Fred Meyer Activities today (Saturday 8/23)
Muriel Lawty
INFO COPIED FROM EMAILS ABOUT FRED MEYER LEAVING LAKE CITY
I was in FM today and picked up a few ideas from employees; might be worth passing these on so we can at least try to retain the store:
Pass the word that there will be a community gathering on Saturday, with some Lake City businesses participating. People should stop by between 9-6. Carrying signs encouraged.
Contact:
1. Seattle Times and TV news re the community gathering & encourage them to cover the event.
2. Mayor’s office-
Seattle needs to help Lake City, which already deals with too many empty storefronts, too much homelessness, too much crime and debris. An empty FM will exacerbate all of these problems.
Stress that many elderly and/or low income people rely on the FM in Lake City. There are no other conveniently located stores.
City needs to work with FM to find a solution.
3. Kroger-
A. Encourage them to downsize to just one floor. Re: groceries-people dont need as many different forms/amounts/choices of the same products, so curating would allow some of the huge space on one level to accommodate some of the department store type of merchandise that we do need.
The other floor could be rented out to help the bottom line. (Maybe put in a dozen pickleball courts-more space is needed for indoor play.)
B. Threaten to boycott all Kroger stores. Shop at Safeway, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Met Mkt. . .anywhere but QFC.
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My husband and I were at the Fred Meyer this morning. Our checker (whom we had not previously met) told us the store would be closing on October 17. That is less than two months away.
I also recommend contacting our District 5 City Council representative, Debora Juarez (appointed by City Council when Cathy Moore stepped down in early July). debora...@seattle.gov
The two at-large City Council members may also help: Sara Nelson, sara....@seattle.gov, and Alexis Mercedes Rinck, alexismerc...@seattle.gov.
One more place to make your voice heard:
Come to a D5 meeting with Mayor Harrell -- 8/28 at Meadowbrook CC 6:00-7:30 pm. Those planning to attend are required to RSVP by filling out this form:
Please consider attending this meeting with Mayor Harrell! This should definitely be a topic discussed at that meeting.
I was at the Fred Meyer pharmacy on Wednesday morning and learned that the staff was as surprised as the customers about the announced closure. Talked to a pharmacist and an assistant I've known a long time. The assistant said she couldn't sleep Tuesday night. They are most upset that they won't all be working together as they consider themselves family. When I expressed my thoughts about the closure the pharmacist handed me a card from a stack she had on the counter that had a handwritten e-mail address on it. She said it was the address of the woman handling comments about the closure that they had been given by HR. The address is Tiffany...@FredMeyer.com. I said I would e-mail her and share the address with neighbors who were also upset.
The pharmacist said the easiest thing for us to do is to continue to use a Fred Meyer or QFC pharmacy as they are all on the same system and we won't have to transfer prescriptions to another store system. I bet the pharmacy at QFC will be swamped.
Please consider writing to Tiffany Sanders as well as todd.k...@fredmeyer.com.
FYI, I provided a number to contact Fred Meyer corporate and here is the response one caller got:
I called the corporate switchboard and was able to talk to a human very quickly. She said she would make a note about me calling to ask Kroger to reconsider closing the Lake City store. I figure the more people who call the better chance we might have to get them to change their minds. At least I know I tried something. Thank you for providing this information.
Call Center
Open Mon. – Fri. 7 a.m. – Midnight, EST
Sat – Sun. 7 a.m. – 9:30 p.m., EST
1-800-KRO-GERS
Corporate Switchboard
(513) 762-4000
Also, here is president's email address:
To contact Todd Kammeyer, send an email to todd.k...@fredmeyer.com.
Please do call and email Fred Meyer corporate (politely) to let them know how important our Fred Meyer store is to all of us, and to ask them to reconsider the decision to close it. We can at least make our voices heard!
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