Haggen filed three motions Monday in bankruptcy court asking approval to sell 36 stores in California and Nevada to Gelson’s Markets and Smart & Final and to “establish procedures for ongoing sales,” according to a Haggen press release.
Essentially, the motions propose universal bidding procedures, stalking horse bid procedures — a process by which a bankrupt company selects an initial bidder to set the bar for future bids, thereby protecting itself from low bids — and a schedule of when stores will be sold.
Both Gelson’s Markets and Smart & Final have applied to be stalking horse bidders in Haggen’s Southwest market: Gelson’s Markets, a small southern California grocery chain, has signed an asset purchase agreement for 8 stores in California, and Smart & Final, a warehouse-style grocery chain, has done the same for 27 stores in California and one in Nevada — including two of Santa Barbara County’s five Haggen locations on Linden Avenue in Carpinteria and upper State Street in Santa Barbara. If the court approves Haggen’s sale to Smart & Final, the new locations will join two Smart & Final stores on S. Broadway in Santa Maria and E. Gutierrez Street in Santa Barbara.