BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Over the past two years, Quality Food Centers here has pushed the boundaries of its operating territory in three directions.
the year, QFC added a third store with a newly constructed unit in Snohomish, increasing its store count from 30 to 33 units at the end of 1992.
The Haggen deal marked QFC's first expansion move outside its core King County (the Seattle region) market area. It also signaled the beginning of a shift in strategy for QFC. Since that two-store acquisition from Haggen, QFC has turned to acquiring existing stores from local independents as a means of adding to square footage. In 1993, QFC added five stores to its 33-store base. Two of those five units were acquired from local independents. Among the three newly constructed stores was the company's first unit in Pierce County, which is directly south of Seattle.
QFC has continued to expand its territory and acquire independent stores in 1994. In March, QFC made its first move onto the Olympic Peninsula of western Washington (Clallam County) with the acquisition of a single store in Sequim. After taking over that 32,000-square-foot unit, QFC planned to replace it with a new, 35,000-square-foot store across the street, which is scheduled to open this month.
QFC's largest acquisition to date was disclosed in May, when the company agreed to acquire five stores from Johnny's Food Centers, Kent, Wash.
QFC said it closed one of the Johnny's stores in June and purchased a single unit from Food Giant, Seattle, located seven blocks away from that closed Johnny's store. QFC now operates a store in the former Food Giant unit.
