Haggen has left the county.
The grocery chain’s store in the Port Orchard Bethel Junction shopping center was closed and cleaned out last week. Haggen shuttered its stores in East Bremerton and Silverdale at the end of November.
I haven’t
heard exactly when the Port Orchard location shut
down. If you happen to know, please drop a comment below.
Unlike the Bremerton and Silverdale Haggens, the Port Orchard store already has a new owner in place.
Albertsons LLC. bought the location in a bankruptcy auction last month and plans to return it to the Safeway brand. A timeline for the reopening has not been announced.
The three Kitsap County stores were among 146 Haggen acquired from Albertsons and Safeway early this year, as the two mega-grocers completed a merger.
The East Bremerton and Silverdale stores were previously operated by Albertsons. The Port Orchard store was a Safeway.
Haggen’s bold expansion ultimately flopped. The company filed for bankruptcy reorganization in September and held auctions to begin selling off assets.
The Bellingham Herald reports Haggen will try to sell the remainder of its stores, including its original Whatcom County locations, at an auction scheduled for February.
Haggen was in business in Kitsap for less than 9 months:
The investment company that bought Haggen’s must have had visions of huge profits dancing in their heads when they bought those 146 stores. I guess they did not realize that buying a private grocery chain in a niche market where they had little competition would not translate when expanded into markets where there is more choice.
They must have been thinking about getting those profits right away. Because the one and only time I went to check one out, I could not believe how much stuff cost. But they sure did make Safeway and Albertsons seem affordable.
The port orchard one closed on December 5th.
Thanks Christine.