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Meijer Eliminates Plus Size Department

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) To bolster an initiative called "style for everybody," mega-store Meijer has taken the stop of eliminating the plus size department.

Instead, all sizes will be integrated onto all the racks, from small to 3X.

It fits into a nationwide trend to stop fat shaming and push acceptance for women in all their shapes and sizes.

Meijer announced the integration of its plus department in all 230 stores would happen by early 2017.  By integrating the departments, shoppers will be able to shop the same trends, in the same place, at the same price—regardless of what size they wear. This integration will also open up 20 percent of the retail space, allowing the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer to add even more merchandise to its current selection, the company added in a release.

"I think it's so amazing, especially for our young girls, to help them with, you know, their self esteem. They can get exactly what the smaller girls have and they can shop together and not separated," the star of the Meijer promotional video says.

It dovetails with style arbiter Tim Gunn's recent open letter to the fashion industry in The Washington Post that explained his frustrations with size discrimination in the fashion industry.

"Based on my experience shopping with plus-size women, it's a horribly insulting and demoralizing experience. Half the items make the body look larger, with features like ruching, box pleats and shoulder pads. Pastels and large-scale prints and crazy pattern-mixing abound, all guaranteed to make you look infantile or like a float in a parade. Adding to this travesty is a major department-store chain that makes you walk under a marquee that reads 'WOMAN.' What does that even imply? That a 'woman' is anyone larger than a 12, and everyone else is a girl? It's mind-boggling," he wrote.

Studies show the majority of American women wear a size 16, up from size 14 10 years ago. That's a size not represented on runways where Amazonian models don tiny size 0 and 2.

 

 

 

 

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