Kroger continues to flex Fred Meyer, QFC hours

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Kroger continues to flex Fred Meyer, QFC hours

Post by SamSpade »

For years, Fred Meyer was open 7 am to 11 pm at every location (yes, SuperS I know, long ago y'all had the 24 hour food department in Longview).

QFC was open 24/7 at almost all locations.

A few years back, the QFC division modified many stores to 6 am to midnight. Fred Meyer also modified hours, and extended operations by opening the food entrance at 6 am. One could browse the entire store.

Now, it appears many QFC stores are open 7 am to 10 pm. Fred Meyer is a mix of 6 or in most cases back to 7 am opening, but now several locations in "less posh" neighborhoods are closing at 10 pm.
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Re: Kroger continues to flex Fred Meyer, QFC hours

Post by storewanderer »

Smiths seems to have settled on a uniform 11 PM closing time.

I'd like to see Smiths open until Midnight.

I expect until Wal Mart expands closing past 11 PM (if they ever do...), we will not see a change at Smiths.

Pretty sure QFC was open until 11 PM in Portland last spring, and I recall the store having a good amount of traffic perhaps due to the neighboring liquor store. As in, I waited to use self checkout for whatever it was I decided to overpay for. Not sure why anyone goes to QFC in Portland unless they have no car or something; Fred Meyer has better fresh execution, better mix, and better pricing. I sure hope QFC is better in Seattle still...

Beyond the less posh neighborhoods, Fred Meyer has also closed stores like Newport and Brookings at 10 PM for quite some time (decades). Medford North had a 24 hour food department in the early 90's and gated off general merchandise.
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Re: Kroger continues to flex Fred Meyer, QFC hours

Post by Super S »

Fred Meyer is 7AM-11PM here, but they are closing the doors on the non-grocery side at 9PM now.
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Re: Kroger continues to flex Fred Meyer, QFC hours

Post by babs »

storewanderer wrote: February 13th, 2022, 11:18 pm Smiths seems to have settled on a uniform 11 PM closing time.

I'd like to see Smiths open until Midnight.

I expect until Wal Mart expands closing past 11 PM (if they ever do...), we will not see a change at Smiths.

Pretty sure QFC was open until 11 PM in Portland last spring, and I recall the store having a good amount of traffic perhaps due to the neighboring liquor store. As in, I waited to use self checkout for whatever it was I decided to overpay for. Not sure why anyone goes to QFC in Portland unless they have no car or something; Fred Meyer has better fresh execution, better mix, and better pricing. I sure hope QFC is better in Seattle still...

Beyond the less posh neighborhoods, Fred Meyer has also closed stores like Newport and Brookings at 10 PM for quite some time (decades). Medford North had a 24 hour food department in the early 90's and gated off general merchandise.
Fred Meyer and QFC have identical produce departments. The difference is in the size and how much they display. The same person buys for both chains in Portland. Pricing can be higher at QFC. I always figured it was due to the lower volume and the lack of high margin general merch sales. But I do agree the prices should be the same.
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Re: Kroger continues to flex Fred Meyer, QFC hours

Post by storewanderer »

babs wrote: February 14th, 2022, 4:56 pm

Fred Meyer and QFC have identical produce departments. The difference is in the size and how much they display. The same person buys for both chains in Portland. Pricing can be higher at QFC. I always figured it was due to the lower volume and the lack of high margin general merch sales. But I do agree the prices should be the same.
Not sure if it is movement issues or what but I found the produce at Fred Meyer to be far superior to QFC. Not only were prices lower, but the produce simply looked better. Larger freshier juicier citrus, etc. QFC definitely had more SKUs of specialty produce (I don't think any of that even comes through Kroger's distribution) but it didn't look particularly fresh. For the prices QFC charges their product should be superior to just about any other store. It isn't. Anymore. It was 10 years ago...
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Re: Kroger continues to flex Fred Meyer, QFC hours

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: February 13th, 2022, 11:18 pm Smiths seems to have settled on a uniform 11 PM closing time.

I'd like to see Smiths open until Midnight.

I expect until Wal Mart expands closing past 11 PM (if they ever do...), we will not see a change at Smiths.

Pretty sure QFC was open until 11 PM in Portland last spring, and I recall the store having a good amount of traffic perhaps due to the neighboring liquor store. As in, I waited to use self checkout for whatever it was I decided to overpay for. Not sure why anyone goes to QFC in Portland unless they have no car or something; Fred Meyer has better fresh execution, better mix, and better pricing. I sure hope QFC is better in Seattle still...

Beyond the less posh neighborhoods, Fred Meyer has also closed stores like Newport and Brookings at 10 PM for quite some time (decades). Medford North had a 24 hour food department in the early 90's and gated off general merchandise.
I think 10 PM is the standard for the coastal stores - Coos Bay has been like that for years, and I think Tillamook is the same. Warrenton (Astoria) is the outlier, closing at 11. Florence closes at 10 too. What is interesting is the pharmacy hours - looks like some of them are closed on weekends now.
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Re: Kroger continues to flex Fred Meyer, QFC hours

Post by storewanderer »

bryceleinan wrote: February 17th, 2022, 3:54 pm
I think 10 PM is the standard for the coastal stores - Coos Bay has been like that for years, and I think Tillamook is the same. Warrenton (Astoria) is the outlier, closing at 11. Florence closes at 10 too. What is interesting is the pharmacy hours - looks like some of them are closed on weekends now.
I'm really wondering what the end game is going to be for this pharmacy situation we are seeing across retailers across regions.
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Re: Kroger continues to flex Fred Meyer, QFC hours

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: February 17th, 2022, 10:33 pm
bryceleinan wrote: February 17th, 2022, 3:54 pm
I think 10 PM is the standard for the coastal stores - Coos Bay has been like that for years, and I think Tillamook is the same. Warrenton (Astoria) is the outlier, closing at 11. Florence closes at 10 too. What is interesting is the pharmacy hours - looks like some of them are closed on weekends now.
I'm really wondering what the end game is going to be for this pharmacy situation we are seeing across retailers across regions.
Our Smith's in Dayton is having more issues, so it seems that Kroger is getting hit particularly hard. I know Walmart had some staffing challenges, however, the lights mostly stay on at their pharmacies. I saw comments from friends and family in Coos Bay and Brookings on FB the other day bemoaning the fact that Fred Meyer is really the only pharmacy open in Brookings with the exception of whenever Rite Aid wants to open up - I think that was evidenced by the fact that Bi-Mart sold records to them instead of Rite Aid, as they did in other towns like Ashland. The pharmacy at Fred Meyer Coos Bay is always busy, and the several times I have utilized it, the wait was as long as Smith's in many cases.
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