Kroger to close 4 Fred Meyer, QFC stores in Washington state – oregonlive.com:
Monday’s announcement, which follows several other recent Kroger closures in Washington, sparked concerns in Kent and Everett, where locals worry over declining access to grocery stores, especially in underserved neighborhoods.
“It’s taking away another resource from a neighborhood that’s already hurting,” warned Everett City Councilmember Paula Rhyne, who describes the area around the closing Everett Fred Meyer as among the city’s most diverse and lowest income. News of the closure “is devastating.”
It’s not like a business wants to close stores or is doing this to hurt a community.
“Unfortunately, due to a steady rise in theft and a challenging regulatory environment that adds significant costs, we can no longer make these stores financially viable,” a Fred Meyer spokesperson said Monday in an emailed statement about the Everett and Kent closures.
Fred Meyer doubled their “safety and security investment over the past years” but it was insufficient to stop the level of crime they were seeing.
Bryan Gilderoy, a produce clerk at the closing Kent store, said the company’s explanations for the closures didn’t square with what he is seeing in his store.
Gilderoy, who worked at the location for 15 years, said the store had been effective in curbing shoplifting and is typically quite busy.
“Like, right now, it’s a full parking lot — the store is full of customers,” said Gilderoy, who is 43 and a member of United Food & Commercial Workers local 3000, which represents workers at the Everett and Kent stores.
The decision to shutter the store “literally feels like it comes out of nowhere,” he said.
Both can be true: A store can be full of customers and theft can be a major problem even with improvements. Grocery store profit margins are typically 2% while other Fred Meyer products would have higher margins. But if, say, a bicycle is stolen, how many sales does it take to make up for that loss? If crime is a big enough problem, it doesn’t matter how full your parking lot is.
Personally, I remain a bigger fan of Costco’s membership model to curb theft problems, and indeed, Costco has the lowest level of shrinkage, the industry term for theft, in the business.