Haggen to Close Long Beach Store

Haggen announced plans today to close all of its California stores, retreating back to its home base in Washington.

The move caps a whirlwind year for the grocery chain, which expanded on a massive scale from 18 stores to 164 in the spring only to end up closing most of their new stores in California, Nevada and Arizona within months. In the process, the company filed for bankruptcy and sued competitor Albertsons for malicious business practices in a $1 billion case.

There are several LA County stores that will be affected including the store at on Spring Street in Long Beach.

According to a statement released by the company, all affected employees “will receive 60 day notice of the pending store and office closures. During this process, all stores will remain open. Employees will continue to receive their pay and benefits through the normal course of business as previously approved by the court.”

When the company launched in California by acquiring stores Albertson’s and Safeway shed when they merged, many industry analysts questioned if the grocer bit off more than it could chew with the sudden expansion.

Haggen blames Albertsons for its failures.

“During the transfer process, Albertsons launched its plan to gain market power and/or monopoly power, acting in a manner that was designed to (and did) hamstring Haggen’s ability to successfully operate the Stores after taking ownership,” the suit alleges. “Albertson’s anti-competitive actions critically damaged the operations, customer service, brand goodwill and profitability of the divested stores from the outset... [and] have caused significant harm to competition, local communities, employees and consumers.”

Albertsons officials have derided the suit as baseless, and has sued Haggen for unpaid debts.