Ohio-based Kroger plans to permanently close the Kent Fred Meyer store in October on the East Hill.
“It’s big news and it’s tough news,” said Rich Smith, spokesperson for Seattle-based United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 3000, the union for the Kroger employees, which announced the closing of stores in Kent and Everett in a Monday, Aug. 22 press release.
The store, 10201 SE 240th St., employs 2o3, Smith said. Fred Meyer also has a Kent store at 25250 Pacific Highway S., on the West Hill.
“Our union will sit down with the company to bargain over these changes in the coming days,” according to UFCW 3000. “Our union contracts stipulate that Kroger must offer workers placement in equivalent positions at nearby stores, in accordance with their union seniority.”
A Kroger spokesperson emailed the following statement when asked for comment from the Kent Reporter.
“Unfortunately, due to a steady rise in theft and a challenging regulatory environment that adds significant costs, we can no longer make the store at 10201 SE 240th in Kent financially viable,” according to the statement. “Despite doubling our safety and security investment over the past years, these challenges remain.
“Every associate will be offered a position at another location, and we remain committed to serving communities across Washington where we can operate sustainably.”
According to UFCW 3000, Kroger “claims that those facilities (Kent and Everett) represent some of the region’s lowest performers in terms of sales.”
The two store closures, planned for Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, will impact about 360 workers, according to the union.
Kroger in July announced closure coming in September of a Fred Meyer store in Tacoma and a QFC store in Mill Creek. Kroger in June announced plans to close more than 60 stores nationwide.
The union said the closures are part of a company “plan to shutter stores in low-sales areas and open stores in potentially high-sales areas.”
According to the union, this strategy raises serious concerns about food access for working class communities. Both stores (Kent, Everett) 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,” said Faye Guenther, UFCW 3000 president, in the press release. “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.”
Kroger operates more than 2,700 stores across the nation under a variety of banner names, according to the company website.
Background
Provided by UFCW 3000:
• 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 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 Aug. 11.
• After authorizing a strike in June of 2025, grocery store workers in July in the Puget Sound region ratified a new contract that won first-in-the-nation language to address staffing issues, secured union health care and pensions, and gained some of the largest average annual wage increases the union has seen.
• UFCW 3000 is the largest private-sector union in Washington state, representing more than 55,000 workers in grocery, health care, cannabis, retail, food packing and processing, and textiles and laundry, among other industries. It represents nearly 30,000 grocery workers in Washington, Eastern Oregon and north Idaho.
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