Fred’s fanfare: Palmer bursts at the arrival of brand new supermarket

PALMER — It may not have been the biggest event in the history of Palmer, but on a frosty, breezy Friday morning, it sure felt like it.

Nary a parking spot was available in the lot of the new Fred Meyer store, which officially opened its doors with an 8 a.m. ribbon cutting, but that didn’t stop people from circling determinedly in the hopes of becoming among the first to shop its many, many shelves.

“I think this gives us a lot more options. It’s a small town, but this is a big store and I see 20 kinds of apples instead of two. I think it’s just more selection,” said Debbie Robinson, a Palmerite since 1973. “It kind of looks like all of Palmer is here.”

Paula Dobbs said she seldom shopped at the old Fred Meyer location, but plans to shop the new one frequently, as she lives just two miles away.

“I think it’s going to be great for the community,” Dobbs said. “People aren’t going to have to travel to Wasilla so much. I was also thinking about tourists coming through. Now they can cut through Palmer and get everything they need.”

“The new store, which is a $35 million investment for Fred Meyer will be almost double the size of the current one, expanding from close to 70,000 square feet to over 137,000 square feet, and will add 60 new jobs,” said Zach Stratton, Community Affairs Specialist from Fred Meyer’s Oregon office, who was on hand for the grand opening. “It will feature a general merchandise and apparel section, Murray’s Cheese, expanded food options, a Pan Asian ready-to-go offering and a much improved deli and bakery section.”

Under a sign reading “Sushi Bar” the Palmer High School jazz band and concert band played, and fresh off their rendition, jazz band members Hannah Embree, Ben Waddell and his sister Jessica were walking toward the gun department in the opposite corner of the store, interrupted mid-sentence in a conversation about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse.

“That would make sense, it is a beautiful new store,” Ben Waddell said. “The fact there’s a gun section here makes it so much better.”

All irony aside, the local teens were genuinely blown away by the vastness and selection.

“I feel like it really brings the community together since we don’t have to leave town now all the time,” Embree said. “Normally I have to leave a couple of times a week, or every day, to Wasilla for sometime. Now we’re content; we have what we need.”

Ben Waddell pointed out there’s a cultural impact, as well.

“But I definitely think it also commercializes Palmer and brings it more into a city age,” he said. “It’s definitely one of the biggest things that’s ever happened to Palmer.”

Stratton said he was impressed but not surprised by the turnout.

“We had probably about 400 people lined up by 8 a.m., the first 300 got Fred Meyer gift cards, we handed all those out and there were still about 100 more people — people seemed excited and pleased,” Stratton said. “This puts the Palmer store in line with a lot of the bigger stores in Wasilla, Anchorage and Fairbanks with the apparel, outdoors, hunting gear — the full gamut instead of a more limited food store.”

Not his first time in Alaska, but his first time in Palmer, Stratton was impressed with the community.

“The Palmer community has just been great,” he said. “Sales were great at the old Palmer store, and with the numbers we knew we could double the size, have more to offer and the town could support it. The land was available across the street, so it made sense to offer a full-service store.”

Contact editor Matt Hickman at 252-2268 or matt.hickman@frontiersmn.com