Haggen was a grocery chain that existed throughout the Seattle/Puget Sound area, especially under their other name Top Food. Then they seemed to close most of the Top Foods or change them back to Haggen. I wondered what was going on, and it turned out they were doing this to accommodate the Safeway/Albertson's merger. Where there were too many Safeways or Albertsons close together, one of them would be converted to a Haggen. I went to some of those stores. The large conversions from Safeway seemed sparse and empty. They put up faux old-fashioned decorations on the walls, which were electronically printed. It seemed they cleared out the old stores to put up new shelves as Haggen, but I know the opposite became true. Haggen was being supplied by Safeway/Albertsons, and soon they complained that the larger company wasn't treating them fair. Haggen soon went out of business as an independent company, and the stores were converted back to the brand they once were. I got a look inside the Safeway I mentioned earlier because they kept the in-store bank branch open during the reconversion. The place was cleared out once again to put up new shelves again. But Haggen still had a strong presence in Bellingham, from whence they originated, and I wondered what would happen there. All the Bellingham locations still seem to be open, and it turns out Safeway/Albertsons bought out Haggen and have kept them open in Bellingham and some other locations. Oak Harbor still has one Haggen in an old Safeway (next to a Safeway gas station) while the new Safeway is open on the hill behind them. Haggen seems to exist as the luxury/import brand to Safeway, like QFC does to Fred Meyer.
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Topic: Chains Defunct in One Region Only to be Alive and Well in Others (Read 5167 times)