Fred meyers how many stores

He converted several buildings from failed businesses to Fred Meyer stores and was one of the few Portland firms to add employees during the prolonged economic slump. During the s, he used a contest among employees to arrive at the My-Te-Fine label that was applied to dozens of house-brand items and were sold at prices lower than national brands.

The company dropped the label in the s. Later, a construction engineer showed Meyer techniques for constructing buildings faster and cheaper, but with no rooftop parking, which he used for the rest of his life. Even among his closest associates, he seldom spoke about his family or early life. Though he chatted amiably with customers during store openings, his demeanor in the office was forceful, aggressive, and often abrasive.

Regardless, many top corporate officials remained with the company for decades. Eva Meyer, who worked side-by-side with her husband for forty years, died in , soon after the opening of the sixteenth Fred Meyer store. Those restaurants closed after Fred Meyer died. He sold public stock for the first time in , opened new stores, bought existing stores, and remodeled older ones in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska.

In the Portland region, he bought land in suburban Beaverton, Gresham, Oak Grove, and other locations, which remained unused until roads and populations increased enough to support a store. During the early s, Meyer was visited by Sam Walton, who was building a one-stop-shopping empire. He had hoped that his management team could continue operating the chain after his death, but conflicts of interest were inevitable because many of those managers were directors of the Meyer Trust.

Maximizing trust assets mandated the sale of the company, which was sold in to Kravis Kohlberg and Roberts, a leveraged buyout firm, and to Cincinnati-based Kroger Inc. Chavez , Eva Meyer helps cut the cake at the grand opening of the N. Interstate store, Rooftop parking at the Fred Meyer store in the Hollywood neighborhood, Portland, c. The Oregon History Wayfinder is an interactive map that identifies significant places, people, and events in Oregon history.

Meyer to built on Sandy Boulevard. Brennan, Tom. Canedy, Dana. Vance, Sandra Stringer, and Roy V. Woodbridge, CT: Twayne Publishers, Skip to main content. A project of the Oregon Historical Society. Search Search. Explore Entries A-Z Browse the complete list of entries. Entries by Themes Browse curated collections of entries.

In the Classroom. Staff and Board. Donate Donors. Federal Tax ID Close modal View Source. Zoom image. Courtesy Oregon Hist. Society Research Lib. The Meyers traveled extensively and whenever they could they visited the places where their store products originated.

In this clip, Fred and Eva make a stop at a grapefruit orchard during a Florida vacation. He inspects that fruits that may soon travel to store many miles away. The stores had to cope with smaller staffs due to employees' enlistment and they struggled to keep stores stocked due to product shortages.

One of the ways they dealt with shortages was by stepping up their own in-house productions and developing local networks for supplies. With the war also came an influx of migrants who arrived to work in the Portland shipyards.

The company scrambled to meet the needs of these new residents. Fred Meyer hastily assembled stores to cater to these newcomers who were concentrated in North Portland. Fred Meyer, his family and employees did what they could to support the war effort. They hosted war bond auctions, picnics for GIs, victory garden shows and more.

Fred Meyer even donated the decorative metalwork from his downtown 6th Avenue store to be used in shipbuilding. This store was opened quickly in an existing warehouse in North Portland in order to provide a grocery store for the 14, new residents of University Homes, a housing development for people working in the wartime shipyards.

This picture was taken soon after opening in The metal was then donated to the war effort and went towards building ships. Fred Meyer sponsored several War Bond Auctions throughout the war years in order to raise money for the war effort. Because of widespread food shortages during the war, citizens were encouraged to grow Victory Gardens, that is, home vegetable gardens to supplement their diet.

Fred Meyer hosted classes and shows for these Victory Gardens. In this picture, judges evaluate home-grown onions, Another consequence of wartime disruptions was a shortage of eggs which Fred Meyer stores needed for everything from mayonnaise production to baked goods. During the war, they regularly ran ads in local papers offering to buy local farmers' eggs.

Fred Meyer began opening production plants to supply their stores in the s. By the s the production plants included a bakery, dairy, candy-making factory, a mayonnaise kitchen and egg-packing facility.

Having independent supply and distribution networks mitigated the effects of wartime shortages. This is the bakery on SE Hawthorne and 11 th Avenues, circa Fred Meyer was dedicated to the war effort during the Second World War and often hosted bond drives, fundraisers, scrap metal collections and more at his stores. Here he hosts a picnic for GIs on leave. After the War, Portland continued to grow. The postwar boom led to a rapid and dramatic expansion of the Fred Meyer brand.

Families began moving into the rapidly developing suburbs and Fred Meyer stores soon followed. In the suburbs where land was plentiful and cheap, the stores grew into supercenters, sprawling department stores, which had groceries, but also hosted a wide variety of goods from automotive parts and garden supplies to apparel and jewelry.

Fred Meyer seemed to have a knack for predicting where the next big area of development in the Portland area would be. He would often buy a parcel of land cheaply before the area was populated. Then once houses and other business moved in, he would build his supercenter in the midst of bustling commercial center. By the mid-sixties, Fred Meyer had his sights set beyond the Portland area. The company first purchased the Markettime chain in Seattle, Washington and then began acquiring many other smaller chains around the Pacific Northwest.

By the end of the sixties, they had over 40 stores in 4 states. At the Grand Opening of the new Hawthorne store in Fred Meyer would open many new stores over the next few decades and they were always big events — and always involved big cakes! The Grand Opening of the Interstate store in Eva Meyer looks approvingly at the grand cake. Another big opening and another big cake. Fred Meyer understood that car culture meant that ample parking was a must.

Hollywood store, circa This new, high tech microwave oven was the first installation of its kind in the Western U. Radio personality, Peter Mudie, celebrates the Fred Meyer Cheese Festival by climbing atop the world's largest cheese, Fred Meyer enjoys a small bite of the world's largest cheese with the Clark County Dairy Princess at the grand opening of the Hazel Dell store in This photo spread shows the growth of the kinds of products now being produced by Fred Meyer, Inc.

By the early s they were making everything from chocolates to vitamins. This map from shows the growing expansion of Fred Meyer stores throughout the Pacific Northwest. Moving into the s, Fred Meyer stores added more and more departments, including music and electronics. Meyer, circa at about 90 years old. Fred continued to work at the company until shortly before his death in at the age of Fred Meyer loved the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

He and his wife Eva had a home in Wemme, Oregon on Mt. Hood which they called "Eve's Eden. In these clips, you'll see: Fred Meyer and his groundskeeper, Jack Fisher, fell a huge tree on the property; Fred and Eva Meyer playing on a giant seesaw at nearby Camp Arrah Wanna; Fred and Eva riding a tandem bicycle together ; and Fred washing dishes at their outdoor kitchen where he's joined first by his stepson, Earle A.

Chiles and then by Eva. After Eva's death in , Fred Meyer preferred to stay in Portland. His business empire grew exponentially in the years following and he would later say, "After the Missus passed on, I had nothing better to do.

I enjoyed life with her and without her there wasn't much to do so I opened more stores. He discusses current events, the development of his business and his personal philosophies. Meyer passed away in , but his store and his legacy lives on. The company continued its expansion, acquiring more small grocery chains throughout the West.