What's left of Haggen

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What's left of Haggen

Post by Brian Lutz »

Following Haggen's divested stores flameout, there were 29 "core" Haggen stores remaining, which were sold back to Safeway/Albertsons. As of right now, there are 15 of these stores that continue to operate as Haggen stores more or less as they did before, with the only sign of any connection to Safeway/Albertsons being the store brand products on the shelf. Most of these are in the Northern Puget Sound area, although two locations remain in Auburn and Olympia, some distance from any others. It also seems that Albertson's downplays their ownership of Haggen, not even listing them on the list of banners on their website. As they did before they seem to operate as a "premium" brand, and generally have prices even higher than Safeway prices at the locations near here, but they also tend to have a larger selection of higher-end products to match.

Given the evidence, it seems that Albertson's is content to just let them keep operating their few core stores until they presumably fade into oblivion at some indeterminate future point in time, probably as leases expire. Then again, is it possible that they could have other plans?
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Re: What's left of Haggen

Post by marshd1000 »

The Albertsons website does show the Haggen logo here: https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/abo ... iness.html

It is interesting in the fact that Albertsons and Safeway gift cards are not good at Haggen. Also the Haggen card and Safeway cards are not linked and you can’t earn gas points for shopping at Haggen. The only Haggen branded products I see now is their ice cream and in-store baked goods and gallon milk. Otherwise private label is pretty much Signature and Lucerne. However, before Unified was bought by Supervalu, there was one Western Family product that was still being carried, which were containers of frozen strawberries. Haggen still carries the frozen strawberries in the plastic containers, but they now carry the Essential Everyday brand on that. I find that odd!

I occasionally go into the Woodinville Haggen, which has great business. I am occasionally in Auburn too and that seems to do well as does Olympia. I don’t see the Haggen name going away, especially in Northwest Washington. I think there would be complaints if that happened as that is seen as a hometown grocers in that area. Expanding the brand elsewhere in Western Washington could be difficult as it is a tarnished name for some after buying up the Safeway and Albertsons stores! If they did expand maybe a new store in a upscale area might work. Or buying an existing independent like West Seattle Thriftway, which has a similar product mix and clientele, could work.

But with Albertsons owning Market Street, Albertsons Market Street, Albertsons on Broadway, Pavilions and Safeway Community Market and Andrinico’s Community Market, I can see Albertsons keeping Haggen. It gives them greater market penetration in NW Washington that could have gone to QFC. I hope that their upscale concepts will cross pollinate!
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Re: What's left of Haggen

Post by storewanderer »

Haggen still seems to be on its own IT systems. Given that they are getting private label from Safeway it would appear that they are somehow able to order through Safeway.

Haggen's point of sale is the same system as United-TX uses. United-TX also has not been integrated and I see no signs of it being integrated anytime soon. They actually de-integrated some NM Stores that they put over to Safeway systems, onto the United systems when those stores changed divisions from Southwest to United.

I expect they will leave this group of "core" stores alone. The stores operate well and perform well. Quality is very superior. They have supply agreements in place to bring in very high quality fresh products, but not for a large number of stores. Customers are willing to pay their prices. No reason to mess with it.
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Re: What's left of Haggen

Post by Brian Lutz »

Haggen had previously operated Top Foods stores in Redmond and Bellevue, but both closed. The Bellevue one was built and opened as a Top Foods next to Crossroads, closed about a year after the Haggen Northwest Fresh rebranding and then got torn down to turn the site into apartments. The Redmond store opened as a Larry's Market and was acquired in their bankruptcy but never did enough volume to justify keeping it open, so it closed a couple of years later and the building got turned into a health club. Larry's Markets in Bellevue and Kirkland never reopened; the Kirkland one turned into a health club and the Bellevue one eventually became an Uwajimaya (a Japanese ethnic grocer.)

I suppose if they were feeling ambitious Haggen could possibly try again in a better location on the Eastside in Redmond Kirkland or Bellevue (the Crossroads store suffered from poor visibility from the road it was on which contributed to its demise) but Bellevue, especially Downtown, is very competitive. Safeway and QFC have high-end stores in the core of Downtown, Whole Foods (even after the 365 fiasco at Bellevue Square) isn't far away and neither are the previously mentioned Uwajimaya or a recently opened Trader Joe's.
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Re: What's left of Haggen

Post by Super S »

Brian Lutz wrote: November 29th, 2018, 9:26 am Haggen had previously operated Top Foods stores in Redmond and Bellevue, but both closed. The Bellevue one was built and opened as a Top Foods next to Crossroads, closed about a year after the Haggen Northwest Fresh rebranding and then got torn down to turn the site into apartments. The Redmond store opened as a Larry's Market and was acquired in their bankruptcy but never did enough volume to justify keeping it open, so it closed a couple of years later and the building got turned into a health club. Larry's Markets in Bellevue and Kirkland never reopened; the Kirkland one turned into a health club and the Bellevue one eventually became an Uwajimaya (a Japanese ethnic grocer.)

