Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

[storewanderer]

Brown & Cole may be down to a point now where they have closed the poor performing stores and are left with limited/no competition locations that actually do okay. Their "The Market at ..." concept was a pretty heavy but sad copy of Haggen.

Also it looks like Brown & Cole is supplied by Unified again (they were using Supervalu).

[pseudo3d]

Based on this article they have only further retreated since 2005. I think I remember reading about when Ferndale's Price Chopper? closed. They do own the store in Blaine, adjacent to the B.C. border.

To me, Brown & Cole sounds more like the recently rapidly shuttered Paul's Markets.

Another article about "The Markets LLC" / Brown & Cole reducing store portfolio: http://bbjtoday.com/blog/the-markets-ll ... gham/26318 The store in Sunset Square became Safeway, I believe?

AFAIK, Paul's Market (all seven stores) are alive and well. Despite the website not working, the deal isn't even supposed to close until April, and that's when Paul's will start closing (either "permanently" or "and reopening as Albertsons", depending on the store).

As for Haggen's ultimate fate, since whoever is funding it until the auction isn't letting it totally go to waste I would assume that the Haggen name will stay at least for most stores (if what I read on other forums was correct, the final days of legendary New Orleans supermarket Schwegmann had their inventory stocked not by their suppliers, but by buying it from their competitors, because their credit was so bad).

[storewanderer]

Haggen's current stores if you break it out and look just at the stores I believe are at breakeven or slight profitability now that they have shut down SoCal and a lot of money losing Pacific Northwest Stores. Still other costs involved with going through bankruptcy are resulting in the overall operation posting a loss but these core stores actually are a little bit profitable.

[klkla]

As for Haggen's ultimate fate, since whoever is funding it until the auction isn't letting it totally go to waste I would assume that the Haggen name will stay at least for most stores (if what I read on other forums was correct, the final days of legendary New Orleans supermarket Schwegmann had their inventory stocked not by their suppliers, but by buying it from their competitors, because their credit was bad

The shots at Haggen right now are being called by the bank that provided their DIP (debtor in possession financing). They did not require Haggen to sell the core stores. They only required that they seek bids on them. That's an important distinction. Also, as Storewanderer said the operation is probably cash positive at this point (or very close to it). At this phase of the BK process they are negotiating with the final unresolved creditors and developing an exit plan (which may or may not involve selling the company to someone besides Comvest).

The situation is not like Schwegmann because they have paid their critical vendors and are receiving deliveries from them.

[marshd1000]

In the thread about Albertsons closing their Bellingham store, the subject came up about maybe Albertsons was going to make a play for the remainder of Haggen. The Bellingham Herald has confirmed this is the case:

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/lo ... 89352.html

[arizonaguy]

In the thread about Albertsons closing their Bellingham store, the subject came up about maybe Albertsons was going to make a play for the remainder of Haggen. The Bellingham Herald has confirmed this is the case:

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/lo ... 89352.html

So after all is said and done, the Albertsons/Safeway merger allowed Albertsons to take out two competitors: Safeway and Haggen, it seems.

[marshd1000]

Truthfully, I hope the Haggen name and concept survives. I am thinking that maybe they could be treated like United Supermarkets. Why not? United has Market Street, which I am assuming is similar to Haggen in concept. But I can't help to think that there should be some divestitures, at least in Bellingham. Perhaps Albertsons should throw Kroger a bone and sell the Fairhaven and Barkley Village stores to them for the QFC division. Or maybe sell one to Kroger and the other to The Markets LLC. But either way, it looks like a grocery duopoly between Albertsons and Kroger.

[marshd1000]

Has anyone seen the irony in the fact that Albertsons, Safeway, etc are in the middle of their Monopoly Game promotion? Also interesting, is that before Albertsons ever used that game as a promotion, Haggen did the same thing!

[storewanderer]

I'm beginning to think Kroger has little interest in expanding in the west. Raleys and Stater are two good assets...

[pseudo3d]

Truthfully, I hope the Haggen name and concept survives. I am thinking that maybe they could be treated like United Supermarkets. Why not? United has Market Street, which I am assuming is similar to Haggen in concept. But I can't help to think that there should be some divestitures, at least in Bellingham. Perhaps Albertsons should throw Kroger a bone and sell the Fairhaven and Barkley Village stores to them for the QFC division. Or maybe sell one to Kroger and the other to The Markets LLC. But either way, it looks like a grocery duopoly between Albertsons and Kroger.

The United situation is different as they were a small chain that operated several formats, all of which were kept under Albertsons (even though some of the names were quite small, like Amigos). It's *possible* that Albertsons might keep the Haggen name to differentiate between nearby stores (Oak Harbor, for instance, had the Safeway convert to a Haggen, then the Albertsons converting to a Safeway), but they won't keep it as a 13-store division or anything...especially since the Haggen name is now damaged goods (they won't use it as a name to compete with Main & Vine, if that's what you're hoping).

I can imagine Albertsons converting the stores they want, and selling the rest out to other operators (but not ones that compete directly).

Anyway, it looks like I lost the bet in terms of Albertsons buying Haggen or not.