QFC

Quality Food Centers (QFC) is a supermarket chain based in Bellevue, Washington, with 64 stores in the Puget Sound region of Washington state and in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area.

History

Jack Croco first started in the grocery business in Boise, Idaho, in the 1940s working for Albertsons Supermarkets. By 1950, he had become the district manager in the Northwest and was responsible for opening the first Albertson's stores in the Seattle area. Soon afterward in 1955, he opened his own grocery store in Bellevue which was called Lake Hills Thriftway. The grocery concern that would come to be named QFC in 1963 was founded in 1955 with the first store at 6600 Roosevelt Way Northeast by a group headed by Vern Fortin, the former president of Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakeries and founder of Vernell's Fine Candies. Croco merged his store with QFC in 1960. He remained involved in the company until his death in 1991 at the age of 65, though in 1986 he sold QFC to Seattle investment firm Sloan, Adkins & Co. Sloan Adkins took QFC public in 1987.Christopher A. Sinclair became the CEO in 1996. In 1997, QFC purchased the Uddenberg grocery company which operated Thriftway and Stock Market stores throughout western Washington. In late 1997, QFC was sold to Fred Meyer, and a year and a half later in May 1999 Kroger acquired Fred Meyer and QFC. The Roosevelt store remained open through May 5, 2012, when it was closed to make way for construction of a Link Light Rail station.