This just in... Acme to close 4 stores by year's end. Phlly.com broke the news just a couple of hours ago. You can read the article by clicking here.
Glassboro, NJ
Morrisville, PA
Sharon Hill, PA
Stevensville, MD
Glassboro has not yet been covered on the blog. Sharon Hill is the very last store in the chain to still have the 80's Remodel. Morrisville is on of only 2 stores to still have the 90's Red/White/Blue decor. Stevensville is one of the last unexpanded 33M stores. It still has the 80's Remodel tile floor along with a bare-bones version of the Albertson's Marketplace package. Considering the troubles SuperValu is currently facing it's a bit of a relief that only 4 Acme's are closing in this round. Alberstons is losing 27 stores while the Sav-a-lot chain is having 22 of its store axed.
Glassboro, NJ
Morrisville, PA
Sharon Hill, PA
Stevensville, MD
Glassboro has not yet been covered on the blog. Sharon Hill is the very last store in the chain to still have the 80's Remodel. Morrisville is on of only 2 stores to still have the 90's Red/White/Blue decor. Stevensville is one of the last unexpanded 33M stores. It still has the 80's Remodel tile floor along with a bare-bones version of the Albertson's Marketplace package. Considering the troubles SuperValu is currently facing it's a bit of a relief that only 4 Acme's are closing in this round. Alberstons is losing 27 stores while the Sav-a-lot chain is having 22 of its store axed.
I would hope a local Philadelphia concern would be interested in buying Acme and restoring some of its former glory. If it remains much longer with Super-Valu it may not live on.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe Stevensville hung on for this long.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, good to see you back Acme Style:)
ReplyDeleteNow my two cents:
Judging from the list, these store closings don't seem too shocking. The Glassboro location struggled to compete with a Bottom Dollar and a Shop-Rite across the street. The Morrisville situation has been mentioned before on this blog. The Stevensville location is just now too far out of Acme's core area. The Sharon Hill Acme, well.......... it was the Sharon Hill Acme, that's all.
Still it's shame these stores are closing.
We have predicting the closing of the Stevensville store for a while, we were surprised it did not go in the last round. Three words describe the store "filthy - run down". One refrigerator section failed intermittently for years, and they finally gave up trying to fix it and shut it down and filled it with cases of room temperature water. Two years ago the air conditioning system became contaminated and the oder was so bad they had to close the store. It was poorly run in comparison to the Centerville and Easton stores. Staffing was mainly teenagers, unable to find work elsewhere. I remember when it was the only grocery store for miles. I doubt it will be missed by many, but it had been declining for years.
ReplyDeleteI think Acme had really been letting the Stevensville store "go" for over 25 years! They never really cared about keeping up with the Safeway which opened across the street in 1985, to be replaced by a new store in 2007.
ReplyDeleteClosing of the Sharon Hill store is a real surprise. The store is VERY small and outdated, but I heard a rumor of it closing before... in 1972! That was when a much larger Super Saver was built in nearby Yeadon, which later got the 80's oval Acme logo and closed already in 2001. It's amazing the Yeadon store outlived the 60's Acme in nearby Lansdowne. And the Sharon Hill store stayed open after the Penrose Plaza store in Southwest Philly (it got a nice however unsuccessful remodel from Albertsons) was sold to ShopRite in 2004.
And it's ironic the Glassboro store is closing instead of the one in Clayton, which is an unremodeled 60's store. The one in Morrisville is very similar to one in nearby Willingboro NJ, which surprisingly is staying put (for now) despite being in a bad area. I doubt any of the Save-A-Lot closings will be in the Philly area. They just moved or remodeled a lot of stores to compete with the relatively new Bottom Dollar chain. The former 60's Acme in Woodlyn PA (not far from Sharon Hill) was later a Save-A-Lot until it moved to nearby Brookhaven. I think a lot of displaced Sharon Hill Acme customers will start shopping at Save-A-Lot either in Folcroft PA (this one was an A&P) or Darby PA (this one was built new on a former Food Fair/Pantry Pride site). If not, they MIGHT travel to the former Acme/ShopRite at Penrose Plaza, or maybe the Acme in Holmes PA or possibly Folsom PA if they are loyal to Acme. There's a Pathmark in Glenolden, which will be their closest supermarket now, but it's 30 years old and A&P is bankrupt. Also, several stores have failed where a Rickel once was next to Pathmark.
Why is Willingboro a "bad area?"
