Biden sparks furious debate among Michiganders over pronunciation of supermarket name

‘That’s how you say it in Michigan,’ one person defended the president

A supermarket chain has poked fun at the difficulty some people seem to have with the pronunciation of its name after President Biden appeared to make a mistake made by many others.

On Friday, the president was discussing vaccine distribution at a Pfizer manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, when he said that his administration’s plan of sending vaccines directly to pharmacies means that “in Michigan, that’s already more than 220 pharmacies like Rite Aid and Meijers”.

But, as some pointed out on Twitter following the president’s remarks, the Michigan-based supermarket chain is actually called Meijer - and is not meant to be plural like Mr Biden pronounced it.

However, a lot of the debate sided with the president, with many revealing that they too refer to the supermarket as Meijers.

“I’d like to see some flash polling on this. Technically, the president mispronounced Meijer by pluralising it. But it’s common usage for a lot of Michigan folks who might hear it as a statement of solidarity. Ope!” Bridge Michigan reporter Johnathan Oosting tweeted.

Another person said: “Listen, I know I will disagree with President Biden on many topics but he is absolutely right that it is #Meijers NOT #meijer.”

“Although technically it’s ‘Meijer‘, a lot of people incorrectly say ‘Meijers’ anyway, so Biden is just trying to be a true Midwesterner,” someone else wrote.

The conversation around the proper pronunciation also prompted a response from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who tweeted: “If there were only vaccines at one Meijer, he would have been incorrect. However, many Meijer stores have vaccines - many MEIJERS.”

Amid the debate, the supermarket decided to jump in from its official Twitter account, where the company joked: “Foijr soijme reaijson, peoijple haijve alwaijys haijd trouijble wiijth ouijr naijme.”

The tweet, which has since been liked more than 700 times, was met with amusement, with many praising the company for the entertaining response.

“This is a good tweet,” one person summarised, while another said: “Ok, that’s funny.”