Fred Meyer announces Portland store closure

[SamSpade]

In a rapidly "gentrifying" part of town near a designated (by regional government) town center.
This is a somewhat awkward site, but definitely served an important need.
Southeast Portland Fred Meyer to close

Safeway also closed in this part of town in 2004. This store is across from a very old 1960s era closed Albertsons (now other retailers).

[Super S]

In a rapidly "gentrifying" part of town near a designated (by regional government) town center.
This is a somewhat awkward site, but definitely served an important need.
Southeast Portland Fred Meyer to close

Safeway also closed in this part of town in 2004. This store is across from a very old 1960s era closed Albertsons (now other retailers).

If you are talking about the store directly across 82nd, that is actually the Safeway that closed in 2004.

Fred Meyer did try a few things here, they did several remodels over the years, and eliminated apparel when consolidating back into one building, making it a "Marketplace" store. It is worth noting that Fred Meyer operated a "Red tag" closeout store in the former Home Improvement building for a while, this did not expand to other locations and it closed a while back.

It did serve a need as a neighborhood grocery store, but the Johnson Creek store really isn't that far away and is much newer. I am not really surprised by this.

[SamSpade]

I guess in the drive by I thought this looked more like an Albertsons than a Safeway, but then again I've mostly only seen Marina or Lifestyle Safeways.
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4833765 ... 312!8i6656

There was also a Save a Lot that closed (before their total pullout) just to the east on Foster Road:
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4883417 ... 312!8i6656

[storewanderer]

I suspect the new WinCo hurt this store.

I have been into this store a couple times over the years and it seemed busy when I was there. If the neighborhood is improving, it is surprising they are not hanging on. It will be interesting to see what comes of the site.

Didn't they just add a gas station for this store about 3 years ago too?

[arizonaguy]

The nearby Walmart looks like it could have killed this store.

How old is that Walmart?

[pseudo3d]

The nearby Walmart looks like it could have killed this store.

How old is that Walmart?

Google shows it as being dating back to 2000, which makes sense as that's when Eastport Plaza (a small mall that was probably Portland's first mall, and enclosed and expanded at some point) was redeveloped. The new Eastport Plaza included an Albertsons (now LA Fitness) but it closed in 2006 (as it turns out, SuperValu also did some trimming after the purchase like LLC did). The Walmart didn't add groceries until what looks like 2012.

[Super S]

The nearby Walmart looks like it could have killed this store.

How old is that Walmart?

Google shows it as being dating back to 2000, which makes sense as that's when Eastport Plaza (a small mall that was probably Portland's first mall, and enclosed and expanded at some point) was redeveloped. The new Eastport Plaza included an Albertsons (now LA Fitness) but it closed in 2006 (as it turns out, SuperValu also did some trimming after the purchase like LLC did). The Walmart didn't add groceries until what looks like 2012.

That sounds about right. Looking at my Rand McNally road atlas with the Walmart store directory, it lists the first Vancouver, WA Walmart store to open (on 104th Ave) as #2550, with the Portland store listed as #2552. The Vancouver store opened around 1998-1999ish. Both opened as standard Walmarts. However, for some reason I seem to remember visiting the Eastport store before the Vancouver one opened. I could be wrong though.

The other Walmart on 82nd, store #5440, is still a conventional Walmart, and that one actually was a Home Depot originally. Home Depot moved to its present location on 82nd when Home Base closed and Home Depot took over that location.

[SamSpade]

Original:
https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/st ... lumn4.html
October 15, 1997

Renovation and expansion to supercenter in 2012. That is also the year Food4Less (independent franchise) closed.

[Super S]

Original:
https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/st ... lumn4.html
October 15, 1997

Renovation and expansion to supercenter in 2012. That is also the year Food4Less (independent franchise) closed.

Thanks for that.

While Albertsons was open, the Eastport Plaza commercials on the radio often mentioned that it was "the biggest Albertsons in Oregon" I was surprised to see it close. Walmart started building conventional stores which were designed from the start for an expansion into a Supercenter. Two examples were the Vancouver store I mentioned, and the Wood Village store.

I don't blame the closure of this Fred Meyer on Walmart. Fred Meyer had the supercenter concept already long before Walmart even came to the Northwest and is an established player.

[storewanderer]

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.