DeleteClayton has been remodeled since the 60's.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see you back on the blog.
ReplyDeleteSorry it is for bad news, though.
Is Glassboro an expanded colonial cottage? Will it make an appearance here?
My dad works at the Morrisville Acme. I remember opening day at that store. I was a little girl. I am sad to see it go but we knew the time was coming soon. Hopefully he can transfer to Newtown Acme. That Acme is always busy.
ReplyDeleteSorry I mixed up the names in my last post. The Lansdowne store outlived the one in Yeadon, not the other way around. What's even more amazing is that the Lansdowne one was practically hidden behind a slightly more modern A&P/Super Fresh, but outlived it too. I have to doubt that it was a coincidence that the Super Fresh closed around the same time as Acme in Yeadon. The two stores were also very similar in size. And the Lansdowne Acme got a new tenant pretty much immediately after closing, but the Super Fresh is still empty after 11 years. At one point it was supposed to be a TJ Maxx. If there weren't a Giant across the street, I could picture an IGA or Thriftway or maybe a Chinese grocery store there. If the furniture store which replaced the Acme in Yeadon (along with a Family Dollar and Catholic thrift shop) closes, I MUST have their sign from the front of the store as a souvenir. They kept the old Acme oval and stamped their name on it. You can still see the Acme letters on a sunny day! This sign was still uncovered when the Acme was empty in 2004. I almost was fooled that it was still open (even though I read the article when it closed!)
ReplyDeleteThe Acme locations that are closing don't seem too surprising. The Glassboro location has had trouble competing with a Bottom Dollar and a Shop Rite across street. The Morrisville situation has been discussed on this blog before. The Stevensville location is just too far out of Acme's core market. The Sharon Hill Acme is somewhat sad because it's the only Acme left with the 80's decor plus its layout is almost unchanged from the 1950's. It seems though that the SH store has always been on the chopping block for the last several years so it's closing doesn't come as a shock.
ReplyDeleteIm very sad to hear of more store closings but the way Supervalu is running the company, its not a surprise. They just dont get it, the pricing is so out there? Its only a matter of time before the company folds. Its really sad when your employees of the company shop at the competitors stores. The company knows their employees dont shop there but still wont lower their prices, WHY????? They would atleast have their employees business then.
ReplyDeleteIf Supervalu continues to run these stores into the ground by keeping their pricing non competitive with the other stores, they will put the Acme's in the grave yard. Its really ashame to see the employees from the Acme shop at their competitors store because of the steep prices at Acme. Wake up Supervalu!!
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to read about these latest rounds of closings. I think Acme was spared more closings because if it is sold whole or in parts like A&P's SuperFresh locations were, other grocers will cherry pick the prime locations. I am so glad for this blog since it will always preserve the history of Acme Markets.
ReplyDeleteHow far Acme has fallen! They'd really be better off as an independent operation. Don't know if that's even possible at this late date. They certainly don't need the fools at Supervalu!
ReplyDeleteBut they would need the distribution center that SuperValu stole from them.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was too good to be true to see a year go by without another round of Acme closings. Albertsons closed 13 of their final 17 stores in Florida in June (including my local store, which had the Acme Theme Park interior from Day 1), and their FL distribution center. A decade ago, there were roughly 136 Albertsons stores in Florida, but now there are only 4 left (which oddly enough are Albertsons 3 oldest remaining stores in the state, and their largest, which was a former Jewel-Osco Florida prototype store built by ASCO in the late 80’s that didn’t last long). I doubt the final 4 Florida Albertsons will last more than another year. Publix and Wal-Mart have been beating Albertsons silly for a long time now. Those two also caused Food Lion to leave the state entirely in February, and have caused Winn-Dixie to scale back on their stores. The employees at my Albertsons always bragged they were one of the strongest stores in the state, and they even posted signs up that said “We’re your neighborhood Albertsons, and we’re here to stay!”, but I guess Supervalu had other plans in mind.
ReplyDeleteI just wish Supervalu would sell Acme to another company that could actually keep them afloat and give them the will to compete so they don’t end up like Philadelphia’s once great Penn Fruit or Food Fair in the retail cemetery.
Anna Mae, I don't mean to be rude but it sounds like you mixed up Super Fresh (owned by A&P) with Genuardi's (owned by Safeway). Super Fresh still exists, but only five or so stores still have that name. The rest were switched to Pathmark when A&P bought it.
