Photo: FLLewis / Media City G — Haggen 3830 West Verdugo Avenue Burbank September 25,2015
Gelson’s and Smart & Final have signed agreements to purchase some of the soon-to-be closed Haggen supermarkets, according to a news release on the Haggen website today. However, the Haggen market at 3830 West Verdugo Avenue in Burbank is still in limbo. Haggen spokesperson, Deborah Pleva, told Media City Groove in an email: “We have no details on that location at this time.”
Gelson’s, a high-ended supermarket chain based in Encino, has an offer in for eight Haggen stores in Carlsbad, Del Mar, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Beach, La Jolla, Rancho Mirage, Santa Monica and Thousand Oaks. Established in 1951, Gelson’s currently runs 18 full-service specialty grocery stores in Southern California. The discount chain, Smart & Final, is hoping to pick up 27 of the stores in California and one in Las Vegas.
Last month, Haggen filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy only a few months after launching an ambitious expansion plan that included the Southern California market. Then a week and a half ago, Haggen announced it would be unloading most of the 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores it purchased last December. Any deal must be approved by a bankruptcy court.
Haggen, based in Bellingham, Washington, plans to rebuild its struggling company around a group of 16 original stores, one stand alone pharmacy, and 21 stores acquired in the Albertsons transaction.
