Friday, June 18, 2010

Kroger steals "Acme Theme Park" decor?


I was doing an image search online to see what the interior of Kroger stores look like. The company just reported it's first quarter results with a nice increase in sales but decline in profits. Plus with all the rumors that Kroger may be buying Acme, I wanted to get an idea of what their stores are like. Well one of them looks just like an Acme! They stole the "Acme Theme Park" decor.

Click here to check it out! The image can be seen even larger here.

The story and picture explain how the Starbucks has been removed to make room for Sushi. Take a look at the walls in Produce and back in the Bakery... same decor as Acme and similar layout with health foods being the couple of aisles. Yet it's a Krogers... you can see the logo lining the cafe wall. How is this possible? Do grocery store design companies sell the same interior packages to different chains?

UPDATE 6.20.10: Mystery solved thanks to an Anonymous commenter! This store is a former Albertson's in Mississippi which was bought by Kroger. Theme Park decor has not been stolen!

4 comments:

  1. Nintendo85June 18, 2010 at 3:45 PM

    Very strange. Hopefully if Kroger does buy Acme, they keep the name.

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  2. AnonymousJune 18, 2010 at 4:44 PM

    You may be onto something. I got interested in this topic as well so i went on flickr and typed in kroger. I found a pic that, according to the picture taker, is a kroger store. Funny thing is, the aisle signs are the same old school aisle signs that were used in the colonial era acmes. Pretty cool.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew-turnbull/3520281603/

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  3. Acme StyleJune 18, 2010 at 4:53 PM

    Those particular aisle signs, as ugly as they are, were used by many chains. They are still used in some ShopRites today, which makes sense since ShopRite stores are made to be ugly.

    If Kroger bought Acme they would most likely keep the name. They have kept the name of other chains they have bought like Ralph's out i on the west coast. Rebranding an entire chain is very expensive and Acme has massive brand recognition here... just needs a major image and price perception overhaul.

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  4. AnonymousJune 20, 2010 at 3:49 AM

    It's a former Albertsons store, in Mississippi.

    Albertsons used to operate stores in the state under the Seessel's and Albertsons banners. Seessel's was in places like Horn Lake, near Memphis while Albertsons was in areas like Jackson and Tupelo.

    But they would exit the state, selling the MS and TN Seessel's to Schnucks and the MS Albertsons stores to Kroger and Brookshires.

    Brookshires would later exit Jackson (earlier this year) and sell their stores to Kroger.

    ReplyDelete