ReplyDeleteRoss K: I think in a way, Acme already is in the retail cemetery. There's really no way to compare a modern Acme to their stores from the 50's, 60's, or even 70's. The older breed of Acmes is mostly dead, since a lot of those stores were built to compete with names like Food Fair, Penn Fruit and especially A&P. There was an Acme in Norristown PA which was built around the same time Food Fair/Pantry Pride/Penn Fruit and A&P shut down in the area, but by today's standards it still would be a very retro supermarket. This store closed in 2002 (it would make more sense if the Sharon Hill store closed a decade ago, and Norristown waited until now) and Big Lots moved in right away. A Super G (now ShopRite), Genuardi's (now Weis), and Giant all opened up basically across the street in the last couple decades. Not to mention the Clemens (now Super Fresh) in Blue Bell which opened back in 1990 probably is what started to hurt the smaller Acme. It's weird to see such an old shopping center in a place like Norristown where a lot of stores were built in the 90's.
Also, it's really a shame that an Albertsons in Spring Texas which opened in 1990, and was remodeled in 2000, ended up closing in early 2002. Still empty after all these years. I don't get why nobody else wants the building. It really is amazing to me how such a relatively new store can close while ancient ones hang on much longer...
Anonymous: Willingboro has a lot of crime.
Trent - SuperFresh DID close the majority of stores in the state of Maryland (I believe they kept just a couple on the shore).
ReplyDeleteThese were attempted to be sold as either a group or separately - while a few were taken over (ShopRite got a couple, some natural foods group got some etc.) many were just closed if no tenants showed interest.
You are also right in the Genuardis going to Giant as (mostly) a group and also that a number of Super Fresh changed over to Pathmark (more on the PA side, I think?).
There's actually 25 "namesake" Superfresh locations left.
ReplyDeleteThis is I think the real reason Acme survived and continued to grow long after their old competitors died: while A&P, Food Fair, and Penn Fruit were all spreading across the Philly area like fire in the 50's, Acme decided to wait longer before upgrading their very old (1920s) stores. A&P also had a lot of stores dating to that time but overexpanded in an attempt to modernize. The Acme in Sharon Hill is unique because it was one of the relatively few stores the company built in the 50's, and to be fair it never actually opened until December of 1959. It wasn't until the 60's that Acme really started to grow. I would say their best years were roughly 1962-1980, and the mid-late 90's were good too.
ReplyDeleteWhat I worry about is the Morris Plains Acme closing. I don't know how much longer Acme can remain in Northern New Jersey with only three stores.
ReplyDeleteWhile they've decided to close these 4 stores, why haven't they decided to sell or close the remaining northern & central New Jersey stores that really don't do any business, IE Acme Clifton, or Milltown or even Shrewsbury... as Acme style has documented recently, Shrewsbury store closed their seafood department and just looks like a 25,000 sq. ft. convenience store! Any store Acme has above exit 94 (GSP) or exit 9 (NJT) in New Jersey should be sold or closed as those stores are way out of their core market...
ReplyDeleteBut how to define a point to stop?
DeleteDon't they still have a store around Freehold area? That's only 25(ish) miles from Milltown - not really that far.
Not quite like A&P (back in the late 90's) when they still had a lonely store up here outside Albany - that one had to be at least a hour and a half or more trip from the nearest store in NY, and probably similar or more to the New England locations that it was a part of (divisionwise).
OH MY GOD!!! this is the wors ACME related news all year! I am rather depressed now, I loved the Sharon Hill store...
ReplyDeleteHi, Why on ly four Acmes closed. Simple the chain made money last year, while seeing market share erode. On ly JewelT and AScme of the traditional Chains owned by Super Valu made money last year. The chain is in the process of lowering prices look at this weeks ad and it is better then Shop Rites. Super Valu intend to put money into these stores to regain share and then to sell the chain off.
ReplyDeleteHi, as to the comment that Acmes 1950/60 stores are not competitive Gee are you mistaken. Prices Corner, Pike Creek both built in the the 60!s and Hockesin,Bear, Smyrna, are in the chains top ten. Remember there is a difference between being profitable and doing a lot of business. The former Acme unit near the airport in Philadelphia was a good volume store but Acme never made any money at that location ( High theft and two shooting incidents closed it including several dead Acme employees closed it)
ReplyDeleteI'd expect to see A&P try and pull out of the Philly market long before Supervalu would; Acme took the smallest hit on this round of closings compared to other divisions.
ReplyDeleteI heard that they're closing Dec. 1st
ReplyDelete