Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

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Brian Lutz
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Re: Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

Post by Brian Lutz »

SamSpade wrote:
Brian Lutz wrote:I'm pretty sure the Bellevue store was originally scheduled to reopen before Black Friday, but they have not reopened yet. I'm guessing they are at least a couple more weeks away, but it's looked for a while like construction was behind schedule.
I bet there were some surprises in that building. Stadium in Portland took much longer than planned and rumor is went way over budget. It's a lovely store, though I still sometimes miss the more compact "supermarket" sized Fred Meyer it replaced.
It wouldn't surprise me. The building is one of the oldest Fred Meyer stores in the area (the store opened in 1969 as a White Front and construction was completed very quickly at the time) and the older portion of the store also experienced a partial roof collapse in July of 1992 due to structural deficencies. On top of that, the food portion of the store was built separately several years after the original store, and the two separate buildings were them merged together later on. On top of all that, this remodel also involved expanding the food portion of the building by a fair bit.

EDIT: After a bit of searching, it looks like the expected reopening date is now January 27th:

http://fred-meyer-bellevue.com/
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Re: Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

Post by Brian Lutz »

The reopening date on the Bellevue Fred Meyer keeps getting pushed back further and further. The site above is showing March 31st now. As of the last time I drove by there a few days ago it was clear that there was still incomplete structural work on the exterior of the building. At the same time, it turns out the store has a Facebook page where they have started posting some pictures of the remodeled interior. It seems to be a new decor package I haven't seen in any store before:

https://www.facebook.com/Bellevue-FredM ... 532540359/
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Re: Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

Post by arizonaguy »

Brian Lutz wrote:The reopening date on the Bellevue Fred Meyer keeps getting pushed back further and further. The site above is showing March 31st now. As of the last time I drove by there a few days ago it was clear that there was still incomplete structural work on the exterior of the building. At the same time, it turns out the store has a Facebook page where they have started posting some pictures of the remodeled interior. It seems to be a new decor package I haven't seen in any store before:

https://www.facebook.com/Bellevue-FredM ... 532540359/
That decor package looks like the one that Kroger has been implementing in its Marketplace stores (and some regular Food and Drug stores).
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Re: Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

Post by tkaye »

At the same time, it turns out the store has a Facebook page where they have started posting some pictures of the remodeled interior. It seems to be a new decor package I haven't seen in any store before:

https://www.facebook.com/Bellevue-FredM ... 532540359/
Kitsap (East Bremerton) got that package over the summer.
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Re: Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

Post by SamSpade »

That is the standard (new) Fred Meyer / Kroger Marketplace decor set.
It's nice, but I wonder how the font on those department signs will age over time. It used to feel weird to me, but now I see it so often it just feels normal. . .
I think the first Portland-area remodel to get this decor was Northeast Broadway just west of NE 33rd Ave. (aka Hollywood or Hollywood "west" to real old timers)
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Re: Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

Post by Brian Lutz »

It seems to me that Kroger in general doesn't stick to a store design package for long. The Kirkland Fred Meyer completed a major remodel just a couple of years ago, and has a completely different design package from this one. There's been at least two (possibly three) different design packages I've seen used on QFC store remodels over the past few years, and at this rate by the time the Redmond Fred Meyer gets remodeled (which I suspect will be in the near future once Bellevue is done) there will probably be a different design package on that one.
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Re: Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

Post by storewanderer »

Personally, I can't wait for this decor package to go away. It looks cheap and low end. It does not match the more upscale image of Fred Meyer at all. It is more on par with a Wal Mart decor package. If they are trying to dumb down Fred Meyer by making it look like a low end store they are doing a great job with this decor.

The biggest problem is probably that font... they really should get a different font... but it will still not match the more upscale image of Fred Meyer.
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Re: Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

Post by Super S »

To me, one feature that makes a remodeled Fred Meyer look really low end are polished concrete floors. Especially when the finished product (as I have seen at several locations) clearly shows where the old tiles used to be. That makes the job look a bit rushed. Fortunately, I have seen tile making a comeback on some of the more recent remodels.
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Re: Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

Post by pseudo3d »

Brian Lutz wrote:It seems to me that Kroger in general doesn't stick to a store design package for long
The 2012 "Fresh" decor begs to disagree, considering I've seen it in nearly every Kroger I've been to in the last several years.
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Re: Fred Meyer Remodels Continue

Post by arizonaguy »

pseudo3d wrote:
Brian Lutz wrote:It seems to me that Kroger in general doesn't stick to a store design package for long
The 2012 "Fresh" decor begs to disagree, considering I've seen it in nearly every Kroger I've been to in the last several years.
I have too.

Although the latest remodels of standard Fry's stores in the Phoenix area now use the "Marketplace" decor package.
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