Albertsons to acquire 30 Haggen grocery stores in the West

Albertsons will acquire 30 stores in California, Washington, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon that were owned by Haggen Food Grocery Stores.

A bankruptcy court that is overseeing Haggen’s bankruptcy proceedings approved the sale Wednesday, Nov. 25, after Albertsons made a bid as part of a bankruptcy auction earlier in November.

Eleven stores are in California, in the cities of Bakersfield, El Cajon, Goleta, La Mesa, Lompoc, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Cucamonga, San Diego, Saugus and Tujunga. Ten are in Washington, in the cities of Burien, Everett, Gig Harbor, Milton, Port Orchard, Puyallup, Renton, Shoreline, Tacoma. Three are in Arizona, in the cities of Tucson and Lake Havasu City. Three are in Nevada, all in the city of Henderson. Three are in Oregon, in the cities of Ashland, Baker City and Springfield.

The stores previously had been Albertsons, Safeway or Vons stores that were sold to Haggen earlier this year.

The Federal Trade Commission required Albertsons to sell those stores — and many more, including a total of 146 stores sold to Haggen — as part of the Albertsons-Safeway merger. The FTC’s requirement was intended keep the now second-largest grocery chain from controlling too much of the grocery market in certain geographic areas.

The Washington-based Haggen company sued Albertsons over the sale, saying Albertsons “hoodwinked the small [Haggen] supermarket chain into buying dozens of Western U.S. stores to facilitate a merger with Safeway and then sabotaged Haggen’s entry into the new markets,” the Seattle Times reported. Albertsons also sued Haggen, claiming the smaller chain owed it money for inventory.

Albertsons expects to close on the acquisition in the coming weeks and to re-open the stores under Albertsons or Albertsons-owned banners next year, the Boise company said in a news release.

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 1:44 PM with the headline "Albertsons to acquire 30 Haggen grocery stores in the West."