industry retail grocery fate acquired by albertsons after west coast expansion failure founded bellingham washington u.s. 1933 headquarters bellingham washington u.s. number of locations 15 products bakery dairy deli flowers frozen foods grocery liquor lottery pharmacy photographic processing produce seafood snacks and western union owner albertsons website www.haggen.com haggen food & pharmacy is an independent grocery retailer in the pacific northwest . haggen was headquartered in bellingham washington and got its start there in 1933 when ben haggen dorothy haggen and doug clark opened the first store on bay street in bellingham . for many years haggen was the largest independent grocery retailer in the pacific northwest with locations in washington and oregon . from 1982 through 2014 haggen also operated top food & drug . in late 2014 haggen agreed to purchase and rebrand 146 west coast vons pavilions albertsons and safeway inc. locations . this expanded haggen s territory to southern california nevada and arizona increasing the chain s locations from 18 stores with 16 pharmacies to 164 stores with 106 pharmacies and the number of its employees from about 2 000 to about 10 000 . 1 2 on september 1 2015 haggen filed suit against albertsons for false representations and anti competitive practices 3 and on september 8 2015 haggen food & pharmacy filed for bankruptcy . 4 subsequent to the bankruptcy filing haggen announced that they would abandon the new stores and revert to operating as a strictly pacific northwest grocery chain . 5 on march 11 2016 albertsons reached an agreement to acquire the 29 remaining core haggen stores for 106 million . 6 after this agreement only 15 stores retained the haggen branding . contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 recent events 1.3 2015 expansion 1.4 chapter 11 bankruptcy 1.5 sale to albertsons 2 references 3 external links history edit early years edit haggen logo top food logo haggen inc. began in 1933 in the midst of the great depression by benett and dorothy haggen along with dorothy s brother doug clark in downtown bellingham washington . the store was first called the economy food store . business did well enough that they moved to a larger location downtown at the corner of railroad and magnolia streets and renamed it the white house grocery . an in store bakery was opened in 1941 and proved to be very popular . by 1947 the store was ready to expand again . the haggens closed the white house and built the town and country shopping center on meridian street between west illinois and maryland streets with haggen s thriftway the store s third name as the anchor tenant . this store still operates today . several years later they would change the company s name to haggen inc. the store continued to prosper and by the 1960s haggen was ready to expand beyond bellingham . a store was opened in everett washington in 1962 and a 20 000 square foot 1 900 m2 store in lynnwood washington in 1968 . 7 two more stores were opened in lynnwood in 1971 from the acquired grocery boy chain . 8 expansion for the company would be slow because unlike other grocery stores who expanded through acquisition haggen mostly built stores from the ground up . in 1979 the flagship store in bellingham was expanded to over 40 000 square feet 3 700 m2 creating the chain s first superstore format with full service departments which it still uses today . in 1982 the top foods division was created by converting existing stores in snohomish washington and wenatchee to the superstore format . this proved to be a huge success and the top brand was expanded greatly throughout the puget sound region but avoiding seattle because qfc upscale larry s markets albertsons and safeway saturated the metropolitan area . recent events edit haggen became the first grocery store in us with an in store starbucks coffee store in 1989 . in 1995 they expanded to portland oregon opening stores under the haggen moniker . in 2008 a joint investigation between the dea irs fda and edmonds police department uncovered a drug diversion scheme at the edmond s pharmacy location . ultimately haggen paid 425 000 in fines . 9 after two decades of aggressive expansion and innovation the company began to transition after the passing of dorothy haggen in october 2008 10 and the appointment of ceo jim donald former ceo of starbucks coffee company in september 2009 . in january 2010 haggen stores announced they would cease their longstanding practice of remaining open 24 hours with limited exceptions . the low amount of traffic was said to be the decision to change the store s hours so that the company overall could be more efficient . 11 haggen closed its redmond location in july 2010 after operating for less than two years . 12 the company previously but similarly operated a built from scratch location in tigard for two years 2003 2005 . 13 haggen inc. announced on february 17 2011 that brothers and co chairmen don and rick haggen had sold a controlling shareholder interest to the comvest group . the announcement indicated don rick and other unnamed haggen family members would maintain a minority stake in the 78 year old grocery empire . any supermarket chain our size is always in play rick haggen said during a media conference call on thursday . with this investment by comvest we re able to remain as an independent supermarket chain with probably no change for our customers and very little change for all the people who work in the company . 14 as a part of the new ownership it was announced that president and ceo jim donald would immediately step down with the comvest group s c.j. gabe gabriel taking over as president and ceo . 