became dominant. In 1985 Forbes magazine reported Walmart at the time had failed in what were then known as hypermarkets because Sam Walton and company did not understand the grocery business. Walton launched the first Hypermart USA store in 1987, opening only four stores, the last in 1990. An article in Forbes Magazine said Meijer understood the importance of the food business, and it was not something just tacked onto a discount store. The quality of the produce is very important; poor-quality produce sold by Walmart was the main reason for their lack of success. By contrast, surveys said then and now that Meijer ranks high on produce quality. During the mid-1990s, Meijer expanded to three additional states. The first location in Indiana opened on Grape Road in Mishawaka on April 19, 1994, followed by the first Illinois store in Champaign (Store #146) on April 4, 1995. In 1996, the first regular Kentucky Meijer location in opened Florence, along with four nearby locations in Ohio which were Fairfield, Loveland, West Chester and Eastgate North Drive in Cincinnati. This also marked the chain's reentry into that state. Two more Kentucky locations would open on Paul Jones Way in Lexington and Towne Center Drive in Louisville in 1997. In 1998 three new Meijer locations opened in the Louisville area on Dixie Highway, Preston Highway and South Hurstbourne Parkway. The first Meijer location in the Northwest Indiana region opened in August 1997 in Michigan City. Following this, the Merrillville location opened to the public on August 4, 1998, while the Highland location officially opened on April 20, 1999. The first Meijer location in the Chicago region opened on August 3, 1999 on Weber Road in Bolingbrook. A year later in 2000, three Illinois Meijer locations would open in Aurora, St. Charles and Springfield. Another Meijer store in Bolingbrook opened on Boughton Road by The Promenade in May 2002, three years after the Weber Road location. With the increasing dominance of Walmart throughout the country during the 1990s and up to the present, Meijer is facing the effects of an intensely competitive retail industry. In late 2003 the company laid off 350 people from the corporate offices, distribution centers and field offices; a few months later, in January 2004, Meijer laid off 1,896 employees and managerial staff, leading to speculation that the company was losing profitability and market share. A marketing professor, Dr. Ben