UPDATE: Former ACME, Parsippany, NJ

 

Location: 3053 U.S. 46, Parsippany, NJ

Today we're jumping back to one of the very first ACME locations ever covered on the blog. The original post went up on February 26, 2009. A few things have happened here since then, with BIG coming for its future. We'll get to that soon. The ACME opened on 8-20-1957. Closed in the late 80's with its 70's Colonial Décor still intact and topping out at about 20,000 square feet. Looking at the aerial images over the decades, there always seemed to be a very decent crowd at the ACME but nearby competition from much larger stores like Pathmark and ShopRite most certainly helped do this place in. 

Back in 2009, Michaels was the tenant here but just a few years later, around 2011, Michaels ditched this former ACME in favor of the former A&P just a few miles away in the Troy Hills Shopping Center. That location has recently closed as Michaels' troubles grow now that they are owned by private equity. Service has been gutted and prices are absolutely out of control. I personally used to be a regular shopper at Michaels and have completely given up due to the astronomical rise in prices. 

As you may remember, this location continues to have a fantastic artifact remaining in place from the ACME days. This colonial-style window near the former entrance used to house the weekly circular for shoppers to view before entering. It is currently a legit window with ACME's original frame virtually untouched. 

Just around the corner, we can see that scars still remain from the magic carpets and railing. Shoppers would have entered here and walked along the front of the store to get to the produce department which would have lined the far wall. 

Today when we look inside, we see remnants of the for blink fitness which closed in August 2024 after the company declared bankruptcy. ACME's entrance and exit right there on the left. 

The above photo is from this article announcing the closing of this blink location shortly after the company declared bankruptcy. 

A quick look around back...

The Morris Hills Shopping Center has been in serious decline for years. Aside from blink closing, both Marshalls and Home Goods have left the center and relocated to the former Kmart in the nearby Westmount-Arlington Plaza. While Morris Hills has been fading into total abandonment in recent years, word has come that Trader Joe's is planning to move in! While the exact location has not been confirmed by the company, there is a lot of speculation that Trader Joes' will take over the former ACME space. Would be great to see the building operating as a food store once again! 

I discovered this sign on my most recent trip to the shopping center. On first look, I thought for sure it had to be leftover from the ACME days. In fact I was convinced of it as ACME used to install ridiculously large signs in their parking lots back in the day. After reviewing historic images of the shopping center, I unfortunately have to conclude that this is NOT leftover from the ACME. Part of me is still not convinced! 

A quick jump to the Troy Hills Shopping Center, looking at the former A&P/Michaels with a very interesting facade upgrade. The building is now being prepped for a Ross Dress for Less. Interestingly, the shopping center, while currently looking pretty great, is going to be refreshed soon. Most work entails improvements in the difficult-to-navigate parking lot. Below is a photo of the current smaller-format Target which operates in Pathmark's former space. 

1987

Still looking like ACME was drawing a decent crowd in its final years. 

1963

Jumping back to 1963, about 5 years after the store opened. 

Leaving you one a bonus pic! This appeared on the blog years ago but it so good not to share again here. Up on the wall you see ACME's famous built-in clock just above the customer service office. 

Summer's over, Happy September!

Posting has been a little slow here lately and I'm gonna blame it on the summer! Rolling on into September with summer fun over and more posts will be coming your way. While things have been a little quiet here, I have been working on posts and photographing stores so a lot of great stuff to come. In the meantime, I'm going to start a new feature post for Mondays. Something to get our week off to an interesting start. Each Monday's post will contain an interesting photo, most often I will be pulling up a photo from Acme Style's past that may have been forgotten in all the thousands of photos that I have posted over the years. Today it's something a little different. This is a very recent photo of ACME's steel wool soap pads, all packaged up in the OLD Signature Select Home boxes. I have seen these in numerous ACMEs and it is the only product that I've spotted that has not had its packaging updated. (Well in grocery anyway. HABA is still a packaging nightmare as for some unknown reason Albertsons can't seem to get all the Signature Care packaging switched over to Signature Select. It's still in progress. Painfully slow progress. Dragging on now for years!)

So what happened here? Has no one noticed this lone item with the old packaging and logo? Do they have such a huge backlog of these boxes they're just not selling through? I don't have the answers, but I find it fascinating that these soap pads seem forgotten in a sea of updated Signature Select products.  

Quick update: Word is the Edgewater ShopRite is due to open on September 19th which confirms that little no work will be done to the interior. 

Edgewater ACME to become ShopRite! (surprise, surprise)

Location: Location: 481 River Road, Edgewater, NJ

The Edgewater ACME shuttered on August 15th with ShopRite's "coming soon" signs going up almost immediately. Mystery solved! I was able to speak with a current employee of ACME and was told ShopRite, in fact, outbid ACME on the lease. I was also told that this store had one of the most expensive leases of any ACME in New Jersey. Makes sense as this is an upper-class, densely populated area with next to no room for any additional stores or shopping centers to be built. Due to the extremely high lease, the Edgewater ACME may not have been terribly profitable. I have noticed a steady decline in business here over the past few years. Not sure why. No additional competition had moved into the area and ACME was the only standard supermarket around. The interior had been getting a bit tired as ACME never did a full Quality Built remodel. Strange resets had also happened in the past year, giving me the impression things just weren't working here anymore. 

In the first photo of the post, we see ShopRite has erased the remaining evidence of Pathmark. Interestingly, this is the only work that has been done to the store so far. It has been closed for two weeks with months of preparation time and literally nothing is happening here. The interior is completely untouched. Has me wondering if Inserra* will doing anything at all. It looks like everything was purposely left in place, including the self-checout terminals! ACME even left all of their carts. 

*Assuming this is Inserra owned as are the other ShopRites in the area. In my opinion, Inserra runs the absolute worst ShopRites of all. Defunct pharmacies, shuttered service departments, scaled back fresh offerings are the norm in their stores. 

Will Shoprite gut the former pharmacy or just wall it over with a Doritos display? I'm surprised ACME didn't, at the very least, tear the logos off the walls around the interior. 

Tough to see inside on a few photos with the signage added to the vestibule windows. 

Baffled by the self-checkouts terminals remaining. Could ACME not use these in other stores? ShopRite certainly won't be using them. Or will they if this is a bare-bones conversion?

Register stands stripped but looking like they're prepped for reuse. Will Inserra put signage on the checkout lights or leave bare bulbs like their Columbia Park location? 

ACME carts left behind. At one point this store had received a ton of the new black carts but then most seemingly disappeared. Any remaining ones have been removed.

Cart corrals remain with ACME signage removed. Perhaps ShopRite compensated ACME for all the items that were left behind. At this point, it's looking like ShopRite is just gonna move right in.  

I will begrudgingly cover this store when it reopens. Really hoping the place gets some upgrades. ACME was looking a little rough in the end but at this point I don't have much hope for an improved shopping experience. The other Inserra ShopRites in the area are among the saddest supermarkets you could ever step foot in. 

Abandoned ACME – Morris Plains, NJ

Location: 329 Speedwell Avenue, Morris Plains, NJ

The once seemingly invincible Morris Plains ACME, which has stood here for 43 years, is now closed and abandoned, having remained this way since June of 2021. Surprisingly, still standing as the landlord planned to kick ACME out, tear the place down and build three smaller businesses on the property. Never happened. ACME could have remained open all of that time. It appears that only recently has plans for the building come into fruition. What exactly, I'm not too sure. Some sort of EV business is slowly rehabbing the interior and even more slowly the exterior. Must be frustrating for Morris Plains residents who used the ACME frequently, more as a convenience store in recent years than their weekly shopping destination like back in the day when this store was one of ACME's top performers. 

43 years later, the original mansard roof is still intact. Now with that awful green color ACME insisted on painting all of their old stores with. Some modifications happened to the facade during the store's last remodel which dates back to the late 90's. 

The exterior has deteriorated significantly since the store closed. 

The boarded-up area used to be windows but have recently been removed along with the cement base, possibly to bring large equipment into the store. Portions of the awning have also been removed on each end as well. 

A LOOK INSIDE >>>

It's all been stripped away! Gutted. Everything ACME gone. But hey, the lights are on!

ABANDONED >>>

Photos courtesy of TD3 on YouTube

Here are some screengrabs from a TD3's video on YouTube that captures the interior of the ACME still intact as of just two years ago. (Side note: why on earth did this store have such a gigantic seafood department?)

We have seen this many, many times before but I always get excited about it... the ORIGINAL wall paneling in the Meat Department fully on display once the upright meat cases are removed! This paneling is original to the store and part of the Colonial Decor package. Morris Plains would go on to have three remodels in its lifetime and these panels remained untouched every time. Interesting to note that Morris Plains did receive the Checkerboard Arch decor in the early 90's which was not brought into many North Jersey ACMEs. And in this particular case, the "remodel" was extremely minor with Morris Plains not recieveing many of the decorative elements from that decor package. In fact, the entire Checkerboard Arch decor was done throughout the store only in blue and green. The red and blue combo not to be found here. 

IN BETTER DAYS  >>>

Jumping back in time with this photo courtesy of Rob Ascough. You can jump back to an old post where Rob gives fascinating details of the Morris Plains ACME by clicking here. 

AERIAL IMAGES

1979

Here we see the "new" ACME freshly built on the back of the property. The original ACME was located out at the street, which you can see in the image below. 

1970

Some very unique elements to be seen at the original Morris Plains ACME!