The Different Formats of Fred Meyer

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marshd1000
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The Different Formats of Fred Meyer

Post by marshd1000 »

As most of you know, Fred Meyer is a supercenter with grocery store roots. Most of Freddy's stores contain at least a food and pharmacy section. Most are complete supercenters that include apparel.

In the past, Freddy's experimented with other formats for it's stores. For example, when Freddy's expanded into Seattle, it did so by buying the Marketime Drug chain. Marketime in the 60's and 70's was basically a small Fred Meyer without food. Later they bought out Leslie's Department Stores (formerly known as Valu Mart). So for a few years, most, but not all, Freddy's in the Seattle area had no groceries.

In the 1980's Freddy's bought out Grand Central stores in Utah, Idaho and New Mexico. The New Mexico stores were sold or closed but Grand Central was the basis for Freddy's expansion in Utah and Idaho, where they eventually added food. Utah stores are now Smith's Marketplaces.

Besides stores with no food, Freddy's also operated Fred Meyer My-Mart in The Dalles, OR. I believe that it was a membership store kind of like Bi-Mart in the NW but not quite like Costco. That store I believe is now a regular Freddy's.

In the late 80's or early 90's, Fred Meyer also operated some apparel only stores with the Fred Meyer banner. I could be wrong, but there were outlets in Couer 'D Alene, ID at Silver Lake Mall; Walla Walla, WA; and Kenai, AK. The Couer 'D Alene store later bacame a Lamonts, then a Gottschalks, Bon Marche and now Macy's. Freddy's later got rid of all these outlets. Also I believe that the Kenai store originally was a Nordstorm and before that it was Alaska Commercial Company (a department store chain Nordstrom bought to get into Alaska).

Around the same time, Freddy's also started opening Jewelry stores in malls. That is something that Kroger continues to do today. Freddy's also opened some Fred Meyer Nutrition Center locations in some malls. Two locations that I am familiar with are Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham, WA and Lakewood Mall in Lakewood, WA. They have since gotten rid of those outlets.

Another format for Freddy's was operating a seperate Eve's Buffet. Eve's was the coffee shop that Freddy's operated in a lot of its' stores. But I believe that there was a outlet in the Bank of California building in downtown Seattle.

Music Market was another format that Freddy's started. It was a seperate record and music store located across the street from a full-line Fred Meyer. Eventually these expanded music stores were opened inside Fred Meyer stores. Now they have quit labeling their music sections as Music Markets.

In Fact, the first Music Market was opened in what was a Fred Meyer-Marketime Catalogue Showroom (in Portland it was just Fred Meyer Catalogue Showroom). This operation I believe was like the old Best stores. It didn't last long. In fact, the Seattle operation was originally a Fred Meyer-Marketime Drug befor Freddy's bought out Leslie's (Valu Mart).

In the 60's or 70's Fred Meyer also opened a grocery section and drug section in a homegrown supercenter in Chealis, WA called, Yard Birds. Yard Birds operated most departments in this supercenter but leased out the food and drug to Freddy's. The partnership disolved when Yard Birds was sold to Seattle based Pay 'n Save.

In the 1970's and 1980's, Fred Meyer was also in the banking industry. In Oregon it operated Fred Meyer Savings and Loan. I believe that many of these branches are now Washington Mutual.

Last but not least was Consumer Warehouse Foods in Soap Lake, WA. This was a store that Fred Meyer acquired when they bought out the Roundup Company (a grocery distributor). Consumer Warehouse was a no-frills store. Eventually some grocery sections at some full line stores were converted to this format. When Roundup was acquired, B&B stores in NW Montana were included. This was a store similar to Freddy's.

So as you can see, Freddy's had a experimental side.
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Post by jamcool »

Fred Meyer had a brief stay in Arizona...more below

Smitty's was a Phoenix based chain....the first superstores in the area, selling not only groceries, but electronics,hardware,clothing,housewares..even a restaraunt..they were basically a smaller Fred Meyer - In fact- the founder of Smitty's and Fred Meyer were frequently corresponding with each other on ideas.
In the early 90's Yucaipa bought Smitty's from its bankrupt Canadian owner and did a major updating of the stores. Then Yucaipa bought Smith's Food & Drug, which entered the Phoenix Market in 1989. The Smith's operation was then combined with Smitty's, advertising as Smith's & Smitty's.
Then Fred Meyer bought Smith's. The Smitty's were rebranded Smitty's Marketplace and began stocking FM-branded items. And then just before FM merged with Kroger...Smitty's Marketplace became Fred Meyer Marketplace. The first large Fred Meyer was built in West Phoenix...up to a completed shell awaiting stocking and signage. It was built in the same shopping center that had an existing Smitty's/Fred Meyer store.
Finally, Kroger merged with Fred Meyer. Smith's stores in most of Arizona were converted to Fry's (KR's Arizona brand). The Fred Meyer brand lasted for basically one year before KR thought it wiser to sell under a better known local brand than Fred Meyer...so the Fred Meyer Marketplace stores finally became Fry's Marketplace. Apparently the "Marketplace" format is a success - Kroger is using it in its other markets.
As for the the "Big" Fred Meyer that was built here...it was never opened. It was too big for Fry's to use - Fry's briefly used the former Smitty's store in the same plaza until they too pulled out and the store was demolished. The big FM was unused for several years until it too was knocked down to build...a Wal-Mart Supercenter!
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Post by Groceteria »

