New gas station to open at Fred Meyer

A new gas station will open at Lakeway Fred Meyer this summer.
Fred Meyer on Lakeway Drive will open a gas station this summer to add to its one-stop shopping experience, according to Fred Meyer spokeswoman Melinda Merrill.

The gas station will cost about a million dollars to build, Merrill said.

Anna VanZanden, a Fred Meyer customer, is excited about the Lakeway Fred Meyer gas station, because it means that she can shop and get gas closer to home.

VanZanden said that Bakerview Fred Meyer in northern Bellingham, which has a gas station, is an extra 10 minutes away for her. When the Lakeway gas station is put in she can leave her kids in the car for less time, she said.

Fred Meyer gives a discount of 3 cents per gallon to customers that have a Rewards Card, according to the Fred Meyer website. Every time a customer with a Rewards Card spends $100 at the store, they receive a discount of 10 cents per gallon the next time they get gas, the website said.

Breanna Weber, an employee at Lakeway Fred Meyer, said she thinks the gas station will increase business. Many people drive to the Bakerview location so they can get groceries and use their rewards on gas at the same time, Weber said.

Gas station to use all new equipment

Merrill said that although gas tanks are still in the ground from a previous station in the same place, Fred Meyer will be putting in all new tanks.

There will room for eight cars to pump gas, according to Merrill. The new pumps and tanks will be “state of the art,” she said.

The gas station is part of an initiative Fred Meyer has to add gas stations, Merrill said.

“We know from talking to our customers that it’s something they want,” she said.

The new gas station was planned to open in May or June but the opening date has been pushed back to mid or late summer because of a few land-use details, according to Merrill.

In general, adding a gas station to a Fred Meyer does not create new jobs, but one or two people may be hired, Merrill said.

Bakerview experiences traffic jams

The Bakerview Fred Meyer store opened at the same time as its gas station in 2003. The gas station often gets backed up, said employee Larry Sharp.

Carol Bliss, another employee at the Bakerview store, said that she sometimes wonders where people learned to drive because of the traffic jams that occur at the gas station. She often gets stuck trying to drive near the station, she said.

Fred Meyer made sure they had an adequate amount of space and parking before moving forward with the Lakeway gas station, Merrill said.

Cole Rogers, an attendant at the Bakerview gas station said that the gas station often has a line. Rogers said he thinks that the Lakeway station will have the same problem. Bliss said that she doesn’t think the Bakerview store will see a decrease in customers.

“It might affect the gas but I don’t think it’s going to affect the store’s inside,” she said.

Discount Tire will see a busier parking lot

Discount Tire, a tire shop that shares its parking lot with Lakeway Fred Meyer, expects to have a busier parking lot once the gas station opens, said employee Ricky Hugo.

"I’m not a real big fan of it,” he said.

Rod Hayes, store manager of Discount Tire, said that he is glad that Fred Meyer is filling the vacant hole in the parking lot, which Hayes said looked “trashy.”

Discount Tire will get more exposure when the gas station opens, Hayes said.

Construction in the parking lot will be ongoing until mid or late summer.