I suppose if they were feeling ambitious Haggen could possibly try again in a better location on the Eastside in Redmond Kirkland or Bellevue (the Crossroads store suffered from poor visibility from the road it was on which contributed to its demise) but Bellevue, especially Downtown, is very competitive. Safeway and QFC have high-end stores in the core of Downtown, Whole Foods (even after the 365 fiasco at Bellevue Square) isn't far away and neither are the previously mentioned Uwajimaya or a recently opened Trader Joe's.
Haggen also operated a TOP Foods store in Kelso, which closed around 2001-2002 and was sold to Safeway. There were also a few Haggen stores scattered around the Portland area. It seemed to me like, for various reasons, their stores just never really caught on south of Olympia, and I think the existing Cub (later WinCo) stores in Portland kept the TOP concept from spreading any further south than Kelso. It is worth noting that QFC doesn't have much of a presence in the Portland area either.
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Re: What's left of Haggen

Post by SamSpade »

Super S wrote: November 30th, 2018, 7:25 am Haggen also operated a TOP Foods store in Kelso, which closed around 2001-2002 and was sold to Safeway. There were also a few Haggen stores scattered around the Portland area. It seemed to me like, for various reasons, their stores just never really caught on south of Olympia, and I think the existing Cub (later WinCo) stores in Portland kept the TOP concept from spreading any further south than Kelso. It is worth noting that QFC doesn't have much of a presence in the Portland area either.
I felt the Tualatin Haggen was doing OK [Opened 1997] until a few things happened during the later years of its life (and the hedge fund ownership) to change the mix there.
1. Major update to nearby Fred Meyer
2. KMart leveled and redeveloped shopping center that produced a New Seasons Market
3. Walmart Supercenter opened (or at least announced by Ch 11 filing) in Sherwood

This store was starting to look tired and was one of the first kicked in the bankruptcy. Earlier history for this property - the store manager had a large fight with TriMet over construction of the WES commuter rail and adjacent parking lot. I always though the station would help the store, but maybe the argument also impacted community goodwill.

The other remaining (original build) stores in the Portland market were:
1. Beaverton / Murray Rd. - [closed April 2011 / opened April 2005], sold to Walmart, renovated into a Neighborhood Market. Ironically, during the "Albertsons takeover" era, they assumed a store a bit further south of here in Tigard.
2. Beaverton-Hillsboro / Tanasbourne - closed in 2011 [Opened 1996] as Walmart took over a nearby furniture store to open a Neighborhood Market. Property is now Marshalls and Sierra Trading Co.
3. Tigard / Hwy 99 W - [opened February 2003, closed April 2005] closed fairly early after opening, now operates as HMart. Some felt it was on the wrong side of the highway to get that afternoon commuter "travel home" shopper.
4. Oregon City - [Opened April 2000] Superior store to nearby Albertsons but after the buy out the company moved quickly to preserve their market share and closed this store. Oregon City is somewhat underserved although I believe a WinCo is now there. Previously they had only Safeway, Albertsons, and Fred Meyer for full-service grocers. (and Haggen)

2010 market share by grocer in Oregon/Portland: (Courtesy The Oregonian/OregonLive.com)
As of March 2010, grocers divvied up the market share as follows. Analysts expect the distribution would change if Wal-Mart opens more Portland-area stores. Wal-Mart's statewide standing versus that of the metro area -- it has 30 stores in Oregon, only four in the tri-county area -- may prove that point.
Portland metro area
Safeway Inc., 24 percent
Fred Meyer Stores, 22 percent
Costco Wholesale, 12 percent
Albertsons, 11 percent
WinCo Foods, 8 percent
Oregon
Safeway, 22 percent
Fred Meyer, 18 percent
Costco Wholesale, 8 percent
Albertsons, 8 percent
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 10 percent
Portland/Salem/Eugene/Medford/Vancouver (Nov 2016)
Albertson's/Safeway 30.4%
Fred Meyer 20.6%
Walmart 14.3%
Unified Grocers 11.2%
Winco 9.2%
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Re: What's left of Haggen

Post by Super S »

SamSpade wrote: November 30th, 2018, 8:34 am

I felt the Tualatin Haggen was doing OK [Opened 1997] until a few things happened during the later years of its life (and the hedge fund ownership) to change the mix there.
1. Major update to nearby Fred Meyer
2. KMart leveled and redeveloped shopping center that produced a New Seasons Market
3. Walmart Supercenter opened (or at least announced by Ch 11 filing) in Sherwood

This store was starting to look tired and was one of the first kicked in the bankruptcy. Earlier history for this property - the store manager had a large fight with TriMet over construction of the WES commuter rail and adjacent parking lot. I always though the station would help the store, but maybe the argument also impacted community goodwill.

