When Safeway and Albertsons merged the FTC required that some of their stores be sold off for anti trust reasons. The ultimate result was just the opposite. Haggen bought 147 Albertson and Safeway stores on the west coast. Now the Haggen management has demonstrated incompetence in the past and I was concerned that this over leveraged transaction would not end well. I was right – Haggen is now in bankruptcy and is closing most of the stores they purchased. I had shopped at my local Albertsons for nearly 2 decades. I no longer drive and it was the only store I could walk to. I was on a first name bases with many of the employees. It is not scheduled to close until November 24th but already the meat and deli departments have been shut down.
The store is a big one and in a good location so perhaps someone else will pick it up but if not I will have to take a cab to the next nearest grocery store. The remedies for anti trust concerns had just the opposite affect. Safeway may soon be the only grocery store in the area.