Retail Watchers

I am surprised it took this long. I have never seen a Fred Meyer in such dated condition as this one. Even Coos Bay was more modern inside, once you got past the very awkward layout and the exterior...


http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa11 ... g_2918.jpg

That looks like the interior that the Vancouver stores at Orchards and Fisher's Landing had in the mid 90s when those two stores opened. I am surprised that Fred Meyer has any stores left still using that interior, which is pre-Kroger.

Although they do pretty thorough remodels these days, Fred Meyer has let some stores become very dated before they are remodeled. Longview is a good example. Although it received a very nice, and very extensive, remodel about eight years ago, the previous interior (from a remodel around 1989-1990) was a hodgepodge of 1970s and 1990s components. It had 8 foot light fixtures which looked older than 1970s vintage, with more modern looking light fixtures mixed in. It also had the gray interior where all of the signs on the wall were lit up in orange neon. Personally, this was, in my opinion, the worst interior Fred Meyer ever used. The store in Warrenton, Oregon also opened with this interior. It did not age very well.

As far as I know, any Fred Meyer stores in the Seattle area older than 1980 (when the Kirkland/Totem Lake store was originally built as the first purpose-built Fred Meyer in the area) or so would have come from acquisitions, primarily Marketime or Valu-Mart\Leslies. I don't think Longview would be included in that though, since it's a lot closer to Portland than to Seattle.

The Longview Fred Meyer, as far as I know, has always been a Fred Meyer since day one. It was built in the mid 1970s. My comments about the light fixtures had to do with the fact they looked older than the store itself. I can't really describe them other than they were 8 foot fixtures that were much wider than what similar stores installed during the time period. They almost looked 1960s vintage. Those remained until the last remodel around 2003-2004, and by that point the inside of this store was looking pretty tired. The neon was installed during the 89-90 remodel.

Returning to topic...Fred Meyer has been doing more frequent remodels under Kroger ownership. Which is why I am surprised that this one was so dated-looking. Fred Meyer has some MUCH older stores in Portland which look a lot better.

Yes, this location was one of the nine (?) Washington State Valu-Mart/Leslie's that they acquired. The other Spokane store in this round of acquisitions was the 5204 E. Sprague Ave. location, but that one was shut down in 1993 and replaced by the 15609 E. Sprague Ave. store.

~Ben

Brian Lutz wrote:As far as I know, any Fred Meyer stores in the Seattle area older than 1980 (when the Kirkland/Totem Lake store was originally built as the first purpose-built Fred Meyer in the area) or so would have come from acquisitions, primarily Marketime or Valu-Mart\Leslies. I don't think Longview would be included in that though, since it's a lot closer to Portland than to Seattle.

The above is mostly true, if you are only talking about King County. But the Fred Meyer name first appeared in the Puget Sound area in about 1968, when the Lynnwood store opened as a Fred Meyer. In about 1972-1974, roughly, the Tacoma Stevens and Tacoma Pacific stores were opened as Fred Meyer stores along with Bellingham and then Everett. The Lynnwood store appeared on the Marketime ads before the Valu-Mart/Leslies stores were acquired. So there were some purpose built Fred Meyer stores near Seattle before 1980. They were just not in King County.

BTW, do you think Fred Meyer will still serve this part of Spokane?

~Ben