Location: 125 Chester Avenue, Yeadon, PA
One of many locations Albertson's shutdown after acquiring Acme. Nearby Lansdowne and Sharon Hill stores remained open despite being older and smaller. This location was apparently losing money for years and the company could not justify a remodel or expansion. The shopping center here wasn't exactly thriving either and is not in the best area. There was a cop parked on the side of the furniture store the whole time I was here. Kept waiting for him to leave so I could sneak around back to get some pics. He never left.
The red-oval sign remains! The Acme logo was simply painted over. Some tricks in Photoshop help reveal the Acme logo just below. This store started out as a SuperSaver as evidenced by the rectangle cutout behind the oval logo. A sign like this was originally mounted here. The building had the "33M" format but only topped out at 28,000 square feet.
Look closely and you can see "ACME" and the outline around the oval.
Acme doors still completely intact. Windows into Floral/Produce now covered over. May have been covered over during Acme's days.
Remnant of the cart coral. One of those doors used to be Acme's emergency exit.
Tons of Acme artifacts remain outside. Nothing left inside the Family Dollar. Regretfully, I didn't go into the furniture store.
Former Acme sign out at the edge of the parking lot.
The Acme sign still painted over in brown in this satellite image.
And the furniture store had arrived by the time this photo was taken.
Yeadon in the upper right corner, the recently closed Sharon Hill store in the lower-left.
In this image we have Yeadon in the lower-right, with Lansdowne in the upper-left. A brand-new Giant just below. Yep, the area wasn't good enough for Acme to build a new store so Giant set up shop.
The Acme may have never been open for business in all of the available satellite images...
1970
Looks to be still under construction in 1970.
1971
May not have opened as of this photo being taken.
2002
Next available image is 2002 when the Acme is gone.
2008
Coming back to life in 2008.
It was really weird how the oval on the front of this store was never painted over or covered up until at least three years after the store closed! Also, the 1979 Acme on Island Ave (now a ShopRite) in nearby Southwest Philly was given a major remodel by Albertsons in 2000, but still ended up being sold to ShopRite in 2004. I also don't understand the logic of why the Acme on Aramingo Ave in North Philly, which was first built in the 70's, was sold to Pathmark around 2004. This store had been given a really nice remodel in the early 90's.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Super Fresh (was a 70's A&P) in Lansdowne still sits empty even though it closed in 2002, three years before the even older Acme behind it closed. The Acme became a Save-A-Lot almost immediately after closing.
Also, there was a 1964 Acme with the peaked-roof model on Oregon Ave in South Philly (visible from 95) which was given a big expansion and remodel in the 70's. It also closed in 2002, at the same time as two original 70's Acmes in Northeast Philly which are both now independent supermarkets, one Hispanic-themed and one Asian-themed. The former Penn Fruit which was later an Acme on City Line Ave in West Philly, very close to the border with the suburbs, was given the modern Acme logo at some point in the 90's but still ended up closing in 2002. Unfortunately I never had a chance to actually see this store before it closed, but I suspect it may have gotten a big remodel by American Stores in the 90's at some point, but I suppose that the store was too small and unprofitable to meet Albertsons store standards. Even though it was an old, small Acme in a high-crime urban setting, I suppose this store was upgraded because a lot of its customers lived in the suburbs. The other side of the street from this store is part of Montgomery County and the rich Main Line, and Upper Darby, part of Delaware County, is less than a quarter mile to the south of this store. Upper Darby is one of the more run down parts of Delaware County, but this Acme was on the edge of Drexel Hill, the "good" part of Upper Darby Township, as well as Havertown/Haverford Township, which has a similar character to Drexel Hill.
The CVS next door opened around 1982-83, so that's likely around when the rest of the strip was built as well.
ReplyDeleteI was once told that very few- if any- 33Ms were actually 33k square feet (as the name implies). Not sure of the reason for the name of the format if it wasn't accurate, nor do I understand why 33M was chosen when 30M was a nice, round number. Did that extra 3M make a difference?
ReplyDeleteThanks for confirming that. There's always someone who tries to correct me when I refer to a store as a "33M" when it's not 33,000 square feet.
Deletehttp://rense.com/politics6/wms.htm
ReplyDeleteGo to this link and see some facts about Yeadon and the Acme.
Hey Acme7124, you're from Speedwell....yes?
ReplyDeleteI am. Good ol Morris Plains.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Associated Supermarket, part of a New York-based cooperative, has moved into part of this store. I can't tell whether the Acme oval is still there, though!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/Associated-supermarket-Yeadon-705462669591118/