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| Shoreline Haggen's to close Nov 24 Photo by Steven H. Robinson |
By Diane Hettrick
Bellingham-based Haggen's, which last year made a bold attempt to become a grocery store national player, is making an abrupt retreat, closing 100 of its stores nationwide.
The local grocery chain bought 146 of the stores surplussed under monopoly regulations when Safeway and Albertson's combined.
One of those new stores is in Shoreline - a former Safeway, and the other is in Lake Forest Park - a former Albertson's. Both were converted to the Haggen brand with some remodeling, rearrangement, and new products.
The chain recently filed suit against Albertson's, claiming unfair practices, and announced it was closing 27 stores, which included just one in Washington state, in Spanaway.
Today, Haggen's filed for bankruptcy and announced that it was closing 100 stores because it had been unable to find a buyer.
One of those stores is the Shoreline store, at 15332 Aurora. The store had reopened as Haggen on February 28 of this year.
The Lake Forest Park store is being retained, along with 21 other stores which were formerly Albertson's.
Employees are being given 60 days notice and the stores will be open during that time. They are expected to close two days before Thanksgiving.
Haggen's closed a previous Shoreline store in July 2013, a Haggen's Fresh store on N 175th and Midvale, which had been upgraded from a TOP Foods store. They were divesting themselves of underperforming stores in preparation for a merger with a capital-rich partner.
Top Foods/Haggens was not closed in preparation for a merger, the rebranding from Top Foods to Haggen Fresh was due to the merger. At the same time, the private equity fund that had become 50% owner of Haggens spun off all of the real estate owned by grocery chain into a separate entity. Because of the economic downturn, Haggen's could not survive at a great many locations, here in Shoreline their store was severely impacted by construction on the 2nd phase of Aurora.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason they didn't make it is their prices. Ray Charles could have seen this coming.
ReplyDeleteIt's Haggen, singular, not Haggen's
ReplyDelete