QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

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QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

Post by storewanderer »

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/201 ... 494192001/

I seem to remember this store had walled off its bakery and seemed to have a lot of open space, despite not being a very large store; can't remember how the deli was or if there was one. My impression of this store 5 years ago was that it was on the way out...
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Re: QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

Post by Super S »

I am trying to figure out if Kroger is going to let QFC fade away. They seem to be gradually doing just that. When did they last open a new QFC anyway? Are they remodeling existing locations at all? It seems like the only QFC stores that work are the ones in the greater Seattle area. They tried expanding to Portland/Vancouver but some of those stores have closed. A few are still hanging in there but I am not sure those are doing too well.
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Re: QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

Post by Brian Lutz »

QFC has done some pretty extensive remodels on some of what I would assume to be their larger stores (the Downtown Bellevue store got remodeled just a couple of years ago.) They seem to be strongest in areas where high end stores do well and where Fred Meyer doesn't have much presence.. Once you start moving outside of Seattle and the Eastside the stores seem not to be quite as nice, but are generally still better than the primary competition of Safeway and Albertsons.
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Re: QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

Post by SamSpade »

Super S wrote:I am trying to figure out if Kroger is going to let QFC fade away. They seem to be gradually doing just that. When did they last open a new QFC anyway? Are they remodeling existing locations at all? It seems like the only QFC stores that work are the ones in the greater Seattle area. They tried expanding to Portland/Vancouver but some of those stores have closed. A few are still hanging in there but I am not sure those are doing too well.
I believe QFC initially entered Portland just before the Fred Meyer acquisition which of course very quickly became the Kroger acquisition of both.

The "older" stores that are mostly on former Kienow's sites are open and clean, but have Fresh Fare decor. (3 of the 6)
The other 3 are more suburban in nature and have received the recent Kroger remodel that has been posted here in some Ralph's stores (semi-local with the maps and varied department signs, etc) including a Murray's Cheese.

I suspect the store in Bethany Village, the store in West Hills Shopping Center both do very well as these are higher income areas where there is not much grocery competition nearby. Bethany Village also made a brilliant decision to bring the local contract liquor store directly into the store's lobby so it's like QFC sells liquor despite this being uncommon in Oregon. The store on the border of Camas and Vancouver is also somewhat far from competition.

The other 3 are small urban groceries that fit well in the Portland development philosophy of "walkable neighborhoods" and 2 of the 3 are well situated (Sellwood-Moreland, E Burnside). The third is in the Grant Park neighborhood, dropped 24 hour operation a bit after a brand new New Seasons opened across NE Broadway and is within blocks of one of the largest Fred Meyer stores in the country.

In the past, the company closed 2 stores. One was in Vancouver a short distance from a full-line Fred Meyer store and the other was in Gresham across from a Safeway in the shadow of Powell Butte. There are probably some high-income households nearby but the site has seen much better success as a Walmart Neighborhood Market serving nearby apartments and modest homes.

Edit: Link to Portland Business Journal 2015 article about reduced SKUs (but more local) added in the 3 QFC remodels. Kroger spent about $6 million on these 3 locations. The location on Barnes took more money because it includes a pharmacy relocation.
$6M later, Portland-area QFC grocery stores get a big, local refresh
Last edited by SamSpade on July 27th, 2017, 11:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

Post by marshd1000 »

QFC is currently remodeling it's Westwood Village store in West Seattle. This store has been successful from the get go! But it had a Fresh Fare remodel that was completed in 2001. It is getting the "Local" decor package. As for the Portland/Vancouver QFC stores, I'm surprised that they don't become a Fred Meyer Northwest Best, or whatever name they are using on the "Stadium" store on Burnside!
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Re: QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

Post by storewanderer »

QFC Stores remind me a lot of the Cala/Bell Stores that Kroger was running in San Francisco and Marin County. Of course, Kroger decided they did not want to bother with those, despite their locations being in very high income areas and with a little upgrading, could have been really good stores.

The difference is with QFC there appears to be a core group of locations that the company actually wants to keep... but there also seem to be a ton of locations they have no desire to keep.

QFC had a big chance to expand by buying bankrupt Haggen Stores and instead they let Albertsons get a lot of stores back that could have made good "larger format" QFCs.

