After Haggen purchased 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores late last year, it later filed a lawsuit against Albertsons LLC and Albertsons Holdings LLC seeking more than $1 billion in damages shortly before filing bankruptcy. Monday, Albertsons placed a bid on two of the three Haggen stores in Tucson.
The complaint, which was filed in United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleged that following Haggen’s December 2014 purchase of 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores, Albertsons engaged in “coordinated and systematic efforts to eliminate competition and Haggen as a viable competitor in over 130 local grocery markets in five states,” and “made false representations to both Haggen and the FTC about Albertsons’ commitment to a seamless transformation of the stores into viable competitors under the Haggen banner.”
A total of 94 Haggen stores are up for auction this week as part of the company’s chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. The Bellingham, Wash.-based grocer entered the Tucson market in May 2014 as part of a massive expansion, growing from 18 stores to 164.
Court records filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware show Albertsons’ has placed a $1 million bid for the former Haggen store at 10380 E. Broadway, which was formerly a Safeway and a $700,000 for its former store at 1350 N. Silverbell Road, which is slated to close by the end of the month.
No bid has been placed for the store at 8740 E. Broadway yet.
The three Tucson stores are part of 10 in Arizona that are up for auction. Albertson’s has also placed a $1 million bid for the store in Lake Havasu City. None of the three stores in Phoenix, two in Prescott or the one in Flagstaff have received bids.