In this store's original configuration, the grocery section ended right about here, transitioning cleanly into general merchandise in the two-story part of the store. Now, the grocery department extends way into the distance, taking up almost the entire center part of the store! Kroger has really been pushing Fred Meyer into a more grocery-oriented place rather than a real hypermarket like it used to be, and the half-done remodel in this store seems to really accentuate that shift. Off to the right, Banner's banners were installed to mark the downsized housewares departments, while the original wall decor was mostly left in place -- definitely a strange combination.
From what I've seen so far, this store looks like it might have a similar design to the Wood Village Fred Meyer we visited frequently during our 2023 Portland trip where we stayed nearby in Troutdale. We stayed in Troutdale again this time, but only for one night and so we didn't visit this Fred Meyer...or any Fred Meyer actually!
ReplyDeleteOf course, this Fred Meyer still has a Fresh Fare/Script-era floor whereas Wood Village was completely industrailized and Bannerized at some point. I'm not sure if Wood Village ever had decor like this store. Wood Village was still pretty nice upstairs as I think it even had carpeting up there.
AMC popcorn! I had no idea such a thing even existed.
Yep, looks like that store is quite similar to this one, though it's a bit older and seems to have opened with some version of the Cartoon decor! There are a handful of stores with this half-two-story design; I'm not sure if it was a short-lived standard design or something Fred Meyer did in locations where they wanted a smaller footprint (though neither of these have any obvious reason why they would need that).
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