A small Seattle-based northwest grocery chain suddenly blew up a few years ago to cover much of the western United States down to the southern border within a period of weeks. It went in a few weeks in 2015 from having 18 stores to 164 stores. Akin to its meteoric rise, the chain crumbled rapidly over a period of months as well until there was only a few left in the state from whence it came. It’s crazy!

The turbulent year for Haggen was the result of some laws that made it buy up some Safeway and Albertsons stores as the chain was trying to complete a merger.
Ironically, Safeway-Albertsons had to buy out the chain when it went bankrupt from its weird growth. This achieved the opposite of what was intended in the first place.

You could cover the bizarre history of the chain and trace the near-instantaneous expansion and collapse of the chain throughout 2015-16. It’s really wild and fascinating (especially for something as typically monotonous as a grocery store).