empowering women to be proud of who they are, no matter the size.

“Why not keep everyone together, because everybody’s size should be celebrated,” Rook said.

“And we all come in here and we’re all shopping in the same area,” Taylor said. “We’re all women. We all want to look beautiful.”

By early next year, Meijer’s customers will find all women’s clothing, from size small to size 3X on the same rack.

Meijer is filling the extra space with more clothing.

Source: WTHR