I have been holding off posting this store for months now in hopes of tracking down more information on it. Haven't come up with much. Lots of Acme Style readers emailed about this eerie location in Clemeton New Jersey. I had seen pictures of it online years ago and was lucky to stumble upon it when I was heading to the abandoned Berlin location last spring.
What I do know about this Acme is that is started out as a ShopRite. I saw a picture online with the ShopRite signage once but have never been able to find that picture again. As you will see below, this store is located right next to an abandoned discount department store. That store started out as a WT Grants and may have become a Woolco. Unfortunately I have no dates as to when any of these stores opened or closed.
The criss-cross gates along the sidewalk were very common in Acmes of the 70's and 80's. Kept the shopping carts from rolling away.
Evidence of the fish-eye sign there to the right with the three boxes. There are pictures on flickr of the sign prior to it being vandalized which indicate that this store had the red oval logo prior to closing.
I would say that this was a larger than average Acme when it took over from the ShopRite.
Entrance on the right would have lead into Floral and Produce. Exit to the left which would have been behind Customer Service. The section in the middle looks like it had a window to post the sales circular and other specials. Another common feature in late 70's – early 80's stores.
I have several aerial shots below that show the ridiculously huge the parking lot was for this shopping center.
Here is the abandoned WT Grants to the right of the Acme. You will see in the aerial shots below that this store was massive in size.
From what little I have read, this shopping center has stood empty for at least 10 years. Efforts to bring new stores in were futile due to various problems with the property which included shoddy construction of these stores and a lack of proper drainage.
The sign up on White Horse Pike. You could almost miss this shopping center as you drove by with the stores seemingly miles back from the road...
The world's largest parking? Just might be. Even in this shopping center's heyday, would this parking lot even have been half full?
Quite a drive there from the entrance all the way down to the Acme! Hope there are readers out there who can provide more details of this abandoned shopping center.
UPDATE 9.24.10: Thanks to grrrkels, we have some interesting new pictures inside... and on top of... the Grants Department Store...
On the roof of the old Grants store.
Looking over towards the Acme.
The rear of the Acme in the upper left.
Now down into the Grants...
Just asked a guy who helped to open this store and he believes that it had opened in 1978. Could not remember the year for sure. He also thinks that the previous occupants were not only a Shop Rite but possibly a Pathmark. A W T Grants was next to the Acme but had already closed when the Acme opened.
ReplyDeleteIt was a Pathmark. I worked there for 3 years. The Pathmark closed Jan. or Feb. 1977. Lots of good memories from working there.
DeleteI used to ride by this shopping center all the time, though I only went to the Rt. 30 Mart, an indoor flea market located there in the late 80's early 90's, once, and never in the Acme. I also remember there was a truck with a sign on the side advertising a Hacksaw Jim Duggan wrestling match, which might've taken place there once.
ReplyDeletei went inside of there. it's scary. i think its haunted. no lie.
ReplyDeleteDid you get into the Acme or the former Grants store? I have seen some pictures on flickr of the interior of Grants. Would love to get some pictures of the inside of the old Acme!
ReplyDeleteThere was a wrestling school there in the 90's, The "Monster Factory". The property is now owned by Camden County. I've seen them doing defensive driver training in the lot using traffic cones.
ReplyDeleteThey could easily put a WalMart Supercenter there. I don't know why they won't.
ReplyDeletetheyre actually not putting a walmart supercenter there hwoever they plan on reconstructing the entire site and adding a Walmart Neighborhood Market. which is strictly groceries. they also say some other pad sites like restaurants and otherstores might occupy it as well.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it's possible to purchase this abandoned real estate, i live down the streets from there and i have a couple idea of investments in mind.
ReplyDeleteGRAND OPENING MARCH 1979 MY FIRST STORE NITE WORK THIS WAS GOING TO BE THE SUPERSTORE EVERYTHING FULL CLEAN PARKING..IT,S JUST IN A BAD SPOT..BUT BAR ACROSS STREET
ReplyDeleteI am Pete from Century 21 Rauh & Johns and I am looking for the owner of this property to sell it to a shopping center owner. Does anyone know who owns it?
