As Brent Stewart begins his new role as president of Kroger-owned supermarket chain QFC, he is working for a parent company he had been preparing to bid farewell to until just a few weeks ago.
QFC, which runs 59 stores in Washington state and Oregon, was among the assets Kroger announced in September 2023 that it intended to divest to C&S Wholesale Grocers to win regulatory approval for its plan to merge with Albertsons. With the merger’s dissolution at the end of last year, however, QFC will remain with Kroger — and Stewart is settling into his job as president of QFC as the banner switches gears after preparing for months to move to C&S.
“The team was ready to handle whatever was going to come our way. We’re happy to be back with Kroger, but the team also said, ‘Hey, if this is where we’re going, we’re going, and we’re going to be all right,’” Stewart said about the proposed sale to C&S. “We’re a strong group, and we were going to take care of each other and take care of the customer and just continue to sell groceries.”
Stewart, who became president of QFC in December, said he built his respect for Kroger’s management even as QFC’s possible sale to a rival grocery company loomed.
“Through that experience, I learned a lot more about Kroger, and really the leadership of Kroger, in the sense that it wasn’t unusual for me to get a text in the middle of the day or even in the evening, saying, ‘Hey, how are you doing? What can we do? How’s the team?’” he said.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Stewart has served in multiple store-level and corporate management positions for several grocers since beginning his grocery industry career in 1980. He was a store manager for Olson’s Food Stores when that chain became part of QFC in the 1990s and was with QFC during its 1998 purchase by Kroger in a deal that also included Fred Meyer, which is also still owned by Kroger. Stewart served as QFC’s vice president of merchandising before his promotion to the banner’s top role.
Stewart discussed his experience in the grocery industry and plans for QFC in a recent interview with Grocery Dive.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
GROCERY DIVE: QFC operates in the highly competitive Seattle grocery market. What’s your sense about the competition you face?
BRENT STEWART: We’ve just got to continue to evolve and match what our customers’ needs are. We listen to our customers. If it’s more organics, more natural items, more Asian products, we need to be flexible. We just expanded Asian in our Redmond, Washington, store. We’ve got a great merchandising team that’s got a ton of tenure. They’re out looking all the time. They’re looking by store. We’re nimble here. We’re not one size fits all. Even though we have 59 stores, each one’s a little different.
We also have a lot of independents out here, from Metropolitan Market to PCC to Town & Country. We’re also seeing a big influx of Asian markets. T&T just came down with their first store from Canada right here in the Bellevue, Washington, area. Costco is also a big competitor. I know they're out shopping our stores and learning from us. We’re into understanding what they’re doing too.
Do you have plans to expand your fleet?
STEWART: We’re always looking to see if there’s a fit in the right location and if it makes sense for us. I hold that pretty tight, but we’re always looking.
Are you planning to update stores?
STEWART: We have nine remodels happening this year. We’ve got nine remodels planned for next year. So we’re going to continue to take care of our stores and make sure they’re in great shape.
Did you have to put projects aside as you waited to find out if the arrangement to sell QFC to C&S would go through?
STEWART: I don’t know if there was anything put on hold. We had remodels going through the last two years. We continued to work on plans. To really make a remodel go — and I talked about remodels coming up in 2025 — we were working on those during the whole merge process and the previous year. We continued down the path whether or not we were to stay with Kroger or go with the merge. We were prepared to go ahead and continue our remodel plan. So I wouldn't say anything held us back.
The QFC store in Kirkland, Washington, includes a restaurant. Have you thought about bringing that concept to any other locations?
STEWART: The Kirkland community loves that store. At this time, we don't have any plans to build another one, but that thing has been a big win for us, absolutely. We partnered with a local restaurant here called Tutta Bella, and they’ve been a fantastic partner. So that thing’s been a fantastic hit for us.
What’s your strategy for demonstrating to shoppers that QFC is focused on keeping prices down?
STEWART: I think a lot of that comes in our merchandising plans. We do try to make sure that we’re promoting. We put out fantastic ads each and every week that are focused on value to our customers. We do customize our ads differently than other banners across Kroger. We know what our customers want, and we get great prices out there. If you go down through our ad, if you shop our ads, they’re as hot as anybody out there, and I’d put them up against any competitor.
How have you tackled the challenge posed by high egg prices?
STEWART: It’s about making sure our associates are educated and they can talk to the customers about what’s really going on. We watch our pricing, especially eggs and milk and other key items, with all competitors. I promise you that we’re not making more money on eggs as they go up. Matter of fact, our margins have gone down.
