Kroger to Close Two Fred Meyer Stores in Puget Sound Region
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*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***
Monday, August 18, 2025
Kroger to Close Two Fred Meyer Stores in Puget Sound Region
Contact: Rich Smith, UFCW 3000 Communications Director
rsmith@ufcw3000.org / 816-289-4520
Kroger, the Ohio-based corporation that owns Fred Meyer and QFC, plans permanently to close two Fred Meyer stores in the Puget Sound region on October 17 and 18, affecting approximately 360 workers.
Our union will sit down with the company to bargain over these changes in the coming days.
Our union contracts stipulate that Kroger must offer workers placement in equivalent positions at nearby stores, in accordance with their union seniority.
The stores currently serve Everett and Kent. The company claims that those facilities represent some of the region’s lowest performers in terms of sales.
These closures come after Kroger recently announced plans to close the Mill Creek QFC and the Tacoma Fred Meyer as the company begins to implement its plan to shutter stores in low-sales areas and open stores in potentially high-sales areas, with new Kroger stores opening in 2026.
This strategy raises serious concerns about food access for working class communities. Both stores slated for closure are located in zip codes whose incomes rank below their county’s respective median household incomes.
"Kroger’s closures put profit over people, plain and simple. 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 ten years in the making. Without a doubt, these issues will lead our agenda when we return to the table with Kroger and Albertsons in 2027. In the meantime, our union strongly encourages elected leaders to prioritize policies that increase access to fresh, affordable food for all,” said Faye Guenther, UFCW 3000 President.
Background
In 2024, Kroger saw a 77% higher net income and 63% higher operating income than they did in 2019, according to company filings (London Stock Exchange Group).
Between 2022 and 2024, Kroger spent more than $1 billion in an attempt to merge with Albertsons, which owns Safeway and Haggen, among other banners.
After UFCW 3000 grocery store workers launched a campaign to stop that merger, judges blocked the $25 billion deal in December of 2024. That same month, Kroger announced $7.5 billion in stock buybacks.
Following the failed merger, C&S Wholesalers sued Kroger, claiming Kroger owed the company $125 million. Kroger settled that suit last week on August 11, 2025.
After authorizing a strike in June of 2025, this July grocery store workers in the Puget Sound region ratified a new contract that won first-in-the-nation language to address staffing issues, secured our union healthcare and pensions, and gained some of the largest average annual wage increases we have seen.
UFCW 3000 is the largest private-sector union in Washington State, representing more than 55,000 workers in grocery, healthcare, cannabis, retail, food packing and processing, and textiles and laundry, among other industries. We represent nearly 30,000 grocery workers in Washington, eastern Oregon, and north Idaho.
