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Acme Style's Grand Finale for 2013 will go up on December 20th.
A classic Acme paired up with 3 Bonus Stores.
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Bensalem, PA Area Supermarkets, 2 ACMES,
ReplyDelete1 Located in Bristol Pike, not far from the Dreaded PathMark Abandon-A-Center. Another Acme in Bristol Road, and Hulmeville Road.
The Acme Sav-on on Bristol Pike opened in 1973, as Acme Super Saver, when the Woodhaven Mall opened, with Gaudio's, Woolco & AMC Woodhaven Mall 4.
DeleteThe Acme Sav-on on Bristol & Hulmeville Road opened as Acme, with the "Fisheye" logo, and was expanded in the mid to late 1990's.
I would like to see the Easton Md Acme covered on this site. The store has a differant decor and set up like no other I have seen on this site.
ReplyDeleteHere's a great photo of the Easton MD store!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/7636026@N04/7512277354/
Has it been remodeled recently? It used to have a rather deluxe version of the Albertsons Marketplace decor. I think this was sort of flagship store for a while. Pictures of the interior could easily be found on the web but I can't seem to track them down any longer. I'm unfortunately at the mercy of our Maryland contributors for pictures. Doubtful that I will be getting to this location anytime soon.
DeleteAcme Style, the link i posted above includes interior shots. Go "forward" in the user's photo set.
DeleteThanks! I didn't try that the first time I went to the link. That IS the decor I thought it had. What's particularly nice about it is the blue pendent lights that hang over the service department counters. Hard to see in those pictures.
DeleteI know Wayne NJ and Wayne PA have nothing to do with one another, but seeing the word "Wayne" at the top of this post reminds me of a big question I had about the now-closed Acme in Wayne PA which was covered on the blog a few years back. That Acme opened in either 1970 or 1971 according to various Internet sources, but which of two very different Acme prototypes did it start out as? I'm thinking it may have been a colonial cottage, because those were still being built in the early 70's (though the design was introduced in 1964), but also it could have been a 33M. I was under the impression that all 33M stores built before 1975 were Super Saver originally, but I could be wrong on that. It seems the Acme in the Pike Creek section of Wilmington DE (which I would LOVE to see on the blog someday) was built at the same time as the Grant City next door, which was later a Woolco, then a Bradlees, and has been a Kmart for a long time, since long before most of the Bradlees chain shut down. Grant City went out of business in 1976, so that would date the Acme at Pike Creek to the earlier 70's, but this 33M store has evidence of never having been a Super Saver.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I was wondering... would the Acme in Devon PA (next to Wayne) have been a 33M when it opened in 1979 or 1980? This Acme is a former Pantry Pride (Food Fair) that originally opened in the early 70's, but I can't picture what Pantry Pride design this store would have had, nor what it looked like upon reopening as an Acme. Either way, the Acme was heavily remodeled in the early 90's to be almost identical to the Acme on Aramingo Avenue in North Philadelphia (which closed right after Albertsons bought Acme and is now a Pathmark), which indeed started as a 33M store. Around the same time as the Aramingo Acme closed, the Devon Acme was given an expansion and a new facade along with some new Albertsons decor, but stayed basically the same inside. Not long afterward the pharmacy was renamed Sav-on as with all Acme pharmacies.
Also, someone commented under the Wayne PA Acme post on this site that after the Food Fair/Pantry Pride chain went out of business, all remaining supermarkets on the Main Line were Acme stores. That comment was false, because A&P had three Centennial stores on the Main Line which closed a few years after the Food Fair bankruptcy, and reopened as Super Fresh which two of the three still are today (in Wynnewood and Gladwyne). The third, also on the border of Wayne and Devon but not on Route 30/Lancaster Avenue (this store instead was on Swedesford Road) was replaced by a much bigger Super Fresh in the 90's, which now is a Pathmark. The original A&P/Super Fresh nearby has been a TJ Maxx since at least 2000. Pathmark also has a store in Bala Cynwyd which I think may have been one of the original Pathmark stores converted from ShopRite way back in 1968, and now looks very similar inside (due to a 90's remodel) to the nearby Acme.
Hi. The Pike Creek Acme was never a Super Saver. It has never been considered part of Wilmington. In that neighborhood a discount format would have crashed and burned. It is and upscale store and is one of the most profitable in the chain, with the highest average Ring in the chain. Gerry
ReplyDeleteWhat supermarket did this “super dollar store” in Coatesville PA (about 30 miles west of Philadelphia and 30 miles east of Lancaster) start out as?: http://coatesvilledems.blogspot.com/2011/01/construction-begins-for-walgreen-store.html
ReplyDeleteThis whole center has since been demolished for a Walgreens, so it’s unfortunately impossible to visit this dollar store today for evidence of previous tenants. However, this building reminded me a lot of this Acme in Baltimore which closed in 1982: http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com/2009/10/murphys-mart-by-numbers.html
But I’m thinking this store in Coatesville was a Super Saver, because there already was a regular Acme in Coatesville which opened before and seemingly closed after this one. It also I guess could have been either an A&P or a Food Fair/Pantry Pride, but both those companies already had stores in the Coatesville zip code area which isn’t that big. Pathmark also comes to mind, because this would have been their only Chester County store at the time, but they planned to acquire a ShopRite in West Chester in 1993 but the deal fell through. There now is a Pathmark in Devon which was converted to that name from Super Fresh.
Safeway, Kroger, and Grand Union all had stores in Pennsylvania at one point, but none had many. This store in particular reminds me of some 1970s Safeway stores. I also wonder if this could have been an early Giant.
The store looks a lot like this former Safeway: www.flickr.com/photos/16441604@N07/4120633523/
Also, the former Safeway at 912 West 12th Street in Dallas (check it out in Google Street View because unfortunately I can’t find a picture of the “Carnival” store there now) resembles this Coatesville store, but is much bigger, which makes sense though because Coatesville is much smaller than Dallas.
Very strangely, I did a Google search for “super dollar store Coatesville PA” and found contact information for the Family Dollar chain, attached to this address. Maybe if Family Dollar really did have anything to do with this store (though I doubt they did), maybe I could contact their HQ and find out what supermarket was here.
Also, Weis has a store in nearby Gap PA that opened in 1996, but I was thinking this Coatesville store may have been a 60's or 70's Weis, because it kind of looked like this former Weis near Reading: www.flickr.com/photos/62355920@N00/9060143424/
ReplyDeleteAlso, this Thriftway in Coatesville perhaps was somewhere else originally: www.flickr.com/photos/62355920@N00/4719219865/
This is the Thriftway building today: www.flickr.com/photos/62355920@N00/5314481392