Fred Meyer Ads From 1978 and Beyond

[+Random Terrain]

While looking for other things, I stumbled upon these Fred Meyer ads from 1978 that include Atari 2600, Channel F, and Coleco Telstar Arcade:

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63911695/fred-meyer-feb-18-1978/

 

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63911557/fred-meyer-apr-29-1978/

 

 

Here's one from January 30, 1979:

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63912070/fred-meyer-jan-30-1979/

 

 

February 25, 1982:

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63912267/fred-meyer-feb-25-1982/

 

 

Berzerk August 24, 1982:

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63915132/fred-meyer-berzerk-aug-24-1982/

 

 

[+cvga]

Those are awesome on multiple levels. It's fascinating to watch the price of the system decrease. It's also interesting that they are showing Air-Sea Battle on the television in the first ad but I'm sure the pack-in game, that they don't identify, is Combat.

 

Cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[+cvga]

Also, I'm assuming it's just coincidental that we had a Fred Meyer back then and today there's a large department store named Meijer (pronounced the same way) that was started by Fred Meijer.

[+Nathan Strum]

I spent many a high school lunch hour (and after school hours as well), playing the handful of arcade games the local Fred Meyer had installed.

They had the first Pac-Man I ever saw, plus at various times Defender, Joust, Monaco GP, and Battlezone (which I played more than everything else combined). I was so engrossed in a game of Battlezone once, someone stole my bike which I had parked out front (and of course, had neglected to lock up).  

 

I got it back though. The brakes on it didn't work very well, and whoever stole it abandoned it.  

 

The Fred Meyer is still there. Prior to being a Fred Meyer it changed hands a few times - first being a Valu-Mart and then Leslie's. (Having useless trivia like that taking up space in my brain 40 years later is why I have to write notes to myself about what groceries I need to buy at the store, then I forget to bring the note with me, then I still forget what the main thing was I was going to buy at the store in the first place. Twice.)

[jhd]

1 hour ago, cvga said:

Those are awesome on multiple levels. It's fascinating to watch the price of the system decrease.

 

These ads also provide a frame of reference -- how did the 2600 compare against the competition in terms of price and, to a lesser extent, game selection.  

[Chuck D. Head]

Thanks for posting these, RT!  Freddy's was a wonderful place when I was a kid. It was great because my parents would do their grocery shopping there and I was free to peruse the well-stocked toy aisles and the electronics department that typically had video game demo units. It was really the best "one-stop shopping" store, at least here on the west coast. They are still pretty much the same today, its just that there are cheaper places to buy groceries and even if there weren't, my wife doesn't like me to run around on my own because of "stranger danger". (and I would buy stuff I don't need)

[Skylark68]

Really interesting reading. Funny that Starship is called by two names in the first ad. “Space Mission” and then Starship in the description of the game. 

[retroeight]

You are doing an amazing job. My hobby as it relates to Atari has evolved more from collecting to history. I maybe able to help you on your database of release dates. 

 

lloyd

[BIGHMW]

I have lived here in the Great Northwest since 1987, after moving to Port Townsend from the San Fernando Valley in LA, the slogan then on their TV ads was "You'll find it at Freddy's", and that was true, but the nearest Fred Meyer from us then was in Silverdale, it closed and later became Best Buy, so far and since then we do not have a Fred Meyer anywhere on this side of either the Hood Canal Bridge (Jefferson or Clallam Counties) or this side of Puget Sound, you have to cross the ferry to get even near one, but right now they're offering tons of socks for sale this holiday season, and also, some other goods as well but their ownership at Kroger, in which also owns QFC, in which we do have here in Port Townsend and also in Port Hadlock, and in Sequim and Port Angeles, likes to market Fred Meyer on their TV ads mainly as a supermarket rather than it being as similar to what Walmart is with most of their stores, with being both retail and a grocery store in one building.