Fred Meyer in South Everett To Close Permanently

The Fred Meyer on Evergreen Way and Casino Road to close.

When Kroger announced the closures of select stores nationwide, Everett was spared a QFC closure. However, today Kroger announced the closure of Fred Meyer on Evergreen Way and one in Kent. This will be a major inconvenience for many in South Everett.

The next closest Fred Meyer stores are south of Silverlake at Murphy’s Corner, another in West Snohomish, or down in Lynnwood.

South Everett’s Fred Meyer will close soon.

These two Fred Meyer closures are primarily due to theft. Fred Meyer released a statement saying:

“Fred Meyer is proud to serve communities across Washington. Unfortunately, due to a steady rise in theft and a challenging regulatory environment that adds significant costs, we can now longer makes these stores financially viable. Despite doubling our safety and security investment over the past years, these challenges remain.”

The words Satanic and Panic were spray painted on the vehicle that crashed into Fred Meyer.

The associates working at the Evergreen location will be offered positions at other locations.

Union officials were told the closures were planned for either October 16th or 17th.

This particular location has been riddled with theft and made the news several times, including a car explosion, a bank robbery, a gunpoint pharmacy robbery, and shootings. It is also the center of a no sit ordinance two years ago, which expires at the end of this year.

Nearby, the Evergreen Way Starbucks closed in 2022 and the Evergreen Way Walmart closed in 2023.

In 2022, Everett Fred Meyer managers attended an Everett City Council meeting, pleading for help. “Our store has taken all the safety measures we can and we need help.”

The managers of Everett Fred Meyer stores at a city council meeting in 2022.

In that same meeting, Tyler Stumpf, the Evergreen Way Fred Meyer manager, told the City Council:

“At our store we have an open-air drug market that is on the corner of Evergreen Way and Casino Road at an abandoned bank,” Tyler said.

“What happens is the drug dealers shows up in their cars, they give the users a list of what they need to come in and steal and they come in and steal. They leave drug paraphernalia all over the store whether its needles, foils with fentanyl, they also use our restrooms as a place to shoot up or do fentanyl, we just need some help.”

There has been much attention on how to improve the area. Dick’s Drive-In had recently opened nearby, which felt like the start of the momentum needed, but the Fred Meyer closure certainly is a major setback.