I think everything went south once they bought New Seasons. Private equity had severely damaged them before dumping them on E-mart/Good Food. They were broken from an ill-fated expansion into Northern California and they were slashing payroll left and right because they were losing money. That doesn't go well in the markets they serve where, let's just say there is an attitude amongst the employees that profits are evil (of course a business that loses money closes, but don't confuse them with facts). It sounds like the company put on a massive union-busting campaign with threatening mailers and even PA announcements in the stores.
They also make strange investments that don't exactly make sense. The Lazy Acres in Long Beach took several years to catch on (it was the first Bristol Farms to be converted to the format) and finally got momentum going in the last couple of years. It was heavily remodeled to become Lazy Acres although they preserved some of the beautiful custom murals from Bristol - it took almost a year of construction to convert to Lazy. For some bizarre reason they are completely remodeling the store after just a few years and it has been under even more heavy construction for almost 9 months. They are operating under horrible conditions with a few construction lights dangling from the rafters and minimal perimeter operation. All the remaining beautiful elements of Bristol Farms were smashed to bits and thrown in the dumpster. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the store although it could have used an external remodel to add a patio for dining. Basically after chasing away all the customers during the Bristol conversion at a time where nobody had ever heard of Lazy Acres, then finally gaining a foothold in the market, they've run out all the customers again with their horrible drawn out remodel project. The only difference is unlike the first conversion project this time they are competing with a new, doubled size relocated WFM to the south, the 365 that seems to be highly successful to the north, a rare newly expanded target, and a Gelsons that opened shortly after the conversion. The newer prototype Lazy Acres all built from scratch in San Diego are much lower end than the Long Beach store was, so if they're remodeling to match then I don't see any way that the customers who do finally return after almost another year of disruption will find it to be anything less than a massive downgrade.
And then you have the Irvine Bristol "Newfound" fiasco where they've really built the "right" store in the most "wrong" location possible at the highest possible rent. Supposedly some of the Metropolitan Market locations around downtown Seattle are having the same severe theft and homeless problems as QFC.
I really wonder how much longer E-mart will tolerate all these problems with Good Food before they do something drastic and either cash out or shut it down to cut their losses. They are certainly in no position to expand, and the damage they did with New Seasons union busting activity would ignite a massive nationwide union drive in retaliation at WFM if they did somehow take over.