jamcool wrote:Smith's stores in most of Arizona were converted to Fry's (KR's Arizona brand). The Fred Meyer brand lasted for basically one year before KR thought it wiser to sell under a better known local brand than Fred Meyer...so the Fred Meyer Marketplace stores finally became Fry's Marketplace.
I believe you'll find that Fry's was originally a Northern California chain, based in San Jose as far back as the 1950s. I never quite understood how (or when) it leapfrogged to Arizona. I wonder if it was after Kroger bought out the chain in the 1970s(?). The NorCal stores were sold to Save-Mart in 1989, while Kroger retained the Arizona stores...

By the way, Fry's Electronics was started in San Jose by the same family once they exited the grocery business. Note the nearly-identical logo...

Sorry for the tangent; I meant to make this geographic distinction in response to a message from someone else on the old board, but I forgot...
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Post by jamcool »

The Fry brothers opened their first store in Phoenix around 1960. I guess they came as snowbirds, noticed that Phoenix had less competition than the CA market and expanded here. I know during the 60's the Dillon's operation out of KS bought both Fry's chains and started expanding in AZ.
Before Kroger bought out Dillon the Fry's/CA stores were sold off.

We also have Fry's Electronics in Phoenix...their ads state in small print "Not Affiliated With Fry's Food Stores" ...yet they are historically related!
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Kroger/Dillon

Post by storewanderer »

I think Kroger bought Dillon in 1982. So that would mean Kroger operated the California Frys Stores for about 7 years before selling to Save Mart.

Some of those Frys in CA initially started as Albertsons in Albertsons initial failed attempt at the Bay Area in the late 1970's.

Kroger did keep the Quik Stop convenience stores in California all along, and retains those today (though many are franchise operations and not actually operated by Kroger).

Frys geography apparantly did not make a whole lot of sense. They were in San Jose, but not much presence from what I can see in Fremont, San Ramon, etc. But they did have stores in Concord, Antioch, Pittsburg, etc. They had a store in Vallejo, but not in any of the other surrounding cities. From the best I can tell, they were never in Marin County. I've often viewed some of the store exteriors at http://www.ckmarket.com and wondered if some of these were not Frys at one point or another. Of course that company could be a whole new thread... they have a very interesting base of stores.
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Post by romleys »

Fry's was never in San Ramon, CA. They were located at 7884 Dublin Blvd. in Dublin, CA (Now Orchard Supply Hardware) and at 3211 Danville Blvd. in Alamo, CA (Now Yard Birds Hardware). :roll:
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Fry's Food/Electronics

Post by bigbubby »

Fry's Electronics even uses the same slogan Fry's Food did in the Bay Area 25 years ago- "Your best buys are always at Fry's!"
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Post by Super S »

I have seen a few changes with Fred Meyer from the mid-80s to today. Fred Meyer used to have the food department seperated from the rest of the store with seperate checkouts and everything until updating the cash registers in the late 80s (at which point a few stores actually still had mechanical registers!)
Fred Meyer had a few stores which had a home improvement center in a seperate building. A few years ago they scaled that way back, eliminating lumber sales among other things, and started moving everything back in to one big store as they remodeled.
In Vancouver, Washington in the mid-90s, two Fred Meyers were converted to "Marketplaces" which were basically a typical Fred Meyer but without an apparel section, worth noting is that they were older stores.
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Re: The Different Formats of Fred Meyer

Post by timbabcock »

marshd1000 wrote:As most of you know, Fred Meyer is a supercenter with grocery store roots. Most of Freddy's stores contain at least a food and pharmacy section. Most are complete supercenters that include apparel.
There was one more. Hi-Ho Shopping Center in Puyallup. It originally was a local based superstore with another local clothing store called Elvins in it. I think they leased the variety and grocery space for sometime before they took the whole thing over. Once Elvins went out, they used that space as well. If you go to the Tacoma Public Library pictorial section you will find a few pictures of the shopping center if you search for it.