15 in november 2011 haggen began to phase out the top foods format by remodeling and rebranding stores to a slightly altered format based on the haggen food and pharmacy concept called haggen northwest fresh . 16 after closing their everett 17 and then tanabourne locations in february 2011 company officials stated that it would not affect their other oregon locations the company then announced the closing of the murray hill location in march 18 followed by the wenatchee location in september . 19 in october 2012 briar development the haggen family s holding company for its real estate sold a portfolio consisting of 15 sites of haggen stores to mgp x properties llc of san diego for 175 000 000 . 20 gabriel stepped down as ceo in december 2012 and was replaced by a three person executive team led by the company s former senior vice president of merchandising clement stevens . 21 in early 2013 haggen closed their locations in tacoma lacey federal way bellevue and shoreline followed later in the year by closures in kent auburn and yakima . 22 despite clement stevens stating that the edmonds location remained viable in december 2013 23 and suggesting that the closures were finished 24 both the edmonds and arlington locations closed in the summer of 2014 . 25 26 2015 expansion edit haggen in woodland hills ca shortly after transitioning from vons in april 2015 in late 2014 haggen agreed to purchase and rebrand 146 west coast safeway and albertsons locations over the coming year as part of anti monopoly requirements following the albertsons safeway merger . this increased the chain s locations from 18 to 164 and its employees from about 2 000 to about 10 000 . 1 2 in southern california the rollout of the new haggen supermarkets were to be phased in between march and june 2015 with the first haggen store opening in carlsbad california on march 11 2015 . 27 the entire conversion and rebranding process proceeded north to south over the five months from february to june 2015 . 28 on august 14 2015 haggen announced that it was closing 27 stores including 16 supermarkets in california 5 in oregon 5 in arizona and 1 in washington . 29 30 on september 1 2015 haggen announced that the company had filed a lawsuit against albertsons llc and albertsons holdings llc albertsons seeking more than 1 billion in damages . 3 the complaint which was filed that day in united states district court for the district of delaware alleged that following haggen s december 2014 purchase of 146 albertsons and safeway stores albertsons engaged in coordinated and systematic efforts to eliminate competition and haggen as a viable competitor in over 130 local grocery markets in five states and made false representations to both haggen and the ftc about albertsons commitment to a seamless transformation of the stores into viable competitors under the haggen banner . 31 chapter 11 bankruptcy edit on september 8 2015 haggen food & pharmacy filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and entered talks to sell many haggen food & pharmacy stores . 4 32 haggen announced pending closures of all california stores shortly after . 33 on september 24 2015 haggen food & pharmacy announced its plan to exit from the pacific southwest market with all closures complete by mid november 2015 . it announced it would realign its operations around 37 core stores and one stand alone pharmacy in the pacific northwest as part of the chapter 11 process . 5 a bankruptcy auction for the remaining core 33 stores of the haggen chain was set for february 5 2016 . 34 sale to albertsons edit on march 11 2016 haggen announced it was selling its 29 remaining stores to albertsons for 106 million . 35 the sale was approved on march 29 2016 . 36 once completed 15 stores would still operate under the haggen name while the rest would become albertsons locations though for many of the locations this effectovely circumvented the ftc s previous mandate for certain albertsons stores to sell so as to avoid neighborhood monopolies . the 15 stores to remain as haggen branded stores are 2814 meridian bellingham 757 haggen drive burlington 1406 lake tapps pkwy . auburn 1401 12th st. bellingham 1313 cooper point road s.w. olympia 210 36th st. bellingham 2900 woburn st. bellingham 26603 72nd ave. n.w. stanwood 1301 avenue d snohomish 1815 main st. ferndale 17641 garden way n.e. woodinville 2601 e. division mount vernon 8915 market place n.e. lake stevens 3711 88th st. n.e. marysville 31565 sr 20 1 oak harbor references edit a b haggen to expand from 18 stores to 164 stores with major acquisition press release . haggen inc. december 19 2014 . retrieved 2015 03 14 . a b washington based haggen grocery chain buying 146 albertsons safeway stores in the west . fox business network . december 20 2014 . retrieved 2015 03 13 . a b gonz lez ngel september 1 2015 . haggen sues albertsons for 1 billion over big grocery deal . the seattle times . retrieved 2015 09 16 . a b gonz lez ngel september 9 2015 . struggling haggen files for bankruptcy protection parts with southwest co ceo . the seattle times . retrieved 2015 09 10 . a b li shan ; khouri andrew september 24 2015 . grocery chain haggen is leaving california nevada and arizona . los angeles times . retrieved 2015 09 28 . haggen to sell 29 stores to albertsons for 106 million close oregon city store . oregon live . march 12 2016 . retrieved april 4 2016 . new haggen s thriftway to open in vaughan s village the enterprise october 16 1968 . p. 8 . haggens christens new old stores the enterprise june 16 1971 . p. 17 . edmonds pharmacist sentenced to prison for drug diversion scheme . the united states attorney s office western district of washinton . february 27 2009 . archived from the original on 2014 07 14 . retrieved 2014