This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Merriam Feed + Seed is a neighborhood feed and lawn-and-garden store that has traded on Johnson Drive in Merriam since 1952 — wild bird seed, chicken and farm feed, pet food, and grass seed, sold over a counter by people who will ask what you are actually trying to grow.

Description

Merriam Feed + Seed occupies a single storefront at 9309 Johnson Drive, a few blocks west of the I-35 interchange in Merriam, and has been a feed store at or beside that address since 1952.12 It sells wild bird seed by the bag and by the scoop, chicken and farm-animal feed, pet food, and lawn-and-garden goods including grass seed and fertiliser.3 The store keeps regular retail hours — Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Sunday — and also fulfils orders through an online storefront for counter pickup.43

The business describes its own trade as advice-led rather than assortment-led: it states that it stocks what customers ask for rather than what a distributor is promoting, and that staff will tell a customer when the product in their hand is the wrong one for their situation.1 Resident store cats are a documented fixture and predate the current ownership.15

Its longevity is unusual for the corridor. The Johnson Drive commercial strip in Merriam has turned over substantially since the 1950s, and downtown Merriam’s Merriam Drive blocks are currently the subject of a city acquisition-and-flood-mitigation programme that has already displaced or bought out several long-tenured neighbours.6 Merriam Feed sits on Johnson Drive rather than Merriam Drive and is not named in that programme’s reporting; no source consulted places it inside the acquisition footprint. “ — whether the Johnson Drive frontage falls within any phase of the Turkey Creek mitigation area has not been confirmed against a city map.

Ownership and history

The store was opened in 1952 by Maurice and Martha Pieters, who had come to the United States from Belgium.1 A 2015 Johnson County Post feature on the family adds the surrounding detail: the father had survived more than a year in a Nazi concentration camp as a member of the Belgian resistance, the family emigrated in 1948 after an attempt to start a sporting-goods store in post-war Belgium failed, and he worked at a Purina mill in Kansas City before buying a business across Johnson Drive from the store’s later location — the store subsequently moved across the street and stayed.21 The family’s son, Johnny Pieters, a Vietnam veteran, raised a United States flag over the store every morning for the length of the family’s ownership; in 2015 the Northeast Johnson County Chamber of Commerce presented him with a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol.2

Anna and Brad Perrin bought the business in 2022. The store’s own account is that they did so without a retail background, on the strength of the store’s seventy-year history and customer base, and that they refitted the interior — paint, fixtures, a front desk, custom displays, a bird-feeder wall — while deliberately leaving the counter culture alone.1 The Perrins also operate Planters Seed & Spice Co. in the Kansas City River Market, and refer to the two stores together in their public posts.5

“ — Ownership-date discrepancy. The store’s Our Story page states the Perrin purchase occurred in 2022; the same page’s search-engine meta description reads “New ownership in 2025.”1 Both are first-party. This page uses 2022, which is the year stated in the page body and corroborated by a third-party account describing the Perrins as the business’s third owners, purchasing in 2022.7 The 2025 figure is recorded here and not asserted. Resolve against Kansas business filings or a direct statement from the owners before publishing either date as settled.

“ — the ownership chain between the Pieters family and the Perrins is not established. One third-party account calls the Perrins the third owners, implying one intervening ownership, but names no one.7

Services

Confirmed from the store’s own product pages:3

  • Wild bird seed and bird feeders / bird houses
  • Chicken and poultry feed; seasonal chicks
  • Farm animal feed
  • Pet food, including Diamond dog and cat food
  • Lawn and garden: grass seed, lawn-care supplies
  • Online ordering with in-store pickup
  • Carry-out assistance for 50 lb bags1

Sources

Footnotes

  1. “Our Story,” Merriam Feed + Seed (business’s own website). URL — asserts: founding in 1952 by Maurice and Martha Pieters, Belgian immigrants; original location across the street from the present one; purchase by Anna and Brad Perrin in 2022; interior refit; store cats predating current ownership; address 9309 Johnson Drive; hours; stated merchandising and advice policy. Page footer carries ”© 2025 | Merriam Feed + Seed.” (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. “At Merriam Feed the flag goes up every morning, rooted in a family’s love of their new country; now a gift of a special flag,” Johnson County Post, 2015-07-16. URL — asserts: Pieters family history; Belgian resistance and concentration-camp survival; 1948 emigration; Purina mill employment; purchase of a business across Johnson Drive; 1952 as the year the business served a farm community; 63 years of family ownership as of 2015; Johnny Pieters’ Vietnam service; flag presentation by Stoney Bogan of the Northeast Johnson County Chamber of Commerce. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Merriam Feed + Seed homepage and product pages, merriamfeed.com, merriamfeed.com, merriamfeed.com, merriamfeed.com — asserts: product categories; “Locally owned since 1952”; Diamond pet food line. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. “Merriam Feed Store Location & Hours,” Merriam Feed + Seed. URL — asserts: 9309 Johnson Drive, Merriam, KS 66203; phone 913-722-1033; Monday–Friday 9–6, Saturday 9–3, Sunday closed. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩

  5. Merriam Feed + Seed, Facebook — asserts: “Since 1952, one-stop-shop for wild bird seed, animal feed, pet feed, lawn and garden supplies”; Merriam location; active posting. Related first-party post from the owners’ other business states “We also own Merriam Feed + Seed, off I-35 and Johnson Drive” — instagram.com (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2

  6. “KC Strings selling iconic downtown properties to Merriam in up to $3M deal,” Johnson County Post, 2026-03-04. URL — asserts: City of Merriam acquisition programme in historic downtown along Merriam Drive; Upper Turkey Creek flood-mitigation context; HNTB proposals to raze historic downtown between Johnson Drive and the Merriam Drive bridge. Cited here for corridor context only; does not name Merriam Feed + Seed. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩

  7. Kansas City history discussion post, Facebook — asserts: the Perrins purchased Merriam Feed + Seed at 9309 Johnson Drive in 2022 and are the third owners of the business. Third-party, unverified; used only to record the corroboration of the 2022 date and the “third owners” claim. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/merriam-feed-and-seed · record updated 2026-08-26