Acme — Newton, New Jersey

Location: 11 West Nelson Street, Newton NJ

This store is scheduled to close for good on February 25, 2009. One of four Acme stores that will be closing.

This store received the chain-wide remodel of the mid 80's. The Newton store was one of the last Acmes to be remodeled in North Jersey. Some stores, such as Sparta and Clifton, were passed over completely and kept their 70's colonial decor well into the 90's. The red oval logo was added in the 80's although all of the green sections were dark brown. They were painted green sometime in the late 90's or early 2000's. Strange that the sign was not updated to Acme's current logo. Many stores received this green treatment with the new logo regardless of any improvements made to the interior. This store did receive the "convience store" treatment which basically entailed removing any of the departments that were added during the 80's remodel such as the Seafood Department (if it was even still open for full-serice), salad bar, cheese from around the world and Floral Department. The 80's wall decor was also replaced with the blue and beige wall graphics that can be seen below.

Outstanding location for the security lights! The Produce alcove was added during the mid 80's remodel. You can see where the wall used to be on the left-hand side of the photo (the corner right next to the plants). Most stores of this size had the Produce alcove added during the 70's remodel. That was not the case in this store.

Get your smoked meats! The Floral Department of the 80's remodel was located on the right where the mac and cheese shelving is now. The full-service Seafood Department added in the 80's was located at the end of the aisle where the self-serve cases are now.

Now serving #69. Really? Notice the blue stripe to the right of "Deli" has fallen off.

The air vents have caused "Meats" to be encrusted in black fuzz. Yum.

Aisle 8: Dairy. The last aisle in the store. The "Dairy" wall graphics don't quite make it to the end of the Dairy Department.

Very small in-store Bakery. The lattice is a relatively new touch. Notice the red block to the left of "Bakery" has fallen off.

Prior to the mid-80's remodel, this are was where the customer service desk and store office was. The office is now much small and is located behind the bakery. The customer service department was replaced with the "CSR" stand that was located at the opposite end of the registers near the Produce dept. The CSR stand has long been removed and the express register now also serves as customer service.

The CSR stand was an integral part of the mid-80's remodel but did not make any sense whatsoever. I believe they also referred to this as the "California front-end". Guess it was popular in Skaggs or something. The odd thing was that store safe was next to the CSR stand right out in the open. No walls or even a railing guarding it from anyone. Not that the safes were unlocked but it just didn't seem like a wise idea to expose the safes to everyone entering the store. Fortunately in the 90's Acme reestablished the customer service counter and office in remodels and new stores.

UPDATE 2.10.10: Here's a snow-free look at the Newton store circa 1999...

Images above courtesy of Rob Ascough