Sandy the Meijer Pony Didn’t Always Cost a Penny

The greatest marketing gimmick in Michigan history isn’t a slogan, logo, or ad campaign. It’s a little mechanical horse.

Her name, of course, is Sandy the Pony, and she’s been a fixture at every Meijer Supercenter in the state for the past 64 years. It only costs a penny to ride her, and she’s brought smiles and memories to countless kids and families through the years.

As a marketing gimmick, Sandy has proven to be absolute genius. In addition to giving rides, she’s also been the No. 1 attraction for families looking to get their weekly grocery shopping done.

What Michigan kid hasn’t begged to go shopping at Meijer with mom or dad, just for the chance to ride Sandy? What Michigan kid hasn’t been photographed on her? Every parent and grandparent in the state has snapped a picture of their kids taking a ride on Sandy.

Ask yourself this: How many times have you taken a picture of your kids at Walmart? How many times have your kids begged to come with you to Kroger? It only happens at Meijer, and it’s all because of Sandy the Pony. She’s proven to be a better marketing whiz than all the guys on “Mad Men” put together.

So, as the galloping gal celebrates her 64th birthday, let’s pay homage to Sandy by looking at where she came from and how she got here.

Meijer grocery stores have been around in Michigan since 1934, when a Dutch barber named Hendrik Meijer opened his first store in Greenville. That first grocery store was a huge success, so Meijer started opening others in West Michigan. In 1938, it became the first store in Michigan to offer shopping carts for customers.

As the Meijer empire grew, Hendrik and his son Fred decided to up their game by opening their first supercenter—a store that would have not only groceries, but clothing items, appliances, hardware, sporting goods and more. They called their new store “Thrifty Acres,” and it opened on June 5, 1962, in Grand Rapids.

It was nothing like Michigan had ever seen before. “Utilizing two and a half acres of space, Thrifty Acres features 25 major departments and will be one of the first discount department stores in West Michigan to handle national major brand appliances as well as furniture,” the Grand Rapids Press reported.

In addition to all that merchandise, the first Thrifty Acres also featured nine white mechanical horses. Somebody came up with the idea of putting the ponies inside the huge new store to give family shoppers something else fun to do.

They weren’t called “Sandy” right away. The sign on the side of each one just said, “Ride the Champion.”

And here’s another main difference between then and now: When the mechanical horses first showed up, they cost a whopping 10 cents to ride. TEN CENTS! That’s about $1.08 in today’s dollars, and, thankfully for all of us, that didn’t last long.

According to the Meijer Corporation, it was Fred Meijer himself, the co-founder of the store, who just about blew a gasket when he saw that they were charging a dime. “Fred Meijer immediately cut the cost of the pony ride from 10 cents to a penny, making it affordable fun,” the Meijer folks said.

And it’s been a penny ever since. There are now 259 Meijer Supercenters across the Midwest, as the chain has expanded to Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Ohio. Roughly half of their superstores are in Michigan, and every one of them has a Sandy the Pony inside.

Like most Michigan families, mine has a personal history with Sandy. I have a photo of my toddler daughter Amelia riding on the Sandy at the Howell Meijer store soon after it opened in 1999. She’s wearing a Teletubbies outfit and looking adorable.

Amelia eventually got a real horse a few years later, and, let me tell you, Sandy was a whole lot cheaper. I blame Sandy for getting her hooked and feeding her addiction, so I suppose the penny pony has a dark side as well.

My own childhood memories at Meijer didn’t start until the 1970s, when I was 12 and the first Meijer store opened on Carpenter Road in Ypsilanti. I wasn’t much interested in Sandy at that age (my little brother was), but I did love an area inside the store called “The Oasis.” It was a play area in the middle of the store that had a bunch of animals that you could climb on and jump off and raise all sorts of hell.

The Oasis was the greatest thing ever, and parents would just drop their kids off and leave them there while they did their shopping. It didn’t matter what age you were—your mom and dad would just leave you there and expect you’d still be there when they came back in an hour. There were no adults anywhere in sight.

There’s even a Facebook group that’s dedicated to this experience, called “I played at the Meijer Oasis totally unsupervised in the 1970s.” There are hundreds of people from Michigan sharing their Oasis stories. It’s awesome.

Perhaps wisely, the Meijer folks eventually got rid of the Oasis, but they kept Sandy the Pony around. And even though they don’t make pennies anymore, they’re still making memories at Meijer.