Fred G. Meyer
Fred G. Meyer (born February 21, 1886 – died September 2, 1978) was a pioneering U.S. retailer.
Born in Brooklyn, he travelled through the American West before settling in Portland, Oregon in 1909, where he founded a coffee shop (1915) and then in 1922, a grocery store bearing his name in downtown Portland. He expanded this store into the Fred Meyer chain of supermarkets and department stores.
Meyer introduced innovative marketing concepts; he is often credited as one of the originators of the "one-stop shopping" concept, when in 1933, he built the Hollywood Fred Meyer, his first full-block megastore on Northeast Sandy Boulevard at 42nd Avenue in Portland (the site now occupied by Rite Aid since the store's re-location to the new Hollywood West store in 1991).
Fred Meyer's life as business entrepreneur is an example of commitment to the communities where he built his stores: he usually commercialized goods from local production, he fostered the production of new crops in the Northwest region, he financed new business ventures and he also aided some in danger of failing during hard times of the economy. The inclusion of support to the local communities development and welfare is a fairly recent and advanced concept in the business management field, so, in this sense, Meyer may be regarded as a pioneer too.
Upon his death his stock in Fred Meyer was used to establish the Meyer Memorial Trust (MMT). MMT is not to be confused with the Fred Meyer Foundation, which is sponsored by now Kroger-owned subsidiaries of Fred Meyer Stores and Quality Food Centers (QFC).
References