Former Pathmark
Opened: October 9, 2015
Opened: October 9, 2015
Location: 481 River Rd, Edgewater, NJ
A quick tour of the Edgewater Acme which has been open for a few weeks now. I've been shopping at this store for well over a decade and have watched it go through 2 full remodels. I've also seen the business go down here significantly between the poor leadership of A&P and the Target across the parking lot getting the PFresh remodel. Things appear to be turning around since Acme has taken over. The store is busier than it's been in years right up to my last visit on Saturday.
"Pathmark" has been removed from some of the signage around the store and has not been replaced with "ACME".
Interesting logo on the floral signage.
Spot lights that used to line the first aisle of the heath food department have been replaced.
That restrooms are now brought to you by ACME.
"SAVE" replaced with "ACME Local" stickers.
Huge difference in Produce with the new lighting.
Acme has painted all cases black which looks pariculary good with the other colors already used throughout the store.
Looks like Acme is trying to revive the hot foods at this store. I don't recall seeing this case stocked so well.
These cases used to be all white. Acme painted them and installed new bumpers. The cases actually look brand-new.
This store got off to a bit of a rough start. There seemed to be more items on the shelves being discontinued than not! Looks like this isn't as much of a problem in more recent conversions as A&P and Pathmark aren't doing much restocking in stores that are due for conversions.
Surprising how much a little black paint can class up the joint...
The café is drawing decent crowds. It was usually pretty dead in the Pathmark days.
Acme unburied the Bistro! Pathmark pulled the plug on this years ago and filled the counters with random merchandise. Acme's $19.99 meal deal bags are now kept on the counters.
Can't remember if the soft drink cases at the front end used to say Pathmark but they now say ACME. Every single on of them.
Four self-checkouts gone, replaced with one express register... that isn't always open. I've heard shoppers complain about the shelf checkouts being gone as I've waited in line.
AERIAL VIEWS
Look closely and you'll see the Acme and some neighboring stores have solar panels on their roofs.
For a look at this store prior to the Acme conversion, please visit the "Future Acme Markets" post by clicking here.
Looks good- I like how the old Pathmark sign shape is still there, it gives the Acme sign some needed flair. Maybe they could use that shape to distinguish their converted stores from their others, which would get the new fisheye shape seen at the quality built locations.
ReplyDeleteI kind of like how ACME seems to be largely keeping the A&P features in these stores, like Bistro or Café. However, as presented as these two stores, seem experimental still and underutilized, and might disappear again just as before. On the other hand, since they are experimental, ACME could use and play with these as a "back door" prototype instead of putting these rather expensive features in new or existing stores before testing them out. (Maybe the Café could serve the Signature Café sandwiches like Safeway does in their stores)
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, a bit disappointed that of all the features that ACME isn't keeping is the self check-outs, and hopefully with all the minor upgrades in store, they can change the aisle markers, because as it stands, they are unattractive.
This store had beautiful aisle markers before A&P took over and replaced them with the pieces of garbage you now in the pictures.
DeleteI feel as long as the aisle markers are correctly telling you what is in the isle, does it really matter to he overall shopping experience if they are attractive or not?. I mean, they are meant to be functional so sometimes form doesn't really have to follow function.
DeleteThe ones that were here before were completely functional and attractive. They were just lacking the bogus "SAVE" message that A&P insisted on slapping all over the place.
DeleteThey also needed to streamline the aisle signs across the Pathmarks when that happened. Any time they would reset an aisle with the old markers from this decor, or the previous red ones (or god forbid 90s beige), you would end up with home-made paper inserts. I guess they couldn't order the old kind. They could have done a lot better than what they did during sav-a-center, but they did have to get these out to 90+% of all Pathmarks (only excluding PA ex-Superfreshes). The Weehawken ones were nice, and so were the standard A&P wood-grain ones (latest fresh) that did make it into a few Pathmarks.
DeleteI actually wanna see what the Elmwood Park and Saddle Brook stores look like now...maybe I need to make a trip.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I like self checkouts, but when it comes to stores that should never have put them in, Pathmark was at the tippy top of the list. They were always stacked tight in one corner, tended to get a little glitchy, and didn't accomplish much by being around.
So basically they're keeping the newer Pathmark decor. What about stores that still have the boring 80s/90s Pathmark motif inside?
ReplyDeleteThey're not remodeling any of the stores. They're just getting the reopened as fast as they can.
DeleteHowever one might suspect that once all the conversions are completed they would think about further remodels, and if they do it seems likely that the older stores would be the first to get them (as the newer stores, particularly the A&P Fresh locations are pretty good already)?
DeleteI don't think there's any left with '80s or '90s decor. Most of the ones that weren't fully remodeled in the past decade would have the early 2000s "Path to Savings" decor, cheaply retrofitted to literally say "Save" all over the place. (Which seems to be the only sense in which that slogan was accurate.)
ReplyDeleteI am kind of curious to see what Acme does with those stores to cover up all the Pathmark references, aside from the aisle markers which we already saw here. Maybe they could make the stores look a *little* less tacky? I do hope these are the first ones to ultimately get remodeled.
There are a few still scattered around with 1990s Pathmark decor. "Path to Savings" was huge, but they did skip a few, and never caught them up afterward. The Brooklyn store comes to mind, at 1245 61st St. (going to Manischevitz), but there are more around NJ.
DeleteHmm... interesting. Are any of these stores going to Acme?
DeleteGood question. I can't think of any going to Acme, but one I know is going to ShopRite in Philadelphia.
DeleteOne point, regarding the soda coolers...most of them, and this goes across every store chain, have the logo of the specific bottling company on them.
ReplyDelete