Fred Meyer

I grew up in Phoenix, which at least while I lived there, was a fabulous grocery store test market. That meant there were oodles of markets all in competition with one another, battling it out for customers. My poor mom would strategize who was having what triple coupon deal and comb the ads and shop at various stores accordingly. She and my dad had a tight budget. Recession, you know.
When I was on my own I liked Smith’s. Cheap takeout Chinese and sales on diet coke. Twenty-​nothing priorities. Plus I lived in Lake Havasu for a while. There wasn’t much to choose from there. But there was Smith’s.
I moved to Eugene at 29 and shopped at Oasis (RIP), Price Chopper, and Sundance each for it’s own kinda things. Produce came outta my own obsessed hippie farmer girl wannabe backyard garden.
Since I arrived in Portland, married, had a baby, moved around town a bunch, divorced, etc. I have never truly landed on a favorite. My then partner shopped at Zupan’s. Um, too expensive. I still am not a fan of Safeway or Albertson’s. I liked Haggen but it’s mostly gone. I truly loathe Winco (everyone shopping and working always seems so stressed and bummed out) although when I’m extra poor I will go there. I am just not a Thriftway person. Market of Choice overwhelms me, it is too glossy. QFC is my convenient neighborhood milk run place. I hit up Costco, Uwajimaya, Supermercado de Mexico, New Season’s, and Trader Joe’s for some stuff. Very specific stuff though. Focused and intentional. Otherwise I risk overspending on exotic condiments and wine, you know how that goes.
I realized last week that this Freddy’s is my main squeeze.
So to speak.
I’m in here fairly frequently. It lies in my drive path between my house and my job. The parking lot sucks only sometimes. It’s got big wide aisles. There is Starbucks inside in case I’m dragging. I buy quite a bit of our family’s clothing (socks, underwear, cardigans for my mom, emergency rainboots for outdoor school, stuff like that) here. I know my way around the store. It is light, clean, bright, there is U scan, and the employees are ok. The «health food» section is just behind the produce and not strangely separate like at some other Freddy’s stores.
All in all it’s good with me. I feel like the prices are fair. The selection gets better and better. There is more organic produce and more things from Bob’s Red Mill than there used to be. The beer section isn’t bad. I can find most of what I’m looking for here. And buying random non food stuff while still getting the staple pantry items i.e. without multiple trips, is a good thing.
I even have that annoying rewards card on my keyring.
Freddy’s has won me over.
Mostly.

I’m updating not to change my review, but to point something that Kroger/​FM may have no control over: the pharmacy.
It feels like the scene in Beetlejuice where you’re just sitting in the waiting room waiting for your number to be called. I have never been to the pharmacy without at least a 5 – 10 minute wait time. 10 minutes is a long time to just stand in a line of one person. One time, I approached the counter and a clerk scolded me, «We’ll call you when we’re ready for you.» There’s no one in front of me, no one checking out, there are four people behind the counter, and it’s been TEN MINUTES.

This review is for the customer service desk specifically. I’m so pleased with how nice they are and how *easy* it is to get stuff done. Everything from returns to receipt adjustments to money orders– super nice, efficient, and helpful. Simple return today was met with a smile and it took almost no time to take care of it. Sadly, not the case everywhere.

Came here for their deposit machine for bottles.
The two multi-​bottle machines are out of order and look to be premaritally so. The place is swarmed with bees which I guess is understandable because of the beer and soda? There are bottle caps spilling out the machines onto the sidewalk and doesn’t look like they ever clean it up.
The ONE other machine stopped working and the guy using it pressed the call button. A few minutes later ours jammed (it happens) and my husband finally went inside because no one had come out yet. Finally got it up and running again and finished up.
Went inside to get our cash and the lady didn’t scan one of our receipts which was for at least 24 bottles. When I pointed it out, she took out ALL the receipts and starting digging through them saying something like «do you remember how many bottles?» Seriously? You JUST scanned them, didn’t even finish the transaction yet, and can’t find my receipts? Terrible. There was a line behind me so I said forget it.
I’m guessing they make it a pain in hopes people don’t come here? Lame.

