The Haggen's Fresh grocery and drug store at N 175th and Midvale will close in the next six to eight weeks, according to our News Partner, The Seattle Times.
Haggen's, formerly Top Foods, completely remodeled and rebranded itself as Haggen's Fresh just a year ago in an effort to increase sales.
According to The Times,
“Instead of closing these stores when they were struggling as TOP branded stores, we decided to do all we could do to try and turn these stores around. We invested in both remodeling and rebranding, dedicating our collective resources to give these locations one last chance. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to turn these stores around,” co-president Clement Stevens said in a news release.
There is no information about what will happen to the property after the store closes.
Sad news..
ReplyDeleteunfortunately, the writing was on the wall in this 2011 article:
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2016840949_haggen27.html
the owners actually say that "We didn't think we had to be competitive..."!
And I suspect from reading the article, that they had/have a union work force that probably fought the changes.
@10:55 pm - the article has nothing about unions that fought the changes, I shopped there frequently and they had a great staff. During construction of Mile Two of the Aurora Corridor Project I started going more to the Central Market and never went back after the reconfiguration of 175th. If you ask the city staff, the Aurora Corridor was GREAT for business. But the Top Food/Haggen Store Manager told me the construction was killing their sales, looks like it killed the store. The union workers that you attack loved the remodel and the changes to the store that I talked to -- did you even shop there?
ReplyDeleteThat location for years and years was an eyesore, an old grocery store in disrepair and fenced off. Haggen/Top Food was a locally owned grocery store chain, I will be sad to see them leave.
Meanwhile, we're now talking about remodeling the Central Market site. Stop the madness!
ReplyDeleteThere is no permit application on file with the City of Shoreline to remodel the Central Market nor have they stated during the Aurora Square CRA process they intend to remodel.
ReplyDeleteHaggen gave no notice to customers from the pharmacy. They told staff on 8/1 in the pharmacy and left 200 prescriptions to be refilled by Walgreens across the street. That left pharmacy customers such as myself having to go thru having the Walgreens ask the insurance to back out the prescriptions and refill them. I guess I would expect more professionalism from a business that has other stores and wants continued good press elsewhere. Walgreens was gracious and supportive.
ReplyDelete@7:02 pm - waah, the employees had no notice either. I went there tonight at 6:30 pm and they were in tears saying goodbye to customers they had known for years -- this was a corporate level decision they had no control over. The store manager was let go with no notice. The store was killed by the Aurora project -- there was no little access to the store for three months (an entire quarter) during the height of recession because of construction on Aurora and restricted construction for TWO YEARS!!!
ReplyDeleteBut if you talk to City Hall, it was not a problem, there is not net loss of sales tax revenue on Aurora Corridor construction because they count sales tax on the construction as part of the net. Which is STUPID because when the project is over, there is a net loss of almost 25% (one-quarter) of sales tax revenue. Let me elaborate further -- if you would trouble yourself, go and look at the Sound Transit EIS, Shoreline is dependent upon sales tax revenue for 21% of its total government and Seattle (a much larger city) only 17% -- which means Shoreline needs to maintain its small business and retail tax base. But City Hall doesn't care.
Don't like what happened to your prescriptions, well, the cause ultimately lies in City Hall. The Top Foods/Haggens site was a blighted empty shell for over 15 years until they came along and built it out. Now we can look forward to another empty retail space and you can take your prescription elsewhere while City Hall gives away property tax breaks and you pay for SPU rate increase beginning in 2020 since you voted for it.
How can you blame the Aurora project for the downfall of Haggens? Every grocery store on 99 has had the same construction (Safeway, Central Market, Fred Meyer). I don’t do my big weekly grocery shopping trip at Haggens because their prices are higher and they do not offer the shopping experience or upscale ingredients/products to justify it. Period. Instead I drive from an outside jurisdiction to shop Central Market every week. And I’ve been doing it for almost a decade, construction or not – we still need to eat.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to blame the Aurora Project for the downfall of Haggen's because they had only one entrance and that was almost completely blocked off for three months. Fred Meyer had four entrances, and Safeway had multiple entrances.
ReplyDeleteI shop at all the stores in Shoreline, and Central Market has the highest prices since you are complaining about price, followed by Top Foods/Haggens (unless you throw Ballinger Thriftway in there, and they are as high as the highest - Central Market).
Looks to be a combination of factors, but mismanagement has to be the biggest factor. I went by there today, their base pricing is just plain inflated. How at this point they allowed the store to be run into the ground with such uncompetitive pricing and little pizazz or quality to justify the gourmet pricing, is beyond me. This has to be root of the problem, exacerbated by the construction and the union.
ReplyDeleteWe loved their bakery, loved the remodeled ambiance and friendly staff, but, yeah, no incentive from the pricing.
ReplyDeleteAs former Nyer's, we are comfortable with uncomfortable locations, access, etc.-IF we feel we are getting a deal. I come from the land of two block-long lines for a cupcake, so inconvenience was not the real issue.
I reluctantly agree with others here that they lacked competitive pricing and/or quality that the costs could warrant.
We will miss the muffins and staff-hope a decent place can find a home there.......