As part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, the Washington-based Haggen grocery chain began its auction to sell 127 stores in California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington on Tuesday morning at a Hyatt hotel near Los Angeles International Airport.
The three-day-long process, in which each store will be individually auctioned to a group of approximately 40 bidders, comes after Haggen drowned financially in its effort to take over 147 Albertsons and Safeway stores it purchased in a Federal Trade Commission-approved merger between the two grocery giants. The auction is organized by geographic location and focused Tuesday on Haggen’s Arizona, Anaheim, Los Angeles, and Bakersfield/Riverside markets.
On Wednesday, the chain’s Santa Barbara, Oxnard/Ventura, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, and Las Vegas markets will be auctioned. According to a document filed last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, three companies have filed baseline bids on four Haggen stores in Santa Barbara County. Smart & Final, a warehouse-style grocery chain, previously filed stalking horse bids on Haggen’s upper State Street location in Santa Barbara and Linden Avenue location in Carpinteria, which Haggen said will be reviewed Friday by the bankruptcy court.