Fred Meyer gas stations signage

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Super S
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Fred Meyer gas stations signage

Post by Super S »

I just completed a road trip to Colorado. Along the way, I noted the logo of several Loaf 'N jug locations. This logo has appeared on several Fred Meyer gas stations in the northwest, along with a slightly different Fred Meyer logo. I have also seen them use "FM Fuel Stop" as well as the normal Fred Meyer logo. Did Kroger at one time have plans to bring the Loaf & Jug brand to the Northwest? Perhaps to use as a conveinence store with the gas stations? That seems like the only reason this logo exists, as Fred Meyer has never used this one on their main stores.
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Brian Lutz
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

Post by Brian Lutz »

If you look at the Kroger corporate website, you'll see that particular logo is used fairly consistently across the various convenience store formats they own. Although Fred Meyers with gas stations are rare around here in the Seattle metro area (I only know of one,) I suspect the different signage is a matter primarily of just not bothering to update signs.
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dooneyt63
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

Post by dooneyt63 »

The logo was designed to unify Kroger's various convenience store operations. I live in Northwest Florida, home of their Tom Thumb stores. The logo appears on Coffee Central and Soda Central cups without the individual chain name so that the items can be used in all. From a history perspective, this was an unfortunate decision...each chain had distinctive colors, graphics, and building elements. Our Tom Thumb character is gone, only the words remain. At least the local names were kept, but they don't seem the same.
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

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Most of the Quik Stops (in CA) were pretty rough operations. I've noticed some got this new logo and signage and they still look pretty rough even with this change, just different.

The NV Quik Stops are all new and less than 8 years old, and aside from one in Sparks, they too all got the new logo and signage. The Sparks one got the new signage but still has the old logo on the gas pumps and gas canopy.

It appears they are trying to use this logo on the supermarket fuel stations as well now. It looks like they want the customer to connect their convenience store operations and supermarket operations. From what I've observed of Kroger's convenience store operations, I am not entirely sure this is all that great of an idea.

Another big issue, and I do have the number somewhere, is that some number (quite high, at Quik Stop) of these Kroger convenience stores are actually franchised or licensed out. Similar to other franchise convenience store operations, the quality of the operation varies big time.

With all this said, I hope they don't get the same idea to "unify" all of the grocery banners under some odd looking unified logo.
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Super S
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

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Fred Meyer hasn't really used conveience stores with their gas stations though. They mostly just use cashier booths you can't go into.
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

Post by jamcool »

The diamond logo and plain-font lettering are being used by all of the gas stations operated by the various Kroger-owned chains (eg Fry's, King Soopers, City Market,etc) In Colorado, King Soopers fuel centers and Loaf N Jug use the same logo.
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

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Just out of curiosity, do you have a picture somewhere of the "old" Quik Stop logo? I recall that there were a couple of places known as Quik Stop when I lived in New Mexico (Los Alamos and White Rock) sbout 15 years ago, but they seemed to be independent local places rather than part of a chain.
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

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Not as many as I wish I had.

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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

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OK, so the ones in New Mexico (it looks like there are about 10 or so around the Santa Fe/Espanola area) are unrelated. here is the logo for that particular Quik Stop chain, which is affiliated with a Conoco distributor in the area.
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

Post by tkaye »

Along I-5 southbound between Seattle and Tacoma, roughly around the Kent-Midway area if memory serves me right, there is a "FUEL NEXT EXIT" road sign that has a black box with that abstract logo and Fred Meyer written in white lettering beneath it. It's been there about a year or so... it really caught my attention the first time I went past it, since it looks so different than the plain red-lettered Fred Meyer logo. Along Highway 16 in Port Orchard, there is a highway sign with the "FM Fuel Stop" logo just before the Sedgwick Road exit.

Looking at their Web site, there is only one gas station in the area immediately around Seattle (the Burien store), but there are a number of them farther south, including both full-line stores in Tacoma. Up north, there are gas stations at the Everett and Snohomish stores.

The Tacoma stores were both built with tires-batteries-accessories (TBA) outlots that Fred Meyer operated through the '70s. The one at 72nd & Pacific is still standing as a Les Schwab Tires, while the new Fred Meyer gas station sits right next to it. At 19th & Stevens, the new FM fuel pumps are roughly in the same location as the original TBA store which was demolished in the mid-'90s. I recall an earlier thread mentioning an original Fred Meyer TBA at the Longview store... is anyone aware of others?
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

Post by Brian Lutz »

The Bellevue/Overlake Fred Meyer also has a Les Schwab in the front parking lot. Given the fact that this particular store is one of the former White Front/ValuMart locations, it is possible that the TBA store could have even been there before Fred Meyer got there (the former White Front "key-osk" in the parking lot of the store is still around as well and occupied by a locksmith.) I have found it somewhat difficult to find much info (aside from a few scattered ads) from the White Front store though, so I can't verify this for sure.
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

Post by tkaye »

Brian Lutz wrote:The Bellevue/Overlake Fred Meyer also has a Les Schwab in the front parking lot. Given the fact that this particular store is one of the former White Front/ValuMart locations, it is possible that the TBA store could have even been there before Fred Meyer got there.
Looking at the building from Google Street View, I'd guess it was built by White Front, since it's taller than the Fred Meyer-built TBAs. The Tacoma White Front also had a TBA store, but it was demolished in the late '70s.

In Lakewood, there is a TBA building still standing in front of the site of the former Fred Meyer on Pacific Highway S.W. It dates back to Fred Meyer's predecessor on the site from 1959 to about 1974, Gov-Mart Baza'r. Another angle from the Gov-Mart years is here. Fred Meyer was a short-lived tenant, however, as a fire in 1981 gutted most of the inside of the store and they opted to relocate to a new location on 100th Street S.W., where Lowe's is located today. (Several years ago, FM left Lakewood altogether for another site in nearby University Place.) As for the Pacific Highway site, the site was split between a Canned Foods Grocery Outlet (taking the original Gov-Mart grocery department) and Costco (which built on the portion that burned) in 1984. Costco is long gone, but the Grocery Outlet is still there today.
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

Post by bm10k »

There's A Fred Meyer In Snohomish (open 2 years ago) on bickford rd
with a gas station with that same sign
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

Post by Super S »

It appears that the Longview Fred Meyer is updating their gas station to the Loaf 'N Jug style logo, as well as the slightly different Fred Meyer logo on the pumps. I have to wonder though why they do not use the regular Fred Meyer logo, unless a change is in the works. Fred Meyer has a basic cashier booth at their stations instead of a full conveience store.

Out of curiosity, have any QFC stores added gas stations?
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Re: Fred Meyer gas stations signage

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I am not aware of any QFCs selling gas around here, and I suspect that most of the locations I know of wouldn't have the parking lot space for a gas station anyway. There's also the fact that such things tend to run into legal hurdles around here (Costco got approval from the City of Kirkland about a year ago to add a gas station to their Kirkland warehouse, but before the ink dried there were already multiple NIMBY lawsuits filed by various residents to block it.)
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