Fred Meyer

Fred Meyer Inc,. is a chain of hypermarkets founded in 1922 in Portland, Oregon by Fred G. Meyer. The company was one of the pioneers of one-stop shopping, eventually combining a complete grocery supermarket with a drugstore, clothing store, shoe store, fine jewelers, home decor store, home improvement center, garden center, electronics store, toy store, sporting goods store and more under one roof.

Fred Meyer stores are throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska. Before the company's merger with Kroger in October 1998, it traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FMY. Although the company is now a division of Kroger, the stores are still branded Fred Meyer and the western region of Kroger is headquartered in Portland.

Fred Meyer is sometimes known as "Freddy’s", a nickname the company was given by its customers and which is used in its advertising. For a number of years the company has used the marketing slogan What's on your list today? You'll find it at Fred Meyer! or more simply What's on your list today? in advertising.

History

A Fred Meyer store of the 1990s

Beginnings

Fred G. Meyer, originally of New York City, opened his first public market at the corner of Fifth and Yamhill in downtown Portland in 1922. In 1928, Mr. Meyer opened the first self-service drug store.

The first suburban one-stop shopping center opened in 1931 in the Hollywood District of Portland, a neighborhood he deliberately chose through a shrewd and prescient application of market research: he would pay customers' overtime parking tickets that they incurred while shopping at his downtown store, just to obtain their home addresses. The store's innovations included a grocery store alongside a drugstore plus home products, off-street parking, gas station, and—eventually—clothing. Fred G. Meyer would base store locations on planned highway construction.

In 1951, the Fred Meyer Company built a large warehouse near Providence Portland Medical Center in Laurelhurst, despite complaints and controversy from neighbors and the city council. Neighbors didn't want large truck volume in their city, but the area was already zoned for industrial and commercial east of 44th Avenue. The huge warehouse was built to the detriment of the Banfield Expressway, built in Sullivan's Gulch less than five years later. The warehouse had to be condemned and partially destroyed for the freeway, with the state highway commission selling the remaining sections to the Bemis Company. The Fred Meyer Company moved to Swan Island on land formerly occupied by wartime housing for Kaiser Shipyards.

In the 1960s, Fred Meyer entered the Seattle market by acquiring Seattle-based Marketime Drugs. Fred Meyer also acquired a Spokane-based grocery wholesaler, The Roundup Company. Roundup owned no stores in Spokane but owned Kalispell, Montana based B&B stores in Northwest Montana and Consumer Warehouse Foods in Soap Lake, WA. In about 1968, the first full fledged Fred Meyer in the Seattle area opened in Lynnwood, Washington. It was also the largest Fred Meyer for about a decade.

Valu-Mart acquisition, death of Fred Meyer

Previous Fred Meyer logos

In 1975, after several decades of growth in the Portland area, Fred Meyer purchased the Pacific Northwest-based Valu-Mart. Valu-Mart had been renamed Leslies about a year before. In 1975, Fred Meyer opened its first stores in Alaska as a result of acquiring Leslies/Valu-Mart, and changed the Leslies/Valu Mart stores to the Fred Meyer banner. As Fred Meyer became better known in the Seattle area, the Marketime Drug chain became known as Fred Meyer-Marketime.

In 1977, Marketime was renamed Fred Meyer. In the mid 1980s, the Northwest Montana B&B stores also took on the Fred Meyer name.

On September 2, 1978, Mr. Meyer died at the age of 92. Until his death, Mr. Meyer had continued to play an active role in the day-to-day operation of his company. Also in 1978, Fortune placed Fred Meyer as the 45th largest retail company by sales. The chain had over $1 billion in sales in 1979.

In 1982, the company was purchased by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in what was one of KKR's first major leveraged buyouts.

California Expansion and Retreat

In the 1990s Fred Meyer expanded into California by opening a store in Chico. Plans had been made to expand into Sacramento with several sites having been acquired. Eventually the Chico location was closed and sold and the Sacramento sites sold.