One stop shopping is the motto. And you can for the most part.
Groceries, lower end clothing, lower end footwear, cheap Furniture, some toys, limited electronics, jewelry, garden, and housewares. Even light hardware.
If you are not looking for high quality or super low prices your all set. In fact prices are pretty high for groceries. When you compare to Winco they are 10−20% higher…
The real joy in Fred Meyer is being able to get several items quickly without having to go to different stores… It is really there for pure ease.

If you are in a hurry dont bother stopping at the deli. Six people working in back totally ignored the fact I had been standing there for close to 10 mins. They didn’t even acknowledge I was there. Terrible customer service. Finally walked off after waiting for over 10 mins.

I’ve been to the bottle recycling center 3 times in the past month and every time it’s a complete cluster f@&$. Half the machines don’t work, the ones that do can’t read the container I bought at FM last week half the time, and the odd employee that wanders out there is useless. Fred Meyers is happy to take my bottle deposit in an efficient manner and then make me scrounge like an idiot to get my deposit back. Own this Freddy! It’s terrible customer service and has driven me away to shop elsewhere. Invest in the process or you will lose more customers.

I don’t have any fancy pictures or elaborate details to give you about my visits to this particular Freddy’s, but just know that every employee has exceptional customer service.
The store is never dirty or out of order and they genuinely care about rather you’re finding everything you need or not. You’ll get the same welcoming customer service rather you drop by at 8am or 10pm and that really speaks volumes.
This store is 1 mile away from where we live and I’m glad that it can be a one stop shopping trip if need be. If you’re in the Hillsboro area and your looking for anything at all then give this location a try.
Happy Unilocaling…

Love the convenience of this store, they carry just about everything, I go here all the time and love it. There is some turnover but the staff that has been there for a while tends to be really on top of the customer service. Overall really great!

The lady who works hardware was extremely rude and sarcastic with me. Every time I come to this section there are no employees in site and I have to call for one on the phone.
I won’t be coming back here for any of my hardware purchases again.

Over the last few weeks I’ve had three separate experiences here with terrible customer service. I will not be returning to Fred Meyers after this.
1) I had stopped in passing to check out a piece of jewelry and on my next visit to the store I asked to see it. The clerk (the same one as had Serb me the week before) responded «back again huh? You gonna buy anything this time?» I had intended to purchase the ring but decided against it after that response.
2) I purchased a 5lb package of ground beef. When I opened the package at home the entire inside of the meat was brown and stank. It was obviously rotten as soon as I opened it. I returned to the store with the meat and my receipt with an hour of purchase to exchange it for good meat. I explained that the meat was bad to the customer service clerk. Without looking at the meat she rolled her eyes at me and in a very patronizing tone told me «that’s normal it’s the difference in lighting. You don’t need to return this.» When I insisted she glared at me throughout the entire transaction.
3) Today I went to get gas and with lines out of the parking lot the attendants weren’t directing traffic so that there were numerous pumps left open despite the lines. I waited while three cars in front of me went through and no one chose to pull into one of the open spots. When I was close enough I pulled into an open spot. The attendant came over and said «you need to pull through since you cut those people off.» He then walked away and refused me service without giving me a chance to respond.

New year, new reviews. I have been suggested to branch out a bit and check in at places I go regularly. So I agreed it was high time I get of my posterior and make some check in’s and suggestions!
SO! Freddys. We are new to the PNW (well we were 2 years ago) so this chain was unknown to us. Its kind of like a Walmart. They have everything under one roof. And i do mean everything, some stored even have jewelry stores inside them. Some locations are more akin to a mall to be honest, with food courts and such. This location has a few eateries attached outside (which is common strip mall style. I tend to go to this location for nearly everything. Because its close. HOWEVER, it does NOT have the best selection. It seems smaller than other locations, but its close to me, so i continue to come back. They have little no NO selections in iced teas. (BOOOOO) But their deli and cheese area is well stocked. (YAY!) I even pick up the olive tappenade from here at times for snacking, it is VERY good. Make your own bruscetta and you have a downright lovely snack. They have toys, games, clothes, gardening supplies, guns, ammo, paint, yes, they have a LARGE selection. I like getting groceries from here, the prices are good and fair. People here are WAY friendly. Honestly folks, these employees are top notch. Strike up a conversation and you’ll see what i mean, sheesh, most times they will strike one up with you before you have a chance! I keep coming back, even though i need to go elsewhere for my iced teas =(

Well organized aisles, a quality selection of a plethora of products, there isn’t much else you could ask for from this store. Gifts, groceries, and goods. You want/​need it, they have it.

