Fred Meyer does have better quality in the GM mix. But I agree that the GM side is slipping a bit. The automotive department seems to be gradually scaling back. Not to a level like Target but I have noticed certain lines disappearing and things like batteries and filters are scaling back. Hardware is more basic, although they still have paint and some even offer Miller Paint. Sporting Goods seems strong. But the GM side is often understaffed. It is very common at the Longview store to only have one register open on the GM side with a long line (and no self checkout) while the food side is staffed well.storewanderer wrote: ↑December 16th, 2017, 10:53 am I think something has gone deeply wrong at Fred Meyer. Somehow during the past 10-15 years, as Kroger was growing the food business significantly, the general merchandise side of Fred Meyer languished. I think they have some long-term problems with mix, price, and promotion on the general merchandise side. For a Supercenter to work properly, you need a pretty good mix of sales on the food as well as the general merchandise.
Fred Meyer never bothered to sell general merchandise online and as far as I know even today the Kroger Clicklist in Fred Meyer Stores does not offer Fred Meyer General Merchandise but only offers groceries. Why?
So this is where we are today. Closing a store in a maybe not so high income area that has been in the area for decades, and it appears Wal Mart is doing just fine nearby, as well as WinCo. Things like Spokane and South Medford where general merchandise gets significantly cut down so food can have wider aisles and far larger facings of the same exact items they had before, with a few new items thrown in for good measure but nowhere near as many new food items as the amount of GM that was cut, full line stores in other areas that have such a shrink problem they are locking up items like jeans, etc.
Kroger should have put just as much effort into growing General Merchandise in the past 10-15 years, as they did on growing food. Fred Meyer's GM offering is (well, in some cases was...) far better than competitors. Instead it seems there are just excuses about the business moving online (could have been countered had Fred Meyer been selling items online), business moving to places like Home Depot/Lowes (probably couldn't have stopped this 100% but could have stopped it to some extent at least on small weekend type project business), etc.
I have to agree though that it is a bit odd that they only offer online sales in food, especially when the competition is already doing this. Even Kmart.