Acquisitions of Grand Central and Smith's

Packaged food aisles of Fred Meyer in Portland at Interstate and Lombard

In 1985 Fred Meyer acquired Grand Central of Salt Lake City, Utah. The Grand Central stores in Utah and Idaho were converted to Fred Meyer stores, although most did not receive full supermarket departments until the mid 1990s.

In 1997, Fred Meyer Inc. acquired Smith's Food and Drug of Salt Lake City, though both companies maintained separate operations. In 1998, Fred Meyer acquired Ralphs Grocery Company of Los Angeles, California, and QFC of Seattle. Both acquisitions also maintained separate operations with Fred Meyer, Inc. as the holding company. In that fast string of mergers, Fred Meyer quickly became the nation's fifth largest food and drug store operator.

In 1997, Fred Meyer converted its Columbia Falls and Kalispell stores into Smith's Food & Drug Stores, and closed its Polson location. In 2001 the Kalispell store was demolished and replaced with a newer Smiths location adjacent to the older, obsolete store. The Columbia Falls store retained the Fred Meyer decor (with Smith's logos over the old Fred Meyer logos) but only contained a grocery department, with none of the other departments or product offerings.

Merger with Kroger

In May 1999 Fred Meyer, Inc. merged with Kroger of Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2000, the Arizona Fred Meyer stores, all of which were formerly Smitty's stores that Fred Meyer acquired in the Smith's merger, were re-branded as Fry's Marketplace.

In 2004, Smith's Food and Drug assumed the operations of the Utah Fred Meyer stores, which were re-branded as Smith's Marketplace. Also, since the acquisition of the Fred Meyer Company, Kroger has been unifying standards across the company, adopting many of the Fred Meyer store standards, and implementing their own standards to the Fred Meyer stores. Kroger and Fred Meyer stores are slowly becoming more similar in management and merchandising.

Additionally, one Fred Meyer in Seattle in the Capitol Hill district merged its operations with QFC which had a grocery store across the street from the Broadway Market. This particular Fred Meyer, probably the smallest one in the chain, had only drugs, general merchandise and no food or apparel. This store is now a QFC Marketplace, the only one of its kind but it is not signed as such.

Locations

The company currently operates 129 Fred Meyer stores.

state number

stores

Alaska 11

Idaho 10

Oregon 50

Washington 58

Store design

A Fred Meyer with a Starbucks location inside in Marysville, Washington

This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience. Please relocate any relevant information, and remove excessive trivia, praise, criticism, lists and collections of links. (March 2010)

Fred Meyer stores are well known for their huge floor space. Some stores cover as much as 240,000 square feet (22,000 m2) and are more than a 1⁄4-mile (400 m) across corner to corner. To compete, other supermarket chains operating in the northwest (like Safeway) often build stores that are much larger than their standard store format.

A typical store is divided into four major departments:

Food Department (FOD): includes groceries as well as full-service meat, seafood (SFC), deli (MSD), produce (PRO), bakery (BYK), health & beauty care, and pet care areas. Most stores include a "Natural Choices" (NCR) area: natural and organic foods, supplements, bulk foods, beauty care, and home cleaning supplies. Most stores also include a coffee shop, such as Starbucks, Tully's, or Peet's near their food entry doors to offer more of a one-stop shop experience.

Apparel Department (ALE): includes clothes for men, women and children, as well as shoes, accessories and cosmetics.

Home department (HOM): features home decor, housewares, furniture, bed & bath, home improvement, garden and seasonal merchandise (like holiday decorations). This area also includes toys, home office/school supplies, sporting goods and automotive care. Fuel centers (SPG) are part of the HOM department and managers are required to drive and record, twice daily, the prices of fuel stations within a 5-mile (8.0 km) radius, report such prices to Fuel Center HQ, and await specific instructions on raising or lowering prices based on logged information. Many locations have checkstands in the HOM department; these checkstands belong to a section known as HG2 (an abbreviation of "Home & Garden"), and some locations also provide a HOM U-Scan.

