Op-Ed: How to Confront Fred Meyer Closures and Guarantee Food Access [View all]

Kroger blames theft for Puget Sound area grocery store closures, but the real story is more complicated.

In the next two months, Kroger will close multiple Fred Meyer stores across Western Washington, including those in Lake City (Seattle), Redmond, Everett, and Kent. The company blames a “steady rise in theft” and a “challenging regulatory environment,” and promises to reassign workers elsewhere. UFCW 3000, the grocery workers’ union, reports that more than 700 employees will be affected.

Does crime alone explain these closures?

Retail theft has risen in some places since 2019, but the story is not so simple. Even the industry’s own reports are debated, and locally, shoplifting was down at several of the stores now being shuttered. Profitability pressures, real estate costs, and broader corporate strategy clearly play a role. Theft may be part of the story, but it is not the whole story.

The hunger link: food prices and theft

What Kroger does not mention is just as important. Food prices have surged, more than 20% in Washington since 2020, with basics like eggs, milk, and produce climbing fastest. Pandemic-era SNAP boosts expired, leaving families with less buying power.

When theft rises, part of it is hunger in action. When it comes to Kroger, people aren’t typically stealing flat-screen TVs; they’re stealing bread, cereal, and produce. In that sense, the grocery store is telling on itself. Its own price hikes fuel the desperation. And Kroger’s response is not to find a solution and maybe ease the burden, but to close doors, punishing entire neighborhoods in the process.

https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/09/16/op-ed-how-to-confront-fred-meyer-closures-and-guarantee-food-access/