The bankruptcy auction is happening this week in Los Angeles. It was forced to sell the stores by the FTC when it merged with Safeway.

The Culinary Kitchens & Technical Center is a state-of-the-art facility that enables the company’s stores like Albertsons, Safeway, Jewel-Osco, Vons and Carrs to provide customers with products developed to their tastes.

Bellingham-based Haggen is auctioning off 95 stores.

The Bellingham Herald reports (http://goo.gl/Gbc3GF ) court documents filed Monday shows the company has scheduled a hearing in early December to discuss selling of the 32 stores it initially said it would keep. And Commerce’s Smart & Final Stores Inc. aims to claim Diamond Bar and Burbank.

Among the Haggen locations that Albertsons is seeking to buy is its former store at 3075 Hilyard St., according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

It is one of four stores with bid being put on by the Albertsons store chain.

Haggen noted that for a few locations on which it received no qualified bid, it has set its own baseline bid “to promote a spirited and robust auction and to expedite the auction”. Albertsons in turn sued Haggen for allegedly failing to pay for inventory it inherited. It’s unclear at this point whether the supermarkets on the auction block will stay open continuously while ownership changes hands.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union said it has representatives at the auction to advocate for its members’ interests.

Haggen has yet to release a statement on this latest development.