Electronics department (PEM): features TVs, home entertainment systems, and accessories; computers, software and accessories; video game systems, games and accessories; MP3 players and accessories; cameras, camcorders and accessories; videos and music.

Additionally, Fred Meyer stores have a Customer Service Desk, where services such as Western Union, Fish & Game licenses, bus passes, tobacco sales, and merchandise returns/exchanges are offered.

Many stores also include the following: a full-service pharmacy; expanded wine selections staffed by expert Wine Stewards; expanded cheese kiosks staffed by expert Cheese Stewards; Fred Meyer Fuel Stops; Fred Meyer Jewelers; U-Scan checkstands - a self-service checkout option for Customers); Playland, a free-of-charge one hour child-care center; and free Wi-Fi for Customers.

Many Fred Meyer stores also lease retail space to other businesses, increasing the one-stop options for Customers. For example, a Fred Meyer location may include additional stores and services within the store or parking lot like a bank, video rental store, coffee shop and locksmith. In Alaska, all Fred Meyer locations contain Alaska USA Federal Credit Union branches, except the Palmer and Soldotna locations. Alaska locations also offer Fred Meyer Liquor stores. In Washington most stores contained Washington Mutual brances, which were converted to Chase upon that merger. Fred Meyer is Chase's first entry into the in-store branch market.

Department structure

The store is managed by a store director (an assistant director if they are a management training store). Each department is run by a manager, an assistant manager, and often a third or a fourth manager, depending upon the size of the department. In addition to the management staff, persons-in-charge (PIC) are non-management supervisors who assume management duties and responsibilities for the duration of a shift, but are otherwise level with co-workers. In the major divisions (ALE, HOM, FOD) Sectionheads or Department managers are responsible for a given section of the department.

Employees

A single Fred Meyer store employs anywhere from 50 to 300 employees at any given time. During mid-day, usually you will find around 100 employees working at one time within an average Fred Meyer location. Employee benefits vary, depending on the position an individual holds, how many hours per month/week that employee works, and whether or not that store/department of a store belongs to a union. All employees receive Employee Rewards cards that double as Employee Discount cards. Discounts are from 0% to 20% depending on which department goods are purchased from. Additionally, employees receive a 10% discount on private label grocery department items. A typical Fred Meyer store is always hiring, depending on employees retiring, getting promoted, quitting, or being terminated. Many job opportunities also become available when a store becomes busier, because of nearby businesses or the addition of new departments or fuel stations. Additionally, there is seasonal hiring for temporary positions such as additional positions in garden centers in the spring time and additional help over the winter holidays. Recently, the Fred Meyer store chain switched to an online employment system, powered by Unicru, which can be found at fredmeyer.com.

Alternate store formats

Not all Fred Meyer stores conform to the conventional hypermarket format that the majority of stores do. While still department-style stores, Fred Meyer has two additional formats for stores too small to fit the vast space requirements of those in more eclectic neighborhoods.

Fred Meyer Marketplace

Fred Meyer Marketplace is a comparatively compact Fred Meyer, centered on a full service grocery section, with many of the other departments missing or considerably smaller than a full size Fred Meyer store. These are usually older locations in more central locations in Portland, with limited, often unique parking arrangements (like the Burlingame location's) multistory parking garage. Most Marketplace stores in the Seattle area were once standard supermarkets that have been acquired from other grocers.

Some marketplace locations are early examples of Fred Meyer in its typical mall format, being the anchor store in a small Fred Meyer shopping center. Locations from this early era are typified by having the lawn and garden department in a different building immediately across the street or parking lot.

