By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch A Haggen grocery store in Spanaway that was headed for closure is getting a second life. The store will be purchased by the Albertsons grocery chain and operated as a Safeway. Albertsons, which owns Safeway, submitted a winning bid for that store and 11 others that were put on the auction block as part of Haggen's bankruptcy proceedings. The store at 15805 Pacific Ave. S. was among the store closures in Washington announced by Haggen as part of what the regional grocery chain describes as an effort to improve its business competitiveness. The Bellingham-based company revealed in August that it would close or sell 25 locations in Washington, California, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Most of them were acquired by Haggen as part of a transaction in which Albertsons and Safeway divested 146 stores through a merger. Haggen subsequently filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which protects its assets during its business reorganizing. The company is also embroiled in lawsuits it filed against Albertson's and that Albertson's filed against Haggen over alleged details surrounding the store sales. Haggen, which was founded in 1933, does business in Washington as Haggen Northwest Fresh and TOP Food and Drug. The store in Spanaway was the only Haggen Northwest Fresh outlet in Washington among the ones here and in Oregon, California and Arizona that Haggen included on the closure list in August. The Spanaway store that is reverting to Safeway was a Safeway store before being sold to the Haggen chain as part of a merger of Safeway and Albertson's. That business marriage required Safeway and Albertson's to shed some of their properties. Of the other 11 stores Albertson's is acquiring via auction, two are in Pierce County GÇô one in the Summit-Puyallup area and one in Gig Harbor. The rest are in King and Snohomish counties. Through its since-failed acquisition of former Safeway and Albertson's stores, Haggen expanded from 18 stores with 16 pharmacies and 2,000 employees in the Pacific Northwest to 164 stores and 106 pharmacies employing more than 10,000 people in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Arizona. Haggen contends its original stores have continued to perform well since the company's expansion.
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