Super 88 chain seeks bankruptcy protection

According to its filing in the US Bankruptcy Court District of Massachusetts, Super 88 - which operates stores in Allston, Dorchester, and Malden - has at least 200 creditors. The stores will remain open for business during the proceedings.

Super 88 owners Peter Luu and his son, George V.H. Luu, did not respond to requests seeking comment. But Frank D. Kirby, attorney for Super 88, yesterday said the bankruptcy puts a halt to a possible sale of the chain, which is being hashed out in court by three potential buyers that each claim to have deals to buy some or all of its stores.

“The company obviously needed to have some time to decide what its next step was going to be,’’ said Kirby, who added that a bankruptcy judge could entertain offers to purchase the chain. “My advice was for them to file a reorganization plan. So that’s where we stand.’’

In the filing, Super 88 listed assets of $1 million to $10 million and liabilities of $10 million to $50 million. Several other entities owned by the Luus also filed for bankruptcy Monday, as well as late last week, court records show.

The Super 88 chain was founded by Peter Luu after he arrived in Boston in 1979, following his family’s flight from Vietnam. After the chain grew to six stores, it fell on hard times. Half the stores were closed last year, and more recently, Super 88 was having trouble keeping its shelves stocked as suppliers complained of not getting paid.

In late August, a representative for Hong Kong Supermarket Inc., a grocery chain based in New York, said that the company was buying Super 88. Hong Kong Supermarket has been operating the stores under a management agreement, and in recent weeks has started restocking shelves and putting up “coming soon’’ signs. But Hong Kong Supermarket’s takeover of Super 88 has been stalled by claims from two other potential buyers that they had deals with the Luus to purchase individual stores.

Wincent International Inc., a New Jersey company that runs the Kam Man supermarket in Quincy, had a $2 million agreement made in late July to purchase the Super 88 store in Dorchester. And Doris and Gary Wong, who own Food-Pak Express, a wholesale company on Southampton Street, agreed in mid-August to purchase the Super 88 in Allston for $3.2 million. Both companies filed lawsuits in Suffolk Superior Court to protect those deals, and a hearing is scheduled tomorrow for both cases, though it could now be put off by the bankruptcy case.

Hayes Young, the attorney for Hong Kong Supermarket owner Jeffrey Wu, said Hong Kong will continue to run the Super 88 stores as the chain goes through bankruptcy proceedings.

The filing “creates an entirely new dynamic that we’re going to have to deal with going forward,’’ he said. “It seems like the ownership issues and the credit issues are going to be resolved in the bankruptcy setting.’’

Vincent J. Pisegna, an attorney representing the Wongs, said the “effect of the bankruptcy filing may well be to close the sale to Hong Kong, which has been prevented by state courts on at least two or three separate occasions.’’

Howard P. Speicher, an attorney for Wincent International, said: “Things could go in all kinds of interesting directions’’ but added that his client “is still very determined to buy the store that he has a contract to buy.’’

Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.