ReplyDeleteIused to live across the street, from 1970-1979, and in fact it was a Pathmark, with W.T.Grants next door, and yes, i also remember the parking lots at times at full capacity, believe it or not?........Also the had a resturant called the Bradford House inside W.T. GRANTS, also there is a small lake behind this store, that used to be stocked with carp, and many fishing tournaments took place
ReplyDeleteRowans Lake
Deletei went in there yesterday with my friends. it is huge and never ending doorways in there!!! we found and old pizza place inside and we found a way up to the roof. i live right in clementon. i took pictures and videos of the inside. email me if you want some of them:)
ReplyDeletegrrrkels@yahoo.com
its a shame there isnt any from the acme. However it does bring back memories of the old route flea market. thanks
ReplyDeletethe front windows of the acme are now out. Im gonna try to go over and get a few pics
ReplyDeleteThat would great! I would love to see them!
ReplyDeleteNext to the Acme (at least when I was growing up - definitely from '86 to '91 or so) was an Eckerd Drug.
ReplyDeleteIt is owned by the Camden County Improvement Authority, which is located in Cherry Hill on Route 70. Contact Jim Blanda at 856-751-2242 for sales information.
ReplyDeletethere was once an an acme in hammonton n.j. you show no info i worked there maybe this number can help you he was a supervisor there he hired me 609- 561-7771
ReplyDeleteThe Acme that was once in Hammonton was located in the shopping center where Goodwill & Sears is now. That Acme opened somewhere in the early -mid 70's.
DeleteSo, was that last interior pic of the WT Grants or some other dead store
ReplyDeleteThe pic is from the WT Grants store. Apparently it was a pizza shop in the store.
ReplyDeletewait- I found a picture of grants in the 60's on google images
ReplyDeletethat store looks spooky! it's such an oddly built store too, and that parking lot is rediculously big, i guess you would never have to worry about finding a spot there!
ReplyDeleteI use to liv in clem. To the right on the stores there's pictures of faces tht sme weird ppl drew on the store n on the bottom of the light posts but if you go near the stores and cops see you they tell you to leave. The pics are strange.
ReplyDeletei just think that location was a no-no for acme to begin with in general. no offense to acme. weird store and everything.
ReplyDeleteHi - still looking for info about this property - I have been looking in public notices and ads - anybody have updates that I may have missed?? - - -it would be much appreciated..
ReplyDeletewe open that store 1979 bruce.g mike.p jim.s glen.? bubba.? ray.? nite crew we still remember it as a great store
ReplyDeleteP.S thank you for bring us the good days when acme was #1 in town
ReplyDeleteSomething is going on... they erected a fence across the entire parking lot starting half way down to the store front. It wasn't there 2 weeks ago. The start of demolition?
ReplyDeleteI hope not^
ReplyDeleteDemolition confirmed! There a Camden County Improvement sign on the fence and next to that a demolition company sign. She's coming down! Anybody know want the plan for that location is?
ReplyDeleteit will now be called "THE VILLAGE AT ROWAN POND" 205 Townhomes and Office and Mixed retail with sitdown restaurant see my details here with photos and Plans https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10150338014816895&type=1
ReplyDeleteRowan pond was owned by the Rowand family. This is the correct spelling. I know as it is my last name. It was owned at one time by the Rowand's.
DeleteThanks for the update! I'm going to post the info this week with a link to that Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteRIP, clem
ReplyDeleteI used to live right across the street, 34 Shetland Drive, where I was born and lived until 15ish.
ReplyDeleteIt started as a W.T.Grants and ShopRite and an empty wing, ShopRite morphed into Pathmark, W.T.Grants morphed to Eckerd Drugs, Pathmark morphed to Acme, the empty wing filled up with Woolco, and an autobody shop/garage attached itself to the outside end on the right, a separate-but-connected garage.
