🛒 Kroger-Albertsons Merger: Northwest, Rockies, & Alaska Impact

[ClownLoach]

It has been mentioned that some of the retained QFC's could be rebranded as Haggen. I think that could possibly work for stores like University Village, Mercer Street etc. But I am wondering if that could also backfire given the Haggen fiasco in terms of pricing and promotion of the stores when it came to the Safeway/Albertsons divestitures! But then again, Kroger probably could overcome that as they do know how to run large fleets of stores with different formats. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the impact in Bellingham, Haggen's hometown. In Bellingham, there are 4 Haggen stores, 1 Safeway and 2 Fred Meyer stores. I can see C&S bringing QFC into Bellingham for the first time by converting the Safeway and the Sehome Village Haggen to QFC. I can't see them getting rid of Barkley Village, Fairhaven or Meridian Street. But if there were another Haggen to go, it could possibly be the Meridian store.

Bellingham sounds like another example of why this merger won't work. Too many divestitures. Can't divest a FM store. They would have to get rid of these Haggen stores that are the heart of the brand, and at that point they might as well eliminate the whole thing.

[Super S]

It has been mentioned that some of the retained QFC's could be rebranded as Haggen. I think that could possibly work for stores like University Village, Mercer Street etc. But I am wondering if that could also backfire given the Haggen fiasco in terms of pricing and promotion of the stores when it came to the Safeway/Albertsons divestitures! But then again, Kroger probably could overcome that as they do know how to run large fleets of stores with different formats. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the impact in Bellingham, Haggen's hometown. In Bellingham, there are 4 Haggen stores, 1 Safeway and 2 Fred Meyer stores. I can see C&S bringing QFC into Bellingham for the first time by converting the Safeway and the Sehome Village Haggen to QFC. I can't see them getting rid of Barkley Village, Fairhaven or Meridian Street. But if there were another Haggen to go, it could possibly be the Meridian store.

Bellingham sounds like another example of why this merger won't work. Too many divestitures. Can't divest a FM store. They would have to get rid of these Haggen stores that are the heart of the brand, and at that point they might as well eliminate the whole thing.

As far south as Olympia, you have places which have Fred Meyer, Safeway, Albertsons, QFC, and Haggen all in the same markets. Something is going to need to be divested, but maybe QFC and Haggen combined would be feasible on their own as a regional chain, but converting to the QFC banner. I think Haggen as a name is tarnished.

[babs]

Are there something like over 100 stores in Washington that are going to be divested. The probably should take care of the overlap. But we're just guessing until someone leaks the list.

[bryceleinan]

Are there something like over 100 stores in Washington that are going to be digested. The probably should take care of the overlap. But we're just guessing until someone leaks the list.

Really have been thinking about this since I’ve been traveling around Oregon the past week and a half.
I’m thinking @storewanderer is right about the coast - the only divests you’ll see are the Coos Bay and Newport Safeway locations, since they’re directly next to a Fred Meyer. Possibly a couple in the Ashland / Medford / Grants Pass / Klamath Falls area. Ditto with Newberg, since Safeway and Fred Meyer are across the street from one another, and make up 2/3 of the grocery stores in town.

[marshd1000]

It has been mentioned that some of the retained QFC's could be rebranded as Haggen. I think that could possibly work for stores like University Village, Mercer Street etc. But I am wondering if that could also backfire given the Haggen fiasco in terms of pricing and promotion of the stores when it came to the Safeway/Albertsons divestitures! But then again, Kroger probably could overcome that as they do know how to run large fleets of stores with different formats. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the impact in Bellingham, Haggen's hometown. In Bellingham, there are 4 Haggen stores, 1 Safeway and 2 Fred Meyer stores. I can see C&S bringing QFC into Bellingham for the first time by converting the Safeway and the Sehome Village Haggen to QFC. I can't see them getting rid of Barkley Village, Fairhaven or Meridian Street. But if there were another Haggen to go, it could possibly be the Meridian store.

Bellingham sounds like another example of why this merger won't work. Too many divestitures. Can't divest a FM store. They would have to get rid of these Haggen stores that are the heart of the brand, and at that point they might as well eliminate the whole thing.

As far south as Olympia, you have places which have Fred Meyer, Safeway, Albertsons, QFC, and Haggen all in the same markets. Something is going to need to be divested, but maybe QFC and Haggen combined would be feasible on their own as a regional chain, but converting to the QFC banner. I think Haggen as a name is tarnished.

I’m thinking that the Haggen name is partially tarnished. It think the Haggen name on their remaining stores is doing fine. Maybe converting the few QFC’s to be retained wouldn’t work in greater Seattle. But retaining Haggen in Northwest Washington, where they’re from, would would work!

