Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

[mbz321]

I thought Albertsons was somehow restricted from bidding on their former locations...did something change?

[klkla]

Even though Gelson's and Smart & Final stores didn't have any other bids there were many for the other stores. Here's more about the auctions.

On Monday November 9th the stores in each group will be individually auctioned
a - Arizona stores
b - Orange County stores
c - Los Angeles County stores
d - Bakersfield/Riverside Co. stores

On Tuesday November 10th:
a - Oxnard-Ventura stores
b - Santa Barbara stores
c - San Luis Obispo stores
d - San Diego stores
e - Las Vegas stores

On Wednesday November 11th:
a - Portland/Salem Oregon stores
b - Baker City/Eugene/Grants Pass/Klamath Falls/Medford Oregon
c - Seattle stores
d - Tacoma stores

Haggen says that as of yesterday afternoon 40 qualified bidders have come forward and that they will continue to work on qualifying additional bidders in the meantime. Any qualified bidder can bid on any store once the auction begins.

Baseline bids have been established already on some stores.

In Arizona Albertsons has place bids on three stores (Lake Havasu, Tucson 10380 East Broadway, and Tucson Silverbell Road).

In Orange County Smart & Final is bidding on the Laguna Niguel store, Tustin Safe LLC (I have no idea who this is) is bidding for the store on 17th street in Tustin, and Tawa, Inc (I think this is the owner of 99 Ranch Markets) has placed a bid on the store on First street in Tustin.

In Los Angeles County Albertsons has placed bids on Tujunga, Saugus, and San Pedro. Sprouts has bid on the store in Los Angeles on Venice Blvd., Smart & Final has placed bids on Diamond Bar and Burbank, Regency Shopping Centers has bid on the Woodland Hills store, and Jon's Markets has bid on the Lomita store.

In Bakersfield/Riverside Counties Albertson's has bid on two stores in Bakersfield and the Rancho Cucamonga store.

In the Oxnard/Ventura area Super A Foods has bid on the Camarillo store, Sprouts has bid on a Simi Valley store (2800 Cochran), and Stater Bros. has bid on a Simi Valley store (Los Angeles Ave).

In Santa Barbara Albertson's has bid on the Lompoc store and a store in Goleta (on Turnpike Rd), Sprouts has bid on the other Goleta store (Fairview Ave.), and Roxy's Market has bid on a Santa Barbara store (Cliff Drive).

In San Luis Obispo area Spencer has bid on the Arroyo Grande store (I think this is Spencers Fresh Markets which operates two stores in Santa Maria and Morro Bay).

In San Diego Carnival Supermarket, Inc. has bid on a Chula Vista store (Telegraph Canyon Road - It looks like they operate a store in National City now), Smart & Final has bid on the University Ave. store in San Diego, Albertson's has bid on stores in El Cajon (Broadway Street), La Mesa, Rancho Bernardo, Highland Village, and San Marcos. RJS Investment (don't know who this is) has bid on Poway, Tawa Inc (99 Ranch I think) has bid on the Balboa Ave. store in San Diego, Bristol Farms has bid on the store in Hillcrest area of San Diego (Washington Blvd.) and an entity called Vestar California has placed a bid on Rancho Penasquitos.

In Las Vegas Albertson's has bid on all three Henderson stores (very low-ball bids at that: $1 for College Ave., $100,000 for Boulder Highway, and $200,000 for Bicentennial Parkway). Sprouts has bid on the W. Lake Mead Blvd. location (for comparison their bid is $1,950,000).

In Portland Tawa has bid on the store in Beaverton.

Albertson's has placed low ball bids on Baker City, Eugene, Springfield ($1), and Ashland.

Albertson's has placed bids on all of the stores in Seattle area except Federal Way ranging from $1 for a Burien store (1st Ave.) to $1,700,000 for a store in Renton on 4th.

In the rural areas of Washington Albertson's has bid on a store in Port Orchard and Yoke's Foods, Inc. has bid on a store in Liberty Lake.

In the Tacoma area Albertson's has bid on all but the store in Tacoma itself. The bids for Spanaway, Puyallup and Milton are $1. Gig Harbor is $500,000.

The stores not listed do not yet have any baseline bids submitted.

[marshd1000]

I am kind of confused as to how Albertsons is able to bid on some of their old locations also. In the case of Burien, WA, i can't see Albertsons getting both of their old stores back. The Safeway that they currently have is smack dab between the former Albertsons, all on 1st Avenue. I could see them taking one store back. That would leave them with two stores in Burien. One a Safeway and one a Albertsons. That is the same number of stores they had before. But if Albertsons was able to get some of their old locations back, could they expand the Amigos banner beyond Texas into areas with a greater Hispanic population?

[storewanderer]

Albertsons should not get any of these back, what was the point of divesting at all if they can just buy the stores back?

No bids from Kroger? I also kind of expected to see some interest from Whole Foods on some...

[marshd1000]

I am wondering in the cases where Albertsons and Safeway stores are across the street from each other, if Albertsons just wants the real estate? They may want to own those spaces to rent to a non-grocer. Or sell the property with a covenant stating that a grocer can't go in! Safeway is infamous for doing that. In White Center, just outside Seattle, they closed a early 80's era store that was well maintained and bought a Fred Meyer Marketplace. There was a Marina Albertsons in White Center that wanted that better building, but NO to that! That Safeway is a now a Washington State Department of Social and Health Services building. It made a nice retail block into a sketchy block. The Bartells in the adjacent lot does well, however. So don't be surprised if some of these Albertsons bids are for that kind of reason!

[arizonaguy]

As far as the 2 Tucson stores. The ex-Haggens are nicer stores in better locations than the nearby Safeway / Albertsons stores.

It could be a case where the lease is expiring at the existing stores and they saw the opportunity to move into a better location at a potentially lower cost.

[SamSpade]

Tustin Safe LLC (I have no idea who this is) is bidding for the store on 17th street in Tustin,

Doing a little internet digging, since 2012 Tustin Safe LLC is a Delaware LLC (big surprise ) and then a court document related to Haggen said that all correspondence for them should go to their counsel, who are in Cincinnati, Ohio. This may be our one Kroger bid so far.

[CalItalian]

CouponsInTheNews.com published the entire list on Friday including some stores where there is no timeline to when they are going to be bid on
http://couponsinthenews.com/2015/11/06/ ... test-list/

[klkla]

CouponsInTheNews.com published the entire list on Friday including some stores where there is no timeline to when they are going to be bid on
http://couponsinthenews.com/2015/11/06/ ... test-list/

Yes, it looks like they reviewed the same documents as I did although they don't list the prices of the baseline bids. I'm interested in what Albertson's strategy is with so many low-ball bids like $1.

I'm also curious why the store on Sepulveda Blvd. in LA and the other store in Redondo Beach have not been scheduled for auction.

The article also doesn't mention that there are at least 40 qualified bidders at this point according to the filings made on Friday. The baseline bids only identify 14 of the qualified bidders. So the others, which could include Kroger, have not made any specific bids yet or were already outbid by one of the baseline bidders.

[CalItalian]

Albertsons bids for 36 stores as Haggen auctions kick off
http://supermarketnews.com/retail-finan ... z3r0nlGjey