Fred Meyer was a prominent Portland, Oregon-based supermarket chain that issued baseball cards in their stores from 1952 through 1961 as a baseball card promotion. The cards were inserted randomly into cereal boxes, gum packs, and candy bars sold at Fred Meyer stores. While not as prolific or popular as Topps or Bowman baseball cards of the era, the Fred Meyer baseball card sets are still sought after today by collectors due to their scarcity and regional significance.
The first Fred Meyer baseball card set was issued in 1952 and contained 48 player cards featuring stars from the American and National Leagues of that season. Some notable inclusions in the 1952 set were Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Warren Spahn, and Roy Campanella. The cards had black-and-white player photos on the front with basic career stats like batting average and home runs on the reverse. The cards did not feature any team logos or insignia, instead just featuring the player’s name and a “Fred Meyer” banner at the bottom of each card.
From 1953 to 1956, Fred Meyer issued 24-card sets each year containing updated stats and photos from that season’s top players. The 1953 set included rookie cards for future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Al Kaline. An unannounced color test set was apparently issued in a very small quantity in 1955 as some examples have surfaced containing color photos on duller cardstock than the standard black-and-white Fred Meyer cards of the era. The 1956 set is considered the most common of the early yearly issues.
In 1957, Fred Meyer took its baseball card promotion to another level by issuing a substantially larger 96-card set. This expanded offering allowed the company to feature additional star players and rookies alongside lesser known major leaguers. Some of the notable “firsts” in the 1957 Fred Meyer set included the first cards featuring future all-time hits leader Pete Rose as well as Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench as a rookie. Color was still not used on the fronts of the 1957 cards but a colorized team logo did appear on the backs for the first time.
The 96-card format continued through 1959 and cards began featuring colorful team insignia on both the fronts and backs. Several rookie cards of future stars like Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Luis Aparicio, and Early Wynn’s only card appeared in these medium-sized sets from Fred Meyer. Overall production remained limited regionally to the Pacific Northwest so many of these cards are quite scarce to this day.
In 1960, Fred Meyer embraced the expanding baseball card market by issuing its only large 132-card set to date. This helped capture more comprehensive coverage of that season’s players. Notable rookies included future 500 home run club members Mike Schmidt and Reggie Jackson. Select cards also featured player autographs signed via contest mail-ins further adding to the excitement of the Fred Meyer promotion. After a short run of only a year at the expanded size, the 1960 132-card issue marks the end of Fred Meyer’s golden era of baseball cards.
The 1961 Fred Meyer set reverted back to a smaller 68-card run that stuck mostly to star players and notable rookies like Tom Seaver rather than having broader representation. This would ultimately be the last baseball card set sold exclusively through Fred Meyer supermarkets. Throughout the 1940s-1960s, Fred Meyer gained a prominent foothold in the Pacific Northwest grocery industry but was surpassed nationally by larger chains.
While Fred Meyer continued to sell sport cards as a side business through the 1970s and ’80s, they no longer produced original baseball card sets of their own. Those produced between 1952-1961 have developed a strong cult following among regional collectors and sets can now fetch high prices when complete, especially for their early issues and key rookie cards of stars. Though never Topps-level releases, the Fred Meyer cards still hold significance as a unique part of baseball card history that spotlighted stars of the time specifically for fans in the Pacific Northwest supermarket aisles.
