More Fred Meyer stores closing in western WA, bringing total to 5

Two more Fred Meyer stores in the Puget Sound region are closing, according to a news release from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000 (UFCW) on Tuesday.

The locations closing are in Lake City, on Lake City Way Northeast, and in Redmond, on Northeast 76th Street. The Lake City closure will affect 175 workers, while the Redmond closure will impact 168 workers.

Both closures were again attributed to theft and financial loss.

“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 wrote in a statement to KIRO Newsradio. “Despite doubling our safety and security investment over the past years, these challenges remain.”

Every associate will be offered a job at another location, the spokesperson noted.

Kroger closes Fred Meyer stores in Everett, Kent, Tacoma

On Monday, it was announced that two Fred Meyer stores, one in Everett and one in Kent, would close.

In July, Kroger, which owns Fred Meyer and QFC, announced it was closing a Fred Meyer in Tacoma and the QFC in Mill Creek.

The Fred Meyer closure was met with community outrage, and a petition for Kroger to reconsider gathered nearly 1,700 signatures.

UFCW, a union that represents nearly 30,000 grocery workers in the Pacific Northwest, believes the closures are due to Kroger’s decision to prioritize profits over its workforce.

“This corporate strategy might please Wall Street investors, but we know it’ll create food deserts in our neighborhoods and disrupt the lives of hundreds of workers already displaced by a housing affordability crisis now 10 years in the making,” UFCW President Faye Guenther stated in a news release.

Seattle rep. calls out Kroger

Seattle Rep. Pramila Jayapal agreed that the closures will limit food access.

“Food deserts aren’t a natural phenomenon — giant grocery store corporations create them when they put their bottom lines over the health and well-being of our communities and workers,” she said, according to UFCW. “Closing stores will put people out of work and make it harder for families to put food on the table – all for the benefit of corporate shareholders and even as CEOs take home millions in pay every single year.”

From 2022 to 2024, Kroger spent $1 billion trying to merge with Albertsons, which owns Safeway and Haggen, but failed, UFCW noted in its release. The company then announced $7.5 billion in stock buybacks.

Kroger was then sued for $125 million by C&S Wholesalers and settled the lawsuit on August 11, 2025.

Contributing: Jason Sutich, MyNorthwest

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