Fred Meyer

Review by eFreeware

Most grocery apps do one job: they let you order, or they hold your loyalty card. The Fred Meyer app tries to cover the whole weekly routine in one place, from the coupons you clip before you leave the house to the fuel points you spend at the pump afterward. That breadth is the most distinctive thing about it, and it is what makes the app worth considering rather than just another store companion.

It comes from The Kroger Co. and sits in the Shopping category on Google Play, where it has passed a million installs and holds a 4.1 average across more than 42,000 ratings. The app is free, carries no advertising, and offers no in-app purchases. If you already shop at Fred Meyer, or you are close enough to one that you could, this is the app built for you.

Ordering groceries without walking the aisles

The core of the app is grocery ordering. You can put together a basket for pickup or delivery, and the developer says the online catalog goes beyond what a single store carries, with thousands of additional grocery and household items available to order. That matters if your usual store runs out of a specific brand or you want something the shelf simply does not stock.

Purchase history is part of the same picture. Because the app keeps a record of what you have bought, reordering the items that show up in your cart every week takes far less effort than building a list from scratch. I would expect that to appeal most to households with a predictable rotation of staples, where the same dozen products come back month after month.

Delivery and pickup sit alongside in-store shopping rather than replacing it, so the app does not force one method on you. You can order ahead when the week is tight and still walk in with a list on other days. The flexibility is the point: the same account covers all three ways of shopping.

Coupons, weekly ads and the savings side

Saving money is the second pillar. The app carries the weekly sales, and you can clip digital coupons that then apply at checkout. Clipping ahead of time is the habit the design encourages, and it is a reasonable one: the coupon is attached to your account rather than to a piece of paper you have to remember.

Beyond the standard offers, the app surfaces personalized deals, bonus rewards and Cash Back offers. These are tied to your account and your shopping, which is how a program of this sort usually works. The developer describes the rewards side as personalized, and the practical effect is that two shoppers in the same store may see different offers.

Fuel points round out the savings. For anyone who fills up regularly, folding the fuel discount into the same app as the grocery list removes a separate step from the week.

Checkout, pharmacy and the everyday tools

In-store checkout is handled through Kroger Pay, which the developer presents as a fast way to pay. Rather than digging for a card, you use the app at the register, and the purchase lands in your history for next time. It is a small convenience, but it is the kind that compounds over a year of weekly trips.

The pharmacy tools are the part I would not have expected from a grocery app. You can refill prescriptions and track them from the same place you order groceries. For a household that already fills prescriptions at Fred Meyer, having that in one app instead of two is a genuine simplification of the weekly errand list.

The store locator is the quiet utility underneath all of this. It finds the nearest Fred Meyer store or fuel center, which is useful when you are traveling or have moved and have not settled on a regular location yet.

What you need before the first order

The app is not usable anonymously. A Fred Meyer digital account is required, and your Rewards ID gets connected inside the app. If you do not already have a Rewards ID, you receive one when you create the digital account and enroll in the rewards program, so the two steps happen together.

Registration, rewards membership and getting a Rewards ID all require you to be at least 18. That is a straightforward condition, but it is worth knowing before you hand the phone to a teenager and expect them to set up the household account.

The app also collects and handles information in ways described in its privacy policy. Tools collect and record data so the service can be personalized, recommendations made, fraud detected and the app improved, and that data may cover what you look up and buy in health and wellness. Some non-sensitive data may go to outside companies, among them ad and analytics firms, social networks, technology vendors and research firms. Using the app means accepting its terms and privacy policy. This is standard for a large retailer's app, but it is a real consideration given that pharmacy activity and wellness purchases sit inside the same account.

Households that get the most from it

The clearest fit is a regular Fred Meyer shopper who wants the weekly list, the coupons and the fuel points in one place instead of spread across a card, a paper ad and a separate pharmacy app. If your grocery routine already runs through this chain, the app consolidates it rather than adding a layer.

It also suits people who lean on pickup or delivery for at least part of their shopping. The ability to order from a catalog larger than a single store's shelves, then reorder from history, is most valuable to someone who plans meals ahead and does not want to improvise in an aisle.

Households filling prescriptions at Fred Meyer get an extra reason, since refills and tracking live in the same app. And anyone who drives enough to care about fuel savings will find the points tracking and fuel center locator worth the setup.

A practical call on installing it

The Fred Meyer app is a well-established free tool, first released in December 2012 and still receiving updates, with the most recent one focused on bug fixes and general improvements. It carries no ads and no in-app purchases, which keeps the experience uncluttered. The 4.1 average from more than 42,000 ratings suggests a broadly satisfied base, though averages of that size always hide a range of experiences.

My recommendation is straightforward. If Fred Meyer is where you shop, install it: the combination of ordering, coupons, fuel points, Kroger Pay and pharmacy refills in one account is hard to argue with, and the price of entry is a digital account and a rewards enrollment. If the chain is not part of your routine, there is nothing here to draw you in, because every feature is tied to shopping at Fred Meyer.

For the right household, this is the kind of app that quietly replaces three or four smaller habits. Set up the account once, link the rewards ID, and the weekly shop gets a little shorter.

What's new in version 99.0

‘Thanks for shopping with us. In this update, we’ve fixed a few bugs and made some general improvements. We value your feedback, so if you need help or have a suggestion, please contact our Customer Service Center at 1-800-576-4377.’