King County Executive candidate to unveil plan to fight retail theft amid Fred Meyer closures
Aug 20, 2025, 6:16 PM
The front of a Fred Meyer store as more locations close in Washington. (Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)
(Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)
Claudia Balducci, a candidate for King County Executive, will unveil her plan to address retail theft during a news conference Thursday morning at the Fred Meyer store on Southeast 240th Street in Kent.
On Monday, it was announced that two Fred Meyer stores — one in Everett and one in Kent — would close. The stores are two of five Fred Meyer locations in the area that Kroger, the owner of Fred Meyer and QFC, plans to shut down, citing a rise in retail theft.
Balducci will be joined by Kent Mayor Dana Ralph, who said calls for police service at the Kent location have dropped to pre-pandemic levels.
“The data is showing that that area, our community, is getting safer,” Ralph said during Tuesday’s Kent City Council meeting. “Calls for service at the Fred Meyer location have declined. We are back to pre-COVID levels.”
Former King County Sheriff and interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr is also expected to attend the news conference.
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King County Council member Girmay Zahilay responds to Fred Meyer closures
Balducci’s opponent, King County Council member Girmay Zahilay, called the closures “terrible” and “devastating.”
“I started my career in the food insecurity space,” he told KIRO Newsradio Wednesday. “I’ve been working to help people get connected to healthy foods for a long time, and I know that that is a top issue for a lot of people, especially in light of our current economy, with so many people struggling to afford their basic needs, and then the federal government cutting their SNAP benefits by billions of dollars around the country.”
As for addressing retail theft, Zahilay said he would investigate the issues at each store to come up with the most effective solutions.
“I think we also need to create a region-wide public-private partnership to combat retail theft,” he added.
Along with the Fred Meyer stores in Kent and Everett, Kroger plans to close Fred Meyer stores in Lake City, on Lake City Way Northeast, and in Redmond, on Northeast 76th Street, according to a news release from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000 (UFCW) on Tuesday.
In July, Kroger announced it was closing a Fred Meyer in Tacoma and the QFC in Mill Creek.
Contributing: Julia Dallas, MyNorthwest
Frank Lenzi is the News Director for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here.