Fred Meyer Northwest Best

Fred Meyer Northwest Best is the company's "new concept" store in upscale Northwest Portland near PGE Park. It was converted from the Fred Meyer Stadium Marketplace in 2004 to compete against newly arrived retailers such as the Pearl District Whole Foods Market and Northwest Portland Trader Joe's. Fred Meyer also has Northwest Best stores in Gig Harbor, Washington and Redmond, Washington.

FM Red Tag Outlet

FM Red Tag Outlet is a clearance outlet opened by Fred Meyer in 2009 adjacent to their 82nd & S.E. Foster store in southeast Portland. Formerly the Home & Garden department of the 82nd & Foster store, the main store building was thoroughly refurbished earlier in 2009 and afterwards became a Fred Meyer Marketplace store, with the Home & Garden department brought back to the main building. The FM Red Tag Outlet offers clearance items from the regular Fred Meyer stores at discount and the product mix changes frequently. The outlet items are sold as-is with no return option; however customers who are members of Fred Meyer Rewards can earn points at the outlet and can redeem Rewards reward coupons. Originally the outlet was only open Thursdays-Sundays but is now open seven days a week.

Private label brands

Fred Meyer employs Kroger's manufacturing by adding its own private label brands alongside national brand products. Aside from products labeled Kroger or Fred Meyer, one might also find the following brands at a Fred Meyer store: Kivu, Country Oven, Everyday Living (and the more upscale eL²), F•M•V ("For Maximum Value") is now Kroger value, Moto Tech, Private Selection, HD Designs, Michael Morgan, Great Northwest, GNW, Curfew, Kidz Korner, Splash Spa, and Naturally Preferred. Former brands associated with Fred Meyer were My-Te-Fine, President's Choice, Fred Bear, F. G. Meyer First Choice, Personal Choice, and Perfect Choice.

Rewards program

On May 4, 2004, Fred Meyer introduced Fred Meyer Rewards, a program that rewards (pays) customers for shopping in their stores. To participate, a customer completes a registration form and receives 3 purple cards (a credit card-sized card and two keytags). When the program was introduced, participating customers received one point for every $5 they spent in a single transaction (transactions with totals under $5 did not receive a point). If a customer earned 100 points (by spending at least $500) during a 13-week rewards cycle, they would receive about $5 in rebate vouchers. The rewards mailer also typically included percentage discount coupons on specific items.

On April 29, 2007, the company revised the program somewhat, simultaneously with the launch of their Fred Meyer Rewards MasterCard. Effective on that date (which was the beginning of a 13-week cycle), customers receive a point for each dollar spent, but the value of each point decreased proportionally, and a customer must earn 500 points in a 13-week rewards cycle to receive a rebate voucher. Customers who use the MasterCard version of Rewards earn double points (2 points per dollar spent).

Using Fred Meyer Rewards does not provide discounts in the store (and sale prices are not contingent upon using Rewards). Fred Meyer Rewards Card holders earning 100 or more points per month receive a 10¢ per gallon discount on all FM Fuel Center fuel purchases. Rewards MasterCard holders receive a 15¢ per gallon discount on a single fill-up after earning 100 points. Each time a customer accumulates $100 in eligible purchases, they receive a 10¢ per gallon discount on their next fuel purchase. The limit of how much fuel one can purchase with the 10 cent discount is $400. Alaska stores allow for customers to redeem up to 1000 points in a single fillup, allowing 10¢ off for every 100 points accumulated. Rewards MasterCard holders receive 5¢ per gallon off more, for a maximum of $1.05 off per gallon. There is a limit of 35 gallons per fillup with the discount.

Plastic bag ban

In July 2010 Fred Meyer announced that, effective August 1, it would no longer offer plastic bags at any of its 10 Portland stores, due to their negative environmental impacts. To date, Fred Meyer is the largest retail chain in the Portland metropolitan area to adopt this policy.A spokesman indicated that an increasing number of the chain's customers have been choosing to use reusable bags, noting that Fred Meyer's own sales of such bags at its check stands had increased 30 percent from 2008 to 2009.

(source:wikipedia)