It feels weird to be reviewing a grocery store, but I’ll do it anyway. This location isn’t the closest one to my house. The one on Walker is actually closer, but I am quite happy to drive a little more just to come to this location, No, not all Fred Meyers are created equal. Maybe it’s because before coming to this store, I was a Fred Meyer virgin and I have a soft spot in my heart for my first Freddys, but whatever the reason, this is my favorite location. It just seems cleaner and more organized and friendlier and better stocked and less crowded and I’ve never almost been run over or had my car hit in the parking lot (like the Walker location). The cashier supervisors are always on top of things and I’ve never had to wait in a long check-​out line.
I mean, forget everything you just read. This location is the worst and you shouldn’t come here and crowd up the parking lot or grocery aisles.

Even with our family trying our best to avoid animal testing companies, thinking we had to shop at other ‘natural’ stores, Freddies has most of the items we shop for these days. We started shopping at the location on Walker Rd when we first moved to this neck-​o-​the-​woods and when the Hillsboro store opened, we started shopping that one. Needless to say, when the Imbrie store opened and it was a half mile less to travel to it, that one became our ‘home store’. I know probably half of the clerks’ names, which means it makes for a much more pleasant shopping experience.
It’s nice to be recognized in that manner :)

It all started with the big woosh of cold air blowing my hair back, a delicious experience on an 86-​degree day, and then walking directly through the flower section and directly into produce. New Seasons? Nope. Imbrie Drive Freddies.
I’ve stopped here a few times to pick up dinner items on my way home. It’s easy to find my way around because it’s a Fred’s after all, a store that’s part of my personal Portland history, but it has that nice kind of New Seasons feel. It’s super shiny and clean, and I’ve found everyone on the whole to be friendly and helpful.
I haven’t had time to do anything other than shop quickly for a few small items from time to time and haven’t had time to get through the whole store (it’s big), but just these first impressions are enough to bring me back and want to explore.

Just an update, this Fred Meyer is still fine for shopping but the salad bar I previously liked so much has gone a bit downhill. The past several times I’ve checked it out, the pre-​made salads and a few other items in the salad bar are all dried out, like with a discolored crust on them. Yuck! And this is at about 12:30 or so, lunch time when the salad bar should be relatively busy I think.
This could easily be alleviated by stirring those items on a regular basis, every 10 – 15 minutes or so. If that can’t be done, or if there is just too much air drying out those items (it’s kind of in front of a main set of doors) — then re-​think the salad bar offerings. I’m not about to eat potato salad that looks all warm and dried out like that. Presentation means a lot, even at a grocery store salad bar.

I like this grocery store, but it freaks me out that they sell guns. It is so unnecessary.
Also, this place is usually extremely crowded. People don’t know how to shop. They linger in the middle of the aisles and I try not to yell at them.

Walmart whooo? Not when you’re 11miles away and takes 20−30min to get to.
We were impressed when walking in. Department store, grocery, electronic, furniture and garden center all in one! What more can you really ask for?
The pricing is comparable to others, but just like a good *yelper*, I mean shopper once must be precise and tactical to get the best deals.
Located next to a lot of smaller shops, Cold Stone, Chicken Bonz… it makes it really convenient.
Customer service was exceptional for the three times we went on a specific furniture shopping. We were particular as in needing a measuring tape and to

Yeah I’m reviewing a grocery store. What about it?!
In comparison to other FM, this one is on the top of my list. Not only because it’s the closest, but it also rarely makes me want to yank my hair out with annoyance. The parking lot is busy, but you never have to park too far away or wait for… well…absolute morons to navigate around it. Unlike the next FM (Walker) I don’t drive with the 96% someone is going to hit me.
Otherwise it’s got your typical Fred Meyer items, and it’s generally true about the one stop shop. Produce is fresh, bread is fresh, selection of meats are good.
Here’s another perk! Good beer selection. I have no idea why some Fred Meyers have a bevy of beer selection (NE) and some have like one section (Walker). This one has a side for domestics (Coors.only good for tailgating) and the other side boasts imports and local brews.