First on Coupons in the News:

It looks like the final chapter of the troubled Haggen grocery chain is about to be written. On the very day that it held the first in a series of auctions to sell off the majority of its stores, Haggen has informed the bankruptcy court that it’s now seeking to sell all the rest.

In short, it appears Haggen may soon be history.

Haggen has requested a hearing to seek “approval of the proposed sale of the Debtors’ Core Stores.” Those would be the 32 locations it had previously said were not for sale (listed below). Half of them are original Haggen locations, dating back to before the chain’s ill-fated expansion plan, while the remaining half are Albertsons and Safeway stores that the chain purchased earlier this year, and had hoped to hold onto.

And you know by now, how that went.

After announcing the auctions of the California, Arizona and Nevada stores it acquired from Albertsons, Haggen had plans to shrink to roughly its pre-expansion size, retaining a small set of stores in Oregon and Washington. Several locations on the list of “core stores” ended up on the auction block, however, and now it appears the rest will as well.

“As part of the Debtors’ overall sale strategy,” Haggen’s motion reads, “the Debtors have decided, in their business judgment, to sell all or substantially all of the Assets — which collectively represent the Debtors’ most valuable store locations — in order to further maximize recoveries to the Debtors’ estates, their creditors, and all parties in interest.”

No buyers for the remaining stores are lined up just yet. Haggen is seeking a stalking horse bidder or bidders, to make an opening offer for the stores that will stand if no one else outbids them. Barring that, Haggen plans to put the core stores up for auction, just like the others.

The first round of a scheduled three-round auction was held earlier Monday (see the list of stores and updated auction results here). About 40 bidders – including Albertsons itself – had pre-qualified to participate, and 14 submitted baseline bids.

Haggen is requesting a December 4th hearing on its motion to sell its remaining stores, with a planned auction to be held on January 8th (update: the auction has now been moved to March 18th).

In a statement provided to Coupons in the News late Tuesday, Haggen suggested that the move to seek buyers for its core stores was not its preference. “As part of the restructuring process, Haggen was required to explore potential outside opportunities for all of its operations, including the Core Stores which are performing well,” the statement reads. “The bid procedures filed (Monday) comply with those terms. Despite the filing, Haggen does not anticipate any changes to continuing operations at the Core Stores including regular payments to suppliers and partners.”

The statement leaves some room for interpretation – unlike the stores to be auctioned this week, which began holding going-out-of-business sales before the scheduled auctions, Haggen’s statement indicates that the rest of its stores will remain open for business during the bankruptcy process. That could be to ensure a smooth transition to new owners, or it could be that Haggen might like to stay in business in some reduced form, if it can pay its creditors, emerge from bankruptcy and keep any unsold core stores. But with all of its stores now heading for the auction block, it may not have a choice.

If so, it looks like it could be an ignominious end, for a small regional grocery chain with high hopes of going big time. In the end, it appears that all Haggen may have succeeded in doing, is going bust.

REMAINING HAGGEN LOCATIONS, TO BE AUCTIONED FEBRUARY 29TH: