From 33, to roughly 185, to 15. That’s how wildly the store count at grocery chain Haggen has fluctuated in 15 months.

The numbers tell the story of a Bellingham company that started as a regional presence, tried too fast to build an empire and ended up, bankrupt, as a business unit of former competitor Albertsons LLC.

Haggen last Friday announced it had accepted Albertsons’ bid to buy 29 of its 33 “core,” or original, stores.

The agreement is subject to approval by a federal bankruptcy court, at a hearing scheduled for March 29.

Albertsons agreed to pay $106 million for Haggen’s core stores. An auction scheduled for March 18 was canceled.

The Oak Harbor Haggen store — once a Safeway — is among those slated to be bought by Albertsons. That led many Oak Harbor residents over the weekend to presume the store would soon carry the Albertsons banner.

On Monday afternoon, however, Haggen dropped the news that 15 of the 29 stores Albertson is buying — including the one in Oak Harbor — will retain the Haggen name and will be managed by the Haggen business unit in Bellingham.

Albertsons operates its stores under numerous banners, including Jewel-Osco, Safeway, Shaw’s and Vons.

The remaining 14 former Haggen stores will carry the name Albertson.

Within two months, Haggen will close its three other core stores, two in Washington and one in Oregon, it said.

“We will continue the traditions of operating great Haggen stores focused on community involvement, fresh Northwest products and great services,” said Haggen CEO John Clougher in a press release Monday.

The Haggen stores that remain “will continue to offer the freshest local products available, with the same great employees,” Albertsons CEO Bob Miller said in a Monday statement.

“I find it just remarkable how the ownership keeps changing,” said Lorri Fargo of Freeland, who was shopping at Haggen on Monday with her dad. “What a waste of time and money.”

“And think how hard it must be on the employees.”

“This all has happened so fast,” said Haggen produce worker Brett Dahl.

Employed at the same location for six years, Dahl was first a Safeway employee, then a Haggen employee. Now he will likely be an Albertson/Haggen employee.

“The changes have been stressful,” he said.

The store’s 85 workers are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 21. Store management declined to comment on the developments Monday.

When former competitors Albertsons and Safeway completed their merger on Jan. 30, 2015, those chains were required by the Federal Trade Commission to divest themselves of 168 stores — the Oak Harbor Safeway on State Highway 20 among them — in order to win antitrust approval of the merger.

In December 2014, Haggen bought that store, as well as nearly 150 others. It filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sept. 8, 2015, having bitten off far more than it could chew.

Many of the stores it bought have already been auctioned off, most of them bought up by Albertsons.

In a result that seems to thwart the FTC’s antitrust mission, Albertsons and Safeway — now a single company called Albertsons — will have Oak Harbor stores nearly back to back, even if the Albertsons’ store is labeled Haggen. But that’s OK, the FTC said.

“While the divestitures did not lead to the full result we were looking for — a new supermarket competitor in each market area — most of the divested stores do remain supermarkets,” it said in a March 10 email.

“The FTC believes it is best for consumers if these stores continue to operate as supermarkets, even if Albertsons owns them,” the email said.

The FTC has approved this week’s deal, Albertsons said in a press release Monday.

Haggen shopper Russ Dewolfe, of Freeland, commented, “Haggen is a very good store, but the company just never should have tried to expand so much.”

“It is not a store that feeds the masses,” said Dewolfe.  “It has a select clientele.”