American Dream

Long before Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer invented what is now called the "supercenter," giant stores selling both groceries and variety, back in the 1940s. But he died back in 1978 and Fred Meyer Stores are now a part of Kroger. The company has about two dozen supercenters in Portland and has long supported Metro planners who wanted to prohibit any more big-box stores in the region. They have effectively prevented Wal-Mart from opening any supercenters in competition with Fred Meyer in the Portland area, although there is one in Vancouver, Washington, and one in Woodburn, Oregon, about 30 miles south of Portland.

But now Fred Meyer wants to build a 181,000-square-foot supercenter in Beaverton and, guess what, the planners say "no." The area is designated a "town center," meaning no store bigger than 50,000 square feet. Besides, the people who live on the hillsides above the site don't want to have to look at a 181,000-square-foot roof.

The developer had actually proposed to build two different stores of 90,000 square feet and let Fred Meyer run half of its shops out of each of them. But one of the planners knows some arithmetic and figured out that 90,000 is bigger than 50,000. The developer is still hoping to get around the 50,000-square-foot limit and will propose to plant some flowers on the roofs of the buildings to keep the people on the hillside happy. He will also use "varied building materials and relief in the building face so that it's not a plain wall." Of course, all this means Fred Meyer will have to charge its customers a little more, but if Beaverton wanted economy, it would let Wal-Mart in.