Bankrupt grocer Haggen has received offers to buy four of its Southern Nevada stores, leaving its other outposts here apparently on track to close in the next few weeks.
And one suitor, Albertsons, wants to buy back the stores it sold to Haggen less than a year ago.
Haggen, based in Bellingham, Wash., said Friday it received U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval to sell eight stores in California to upscale chain Gelson’s for about $36 million and another 28 stores in California to warehouse-style grocer Smart & Final for $56 million.
Haggen also said it accepted bids for “noncore” locations, auctioning 55 stores for more than $47 million. Those stores are in Southern Nevada, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington state.
Locally, Albertsons placed bids for three stores in Henderson, and Sprouts Farmers Market bid for one in northwest Las Vegas. In the news release, Haggen did not disclose sales prices for individual stores.
Albertsons has about 30 locations in Southern Nevada and Sprouts has five, according to their websites.
Haggen said it plans to submit results of the “noncore” sell-off at a bankruptcy court hearing Nov. 24, to land court approval of the auction.
Haggen expanded to Southern Nevada this year by acquiring four stores from Vons — one in Boulder City and three in Las Vegas — and three from Albertsons, all in Henderson. That was part of a massive, Western U.S. expansion in which Haggen acquired 146 stores from Albertsons and Vons owner Safeway Inc.
Albertsons had reached a deal to buy Safeway for about $9 billion, and to get Federal Trade Commission approval of the buyout, the companies agreed to sell 168 stores nationally. Haggen acquired most of them, and as a result, it grew overnight from 18 locations and 2,000 employees to 164 stores and more than 10,000 workers.
However, Haggen quickly sank under its own girth.
In July, Haggen said it was laying off employees locally and in California and Arizona; in August, news reports said the company planned to close or sell 27 stores, including in Nevada; and in a 10-day span in September, Haggen sued Albertsons for more than $1 billion in damages, filed for bankruptcy protection and announced that, given its need to slim down and save money, its Pacific Southwest regional CEO had “left the company” amid a corporate consolidation.
Haggen spokeswoman Deborah Pleva said last month that all of its Las Vegas-area stores would close by the end of November.
Pleva did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.
One store in the valley has already shut its doors, according to a worker in its shopping center: the Haggen at 1940 Village Center Circle, in Summerlin.
Phone calls tonight to Southern Nevada’s six other Haggens were answered by respective employees. But at Village Center, the phone number has been changed, and calls to the new number led to an outgoing message that said the phone “does not accept incoming calls.”