In Portland, the larger QFC up by Camas is priced quite a bit more aggressively on center store/drug than the smaller ones and functions like a typical Kroger banner conventional (Smiths or Frys for example) but with a little better quality on the perimeter (and higher prices there).

As is typical with Kroger on the immediate west coast of CA, OR, and WA, it appears there is not much interest in opening new stores.
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Re: QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:QFC Stores remind me a lot of the Cala/Bell Stores that Kroger was running in San Francisco and Marin County. Of course, Kroger decided they did not want to bother with those, despite their locations being in very high income areas and with a little upgrading, could have been really good stores.

The difference is with QFC there appears to be a core group of locations that the company actually wants to keep... but there also seem to be a ton of locations they have no desire to keep.

QFC had a big chance to expand by buying bankrupt Haggen Stores and instead they let Albertsons get a lot of stores back that could have made good "larger format" QFCs.

In Portland, the larger QFC up by Camas is priced quite a bit more aggressively on center store/drug than the smaller ones and functions like a typical Kroger banner conventional (Smiths or Frys for example) but with a little better quality on the perimeter (and higher prices there).

As is typical with Kroger on the immediate west coast of CA, OR, and WA, it appears there is not much interest in opening new stores.
With Kroger diluting the Fred Meyer name, I wonder if they'll end up converting those "keep" stores to general merchandise-less Fred Meyer stores. And if they are winding down QFC, what are they going to do with Main & Vine?
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Re: QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

Post by storewanderer »

I don't think QFC is being wound down but it is definitely being downsized. I also don't think they will convert banners in Portland. QFC in Portland is as noted generally an upper middle class store. Fred Meyer in Portland skews between lower middle class and upper middle class depending on location. The pricing structure is much different and perimeter products are not really the same between the two.

And this may be why they did not take any of those former Haggen Stores. They want to position QFC as an upper middle class format. Most of those were solidly middle class locations, but not all... there were a few good ones.

There was a time not too long ago when QFC had a better fresh foods operation than any other Kroger division, and I think it got them some attention internally. Now, we have Mariano's and Harris Teeter that are, frankly, a lot better than QFC's fresh foods operation.
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Re: QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote:QFC Stores remind me a lot of the Cala/Bell Stores that Kroger was running in San Francisco and Marin County. Of course, Kroger decided they did not want to bother with those, despite their locations being in very high income areas and with a little upgrading, could have been really good stores.

The difference is with QFC there appears to be a core group of locations that the company actually wants to keep... but there also seem to be a ton of locations they have no desire to keep.

QFC had a big chance to expand by buying bankrupt Haggen Stores and instead they let Albertsons get a lot of stores back that could have made good "larger format" QFCs.

In Portland, the larger QFC up by Camas is priced quite a bit more aggressively on center store/drug than the smaller ones and functions like a typical Kroger banner conventional (Smiths or Frys for example) but with a little better quality on the perimeter (and higher prices there).

As is typical with Kroger on the immediate west coast of CA, OR, and WA, it appears there is not much interest in opening new stores.
That QFC on 192nd between Vancouver and Camas is a fairly new store, within the last 10-15 years. They opened just before the new 192nd/HWY 14 interchange and have a good location. It is a nice store, but seems a little more mainstream than a typical QFC. It made me wonder if Kroger was watering down QFC's formula, especially since the other location on 162nd closed down.
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Re: QFC Closing Port Orchard, WA

Post by storewanderer »

I was in the University Village QFC and notice it has not been remodeled or anything in the past 10+ years. Really busy place. The ceramic tile floor and lighting/fixtures all look very good, so it is probably best they have left it alone. The store looks fantastic and has a great perimeter, everything looked so good I don't even know what looked the best. Produce, meat/seafood, and deli all looked world class. I suppose Bakery looked the worst, but it by no means looked bad.

As I was looking at the perimeter, it looked so good, I actually forgot I was in a Kroger operation...

The Safeway next to the University Village QFC was a ghost town, hardly any employees or customers. The store didn't look great, but didn't look bad either, considering it is obviously very low volume. Some very aggressive promotional pricing in there. Was sure funny to see round turntable checkstands in a lifestyle store.
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