The original store has been torn down and the current location stands at the site. It was pretty much a rat infested dump from a former friend of mine who worked in the store.

For awhile in Puyallup there were remnants of the Hi-Ho name around. They had a hobby store next to the K-Mart on River Rd and a Music Store as well. The Music Store could still be around today.
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Post by marshd1000 »

I do remember the Hi-Ho Shopping Center in Puyallup. It was kind of similar to Yard Birds in SW Washington. But, by the time Fred Meyer bought it, Freddy's had all the regular departments the Freddy's normally had in it's stores at that time, except the clothing department was owned by Elvins. Elvins at one time also had a small store at The Willows on Puyallup's South Hill and Sea-Tac Mall in Federal Way, Tacoma and Wishkah Mall in Aberdeen.
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Post by tkaye »

The last I noticed, both the Hi-Ho music and hobby stores are still around in Puyallup. What is now a Saar's Marketplace and a Dollar Store in Tacoma at S. 64th & Yakima was the second Hi-Ho Shopping Center, by the way.

From the county tax rolls, it looks like the Meridian Fred Meyer in Puyallup was constructed on the former Hi-Ho site in 1990. From the exterior, it's pretty similar in appearance (albeit smaller) to the Kitsap Fred Meyer in East Bremerton -- that store was built in '90 as well.
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Re: The Different Formats of Fred Meyer

Post by timbabcock »

When Fred Meyer took over the Valu Mart/Leslie's stores in 1976, they didn't start out with food stores right away because those departments Leslie's leased to Associated Grocer member stores. The Midway location in Kent though was the first and it adopted the Conumer Warehouse name for thier grocery section. The Lynnwood store was the only one for quite some time that had a grocery section owned by Fred Meyer in it since they built the store in the 1960s.

For many years at the Burien location Stock Market operated the grocery section of Fred Meyer until they moved to the former Gov Mart / Bazzar store a few block west. That the was time when Fred Meyer decided to remodel the store to its current state shedding all of the legacies of when it was a former White Front store.
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Re: The Different Formats of Fred Meyer

Post by marshd1000 »

In King County, when Fred Meyer bought out Leslies, there were no Fred Meyer operated food departments. The neighboring Tacoma stores had them as they were new builds for Fred Meyer. A few years earlier, the former Broadway Fred Meyer location in Seattle had a grocery department for a short time that was built as a addition to the pre-existing Marketime Drug operations. About this time, Marketime became known as Fred Meyer-Marketime. But the grocery didn't last long there. As for the former Leslies, the Bellevue store had a Valu-Mart Foods next to it. So when Fred Meyer bought out Leslies, Fred Meyer already had the food. The Aurora store added food to it's location sometime in the late 70's. But it wasn't until about the early 90's that Burien finally got it's own food department. Greenwood is the only former Leslie's that still does not have food. In the same shopping complex that the Greenwood Fred Meyer is located stands the Greenwood Market. Freddy's has tried to buy it unsuccessfully several times.
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Re: The Different Formats of Fred Meyer

Post by marshd1000 »

I thought that you would all find this interesting. I happened upon a website that has a pretty extensive history of Fred Meyer. I know that in the past I had mentioned about Fred Meyer acquiring a grocer in Washington State called Market Basket. I had been told that they had not done that or that they didn't exist in Washington. When I was in my 20's I had worked at the Fred Meyer in White Center, near Seattle. This was a non-food Freddy's that had a Larry's Market next door. I had been told that when this particular store opened as Marketime Drugs, that the grocer next door had been a Market Basket then a Lucky. Anyway, here is the link to Freddy's history that includes the Market Basket and Sigman's Supermarkets purchases. By the way, does anyone know about Sigman's?

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company- ... story.html
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Re: The Different Formats of Fred Meyer

Post by Brian Lutz »

I lived the first sixteen years of my life in New Mexico, and I have (somewhat vague) memories of shopping with my Mom at the Grand Central store in Santa Fe. I believe it closed sometime in either 1984 or 85, and sat vacant for a while before a Wal-Mart moved in. They stuck around for about 7-8 years, then moved to a new freestanding store down the road. Later on a Hobby Lobby moved into the storefront, and appears to still be there (at least it was when the birds-eye photos on Live Maps were taken.)

Live Maps link

I have no idea what's there now, but when I lived down there, the grocery store on the left side of the photo was an Albertson's, and the one on the right was first a Skaggs Alpha Beta, then later a Jewel Osco. I'm surprised how little has actually changed here now that I look at this. The Wendy's in the parking lot has been around for as long as I can remember, and the JBs has been around for ages as well.
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