[Brian Lutz]

Another possible alternative: They could bring back the TOP Foods brand. I don't think that one has the same baggage as Haggen does, and probably still has at least some amount of name recognition in the areas it was used in.

[Super S]

Another possible alternative: They could bring back the TOP Foods brand. I don't think that one has the same baggage as Haggen does, and probably still has at least some amount of name recognition in the areas it was used in.

TOP Foods always came across as a Cub/WinCo format that Haggen tweaked to suit their preferences. But at times I felt that the stores lost their true focus. They went back and forth a bit with bagging and not bagging groceries, even installing new checkstands a couple times, and they simply did not have the distribution network in place to support the lower-price format.

I suppose TOP could work if they wanted to try a no-gimmicks approach, but both Albertsons and Kroger have had limited success with that.

[ClownLoach]

Bellingham sounds like another example of why this merger won't work. Too many divestitures. Can't divest a FM store. They would have to get rid of these Haggen stores that are the heart of the brand, and at that point they might as well eliminate the whole thing.

As far south as Olympia, you have places which have Fred Meyer, Safeway, Albertsons, QFC, and Haggen all in the same markets. Something is going to need to be divested, but maybe QFC and Haggen combined would be feasible on their own as a regional chain, but converting to the QFC banner. I think Haggen as a name is tarnished.

I’m thinking that the Haggen name is partially tarnished. It think the Haggen name on their remaining stores is doing fine. Maybe converting the few QFC’s to be retained wouldn’t work in greater Seattle. But retaining Haggen in Northwest Washington, where they’re from, would would work!

The issue I see is that they'll have to either divest all the Fred Meyer stores in Bellingham, or most/all of the Haggen stores. Since we know the FM stores aren't going to be sold, that means Haggen loses its hometown where the brand and format are at its best. At that point I have to think they'll have to make a side deal to sell the entire Haggen chain because it does have a good reputation up there, people love those stores in NW Washington. My guess is they're going to try to get away with just offering up the Safeway for sale but that probably won't get past the regulators. It would be sad to see the brand go away because of that merger. Anywhere that the brand has baggage isn't a key area for them anyway. They love it in Bellingham.

[retailfanmitchell019]

The issue I see is that they'll have to either divest all the Fred Meyer stores in Bellingham, or most/all of the Haggen stores. Since we know the FM stores aren't going to be sold, that means Haggen loses its hometown where the brand and format are at its best. At that point I have to think they'll have to make a side deal to sell the entire Haggen chain because it does have a good reputation up there, people love those stores in NW Washington. My guess is they're going to try to get away with just offering up the Safeway for sale but that probably won't get past the regulators. It would be sad to see the brand go away because of that merger. Anywhere that the brand has baggage isn't a key area for them anyway. They love it in Bellingham.

I think Kroger should be willing to divest Fred Meyer "Marketplace" stores, which are under 100000 sqft.

I've heard the original Haggen is pretty much the closest thing the PNW has to Wegmans. Beautiful stores. This is totally different from the Haggen that took expansion steroids.

[storewanderer]

The issue I see is that they'll have to either divest all the Fred Meyer stores in Bellingham, or most/all of the Haggen stores. Since we know the FM stores aren't going to be sold, that means Haggen loses its hometown where the brand and format are at its best. At that point I have to think they'll have to make a side deal to sell the entire Haggen chain because it does have a good reputation up there, people love those stores in NW Washington. My guess is they're going to try to get away with just offering up the Safeway for sale but that probably won't get past the regulators. It would be sad to see the brand go away because of that merger. Anywhere that the brand has baggage isn't a key area for them anyway. They love it in Bellingham.

Believe it or not the best performing Haggen Store was actually the one in Olympia which is a former Top Foods (it was a very nice Top Foods). It outperformed everything in Bellingham. This may still be the case too.

If URM Stores (Rosauers) could figure out a way to pick up what is left of Haggen that would be very fantastic. They would maintain Haggen.

I'm not sure how that Safeway in Bellingham does. There was an Albertsons there (very old store), it had been remodeled to LLC decor but it was quickly/quietly closed as the Safeway was under construction during the Albertsons/Safeway merger. It should have been divested but they quickly/quietly closed it instead- my guess is Supervalu didn't want it back, they obviously couldn't divest it to Haggen, so they closed it to avoid an issue of finding a buyer. So they already got out of one divest they should have done in Bellingham before, plus there was no divest consideration when they got Haggen since it was a bankruptcy.