Eckerd Drugs then closed and that wing remained empty, Acme preserved, and Woolco morphed into an empty wing, that empty wing morphed into an indoor fleamarket with junky family entertainment (including the aforementioned wrestling match, a roller skating night, and a couple of local music acts), then morphed back into emptiness, I can't remember the name of the fleamarket despite working there when I was about 11-12 yrs old.
The parking lot often hit full capacity just as often as it loomed in emptiness, the Acme building was an eerie building to behold from a distance and upclose because of its pronounced looming stature and expansiveness, and the gargantuan size of the parking lot, and the huge yellow-cinder blocks encasing the base of parking lot lights, light poles that soared to the heavens. Seriously, the parking lot lights themselves were taller than any other parking lot lights I've ever seen, thinker than any others I've ever seen, the cinder blocks were so thick and tall and angular that kids loved climbing them and usually got hurt doing so, during the winter, the cinder blocks transformed into 6ft high icy snowmounds. Kids would try to scale them all winter long, lots of kids tumbling down and split lips.
Bring back lots of memories.
The flea market was called Rt 30 Market and Grants was known as Grant City.
DeleteThere was an ACME on Marlton Pike in Camden, NJ when I grew up in the area circa 1964-1976. I looked on googlemaps and it seems that its still a supermarket, but it's called Cousins. The building and the outside still looks very similar to what I remember.
ReplyDeleteYes, I grew up in E. Camden and remember that Acme. I have looked all over for any old pictures of that store and cannot find any :(
DeleteFornsberg nailed it. The Acme was set up similarly to the one that was on blackwood-clementon Rd in blackwood (though they refer to that as clementon, but whatever). Eckerd next door. The flea market was weird, it was a notch or two BELOW the Berlin Farmer's Market, a weird place. I was born in 81 and recall that parking lot being full in the mid-eighties. My mother and I would play raquetball with tennis balls on the side of the Acme in the summers, both before and after it closed.
ReplyDeleteThat housing plan has yet to come to fruition...
" The flea market was weird, it was a notch or two BELOW the Berlin Farmer's Market"
DeleteDefinitely, it was like a three-ring indoor circus. If I remember correctly the interiour was all white, drafty, stretched on forever, and echoed liked crazy, and every inch of space had something set up on it for sale.
I worked in an "area" that sold carpets, a stand set up like a mini-drug store that sold unique novelty stationary and toys, and another "area" that sold tires and hubcaps.
Many of the vendors in the Rt 30 fleamarket were also vendors in the outdoor section of the Berlin Farmer's Market, where I also worked for years, and some of the vendors were from the Cowtown fleamarket, where I also worked. Fleamarkets were very popular in the 1980's in southern New Jersey.
"My mother and I would play raquetball with tennis balls on the side of the Acme in the summers"
Did you live in the Norse Apartments?
Clementon was the first of a series of Grant stores that began in the aprox. mid 60s. It was followed by about 500 other Grant stores that were about 80,000 to 130,000 sized stores that Grant opened. this expansion helped bring W T Grant down. They went bankrupt in 1975. The second largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at that time. I was with the Company from 1952 till 1966. They never figured out how to compete against KMART. Their large stores never did well, but they just kept opening them. I ran one of their most successful stores in Santa Rosa, CA. My store was just 40,000 sq. ft. located in a mostly middle class to upper middle class area so I catered to that area by carrying higher priced merchandise. I was demoted for up grading the store. Some executives felt the store should stick to lower priced goods. I left the company three months after they demoted me. Going into higher priced goods would probably not have worked for the company, but it worked very well for Santa Rosa. when I got there in 1958 the store was netting about $1,000 a year. When I was demoted the store was projecting about $160.000 profit for 1966. That was in 1966 dollars. I don't know how it did after I left, but I was told that it was still profitable up until it closed.
ReplyDeleteEd Corley
I enjoyed writing about Clementon very much.
ReplyDeleteUnfamiliar with this area. I happened to drive by the massive old parking lot 2 weeks ago en route to Berlin Cross Keys Rd., and was inspired to figure out what used to be there. So its still just a massive parking lot with the concrete light holders, and woods behind it.
ReplyDelete