Fred Meyer Alters Utah Plans
eyer Inc. here has revised its $100 million Utah expansion plans.
Fred Meyer, which operates large combination food and general merchandise stores, said it has secured sites for two new 165,000-square-foot units in Utah and expects to open the stores by the fourth quarter of 1995. Previously, the company had not set a target opening date for the two new stores, which will be in downtown Salt Lake City and West Jordan, Utah.
The company's plan to add food departments at five of its 12 Utah stores in 1994 has been delayed. Only two of the five stores will be remodeled to include food departments by the fourth quarter of this year. Two others will be remodeled by the first quarter of 1995.
The fifth Utah store scheduled to add a food department will not be remodeled until the second quarter of 1995, Fred Meyer said.
Bob Miller, chairman and chief executive officer, said "Because of the large amount of new construction going on everywhere in fast-growing Utah and the availability of contractors to complete our projects in a cost-effective manner, we have revised our remodel schedule."
Capital spending will "remain unchanged" by moving two remodels -- in Juneau, Alaska, and Vancouver, Wash. -- from 1995 into 1994.
College Plan to Draw Minorities
FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- The National-American Wholesale Grocers' Association here is developing a new food-industry management program in the Texas A&M university system that is designed to attract more minorities to the industry.
NAWGA and the International Foodservice Distributors Association, its partner association, are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and four colleges in Texas to develop the program. USDA is funding the project with $1.2 million.
Beginning in the 1994-1995 school year, students at Prairie View A&M University will be able to declare a major in food distribution as part of the new World Food Distribution Training Center there. WFDTC will offer courses in food marketing and logistics.
John Block, president of NAWGA/IFDA, said there are no U.S. colleges offering similar food-distribution programs specifically geared toward minority students. Three Texas A&M campuses -- College Station, Laredo and Kingsville, Texas -- also will offer the WFDTC program.