The other remaining (original build) stores in the Portland market were:
1. Beaverton / Murray Rd. - [closed April 2011 / opened April 2005], sold to Walmart, renovated into a Neighborhood Market. Ironically, during the "Albertsons takeover" era, they assumed a store a bit further south of here in Tigard.
2. Beaverton-Hillsboro / Tanasbourne - closed in 2011 [Opened 1996] as Walmart took over a nearby furniture store to open a Neighborhood Market. Property is now Marshalls and Sierra Trading Co.
3. Tigard / Hwy 99 W - [opened February 2003, closed April 2005] closed fairly early after opening, now operates as HMart. Some felt it was on the wrong side of the highway to get that afternoon commuter "travel home" shopper.
4. Oregon City - [Opened April 2000] Superior store to nearby Albertsons but after the buy out the company moved quickly to preserve their market share and closed this store. Oregon City is somewhat underserved although I believe a WinCo is now there. Previously they had only Safeway, Albertsons, and Fred Meyer for full-service grocers. (and Haggen)

For whatever reason, the Tualatin store was the only one of the Portland bunch that (to me anyway) really felt like a true Haggen in the way it operated. The level of service and layout was good, and that one seemed busy every time I was in there.

The others just felt "off" to me in the level of service and seemed to suffer from not having the most visible locations. The customer count seemed low as well.

But I never quite understood why the Tigard store had such a short life. There is a pretty busy Bi-Mart in the same shopping center and it seemed like a good location for a new build. But maybe with Bi-Mart it would have worked better if it was a TOP store..
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Re: What's left of Haggen

Post by storewanderer »

My first experiences with Haggen were in Portland back when all of the locations were open. What I found was (at the time in the mid 00's) stores that were very nice and seemed slightly dated, superior quality products, very high prices, and rather questionable employee attitudes.

Later I got to have some experiences with Haggen/Top around Seattle and the stores were even more dated by that time, quality/price situation still seemed the same, but employee attitudes seemed to be better, though odd things like dress code seemed to not exist in some locations in some cases.

Really, I think the original Haggen operations are generally the same as they always were. The converted Top Foods locations never felt the same as a real Haggen.

I don't really understand why they closed Oregon City other than that it was sort of like an outlying store. Maybe Safeway/Albertsons determined it was better to close it than convert it to the Safeway or Albertsons banner. I am also surprised the Albertsons in Oregon City remains open; I'm not sure how. The Safeway is a newer store that way underperforms the nearby Fred Meyer but still does pretty well by Safeway standards.
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Sorry, this kind of turned into a Groceteria post...

Post by SamSpade »

Another oddity to add to the strange history of Haggen.

They actually committed first to the Tanasbourne store before any others. Tualatin and a never-built Forest Grove store were in the planning stages in 1996.
The Oregonian reporter writing about the announcement of the tenant in 1995 called it a "chi chi" grocery store. :lol:

The store was fully built and the company did not open with the rest of the newly re-developed center.
April 1996:
Haggen, while it waits to open, is paying about $77,000 a month in rent on a store that's bringing in no revenue.
At that time:
There are now four full-service Haggen stores, three in Bellingham and one in Stanwood, between Everett and Bellingham.

Since 1982, the company has opened 12 TOP Food & Drug stores in Washington that use a high-volume, competitive-pricing format. TOP stands for ``Tough on Prices."
It's not shocking as you look back at these things to see why it was announced in Feb 2011 that Comvest was able to buy the company . . . and in reflecting, may have just wanted the real estate. At that point
...Haggen operates 30 stores..
At least 2 of those stores later closed are still operating as grocers - WinCo in Edmonds, Trader Joe's in Shoreline...
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Re: What's left of Haggen

Post by Brian Lutz »

If you look at the Google satellite view maps you can see the Edmonds store as a Top Foods which then becomes a WinCo on street view. I used to work near that Edmonds WinCo store for a while, and found it to be fairly nice compared to some of the other WinCo stores in the area, to the point that I thought it was a new build (since some of the other buildings in the parking lot are recent construction.)
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