Haggen Collapse Is Complete: Struggling Grocer Closes 100 More Stores

A bold move to become a West Coast grocery powerhouse has ended in a stunning and swift defeat for Haggen, as it officially retreats to the Pacific Northwest with its tail between its legs, bankrupt, deeply in debt, embroiled in a billion-dollar lawsuit with a competitor, its reputation tarnished, leaving thousands out of work, and ensuring the very monopoly in the marketplace that federal regulators had sought to prevent by allowing Haggen to get into this mess in the first place.

Late Thursday, Haggen announced that it would once again “right-size” itself by closing 100 more stores, in addition to the 27 it announced it would close last month. All of its stores in California, Nevada and Arizona are slated to be shuttered, leaving Haggen with just 37 stores plus one standalone pharmacy in Washington and Oregon (the complete list of stores remaining open, and closing, is below).

That means, in a span of just seven months, the once-small regional grocer will once again become a small regional grocer, with just a handful more stores than the 18 it originally had, before its spectacularly aborted attempt to become a 164-store behemoth.

If you’re late to the story, here’s the short version, with links to the longer versions: Late last year, Albertsons and Safeway were ordered by the Federal Trade Commission to divest themselves of 168 stores, as a condition for their merger. Haggen eagerly scooped up 146 of them. Once the store sales to Haggen were finalized in February, and former Albertsons, Safeway and Vons stores began their conversions to Haggen, customers offered a quick verdict – prices were way too high, quality and service were inconsistent, and most decided they were better off shopping at nearby Albertsons, Safeway and Vons stores instead.

The new Haggen stores become ghost towns. And in a span of just a few weeks, the struggling grocer announced it would close 27 stores, with more to be announced, it sued Albertsons for a billion dollars, alleging sabotage, and it filed for bankruptcy.

And then this week, it closed 100 more stores. It’s still bankrupt, it’s still suing Albertsons, and customers are still unimpressed. Many whose neighborhood Haggen locations are closing are bidding the company good riddance. As for customers of the 37 Haggen stores that remain, the company says they seem quite content. 16 of the remaining original Haggen stores “have seen strong sales growth over the past year,” the company says, and 21 former Albertsons, Safeway and Vons stores that it acquired “have proven successful under the Haggen banner.”

The others clearly have not. They’re expected to remain open until late November, but after that, what becomes of them is anyone’s guess. No one has offered to buy all of the store locations as a group, so Haggen hopes to sell them piecemeal, to raise enough money to pay its mounting debts (in bankruptcy court papers, Haggen said the closing stores are costing the company $400,000 per day, every day they remain open).

If you shop at Haggen, or once shopped at one of the stores that became a Haggen, here is the full list of what will become of each location. First, is the list of Haggen stores that will remain open. Next, the list of stores to be closed, followed by the list of previously-announced store closings from last month. An awful lot of Haggen signs that only recently went up, will soon be coming down – too soon for the thousands of employees who are affected, and not soon enough for many customers who are happy to see Haggen go home.

Remaining Haggen store locations:

Closing Haggen store locations:

Previously announced (on Aug. 14th) closures: