Friday, April 4, 2014

Acme — Bordentown, New Jersey Circa 2009




Location: 260 Dunns Mills Road, Bordentown Township, NJ


Rolling out some old pictures of the current Acme and the abandoned Acme in Bordentown. The abandoned store first appeared on the blog in March 2009 just a few months after the launch of the blog. To this day, it is one of my all time favorites. Loved it so much I circled back there in June of 2009 for another visit. Back in those days, Acme Style featured only former and abandoned Acmes. It was a good year or two before I said "oh hell, might as well get them ALL up on the blog!" I used to be nervous about taking pictures inside the store. Never once had a problem though. These days I bring a tripod, lights and a few assistants to get my interior pictures. Kidding! The advances in camera phones is what has made all the difference. Photographing a store with a small flip phone was very difficult.


It wasn't until June 2010 that I came back to get pictures of the current Bordentown Acme. Even then, I just did a super quick visit, as you will see. The interior pictures are not great nor very extensive but enough to give an adequate impression of the store. I had considered going back for an exhaustive photo shoot but have decided there are far too many stores waiting their turn for the Acme Style treatment. The photos here will have to do. The good news is… there are some great shots of the abandoned Acme down below. As you may know, the store has been repurposed so the pictures you will see here will be among the last ever to be seen.

The new Bordentown Acme opened in 2007 and has the original Premium Fresh and Healthy decor package which was also used in two other new stores of that time, Avondale and Limerick. As we saw a few weeks ago, Glen Mills has a more colorful version of the decor.  You can see how Bordentown's exterior is architecturally identical to Glen Mills




Back to Bordentown here with a look at the drive-thru Pharmacy. I believe Limerick is the only other store that had this same feature. Click here for a look.


Now for a less-than-spectacular tour of the interior. And off to an odd start at that… donuts below the "fresh flowers" sign. I remember the entrance area to be a little strange. There appeared to be a café area that had been removed or never added. It was similar space to the one in Glen Mills but had chip displays rather than tables and chairs. Maybe they cancelled the café plans while the store was under construction. Made for some dead space to the left of the entrance.


You won't see any shoppers in most of these pictures but I can tell you, this store was very busy. Employees all over the place too which is why I went a little light with the picture taking.




Not a big fan of the layout in this section. The "Shop the World" department has a couple of short, angled aisles that back up to Produce. A few other stores have this configuration as well. The red drum lights help make this section a little more tolerable.


Grass lined meat cases and frozen food cases...






An interesting assortment of props on top of the dairy cases...






Over and out. Now let's head over to the former Acme!


Location: 262 Route 130, Bordentown, NJ

Love this place. It no longer looks like this but it did remain a ghost of Acme for a few years.


Delivery bays on the left side and right side of the store. I didn't get these photographed on my very first visit here.




This 33M model was a replacement for a 50's store that stood just in front of it.


The entrance was reconfigured during the last remodel. You can see a scar from the magic carpets in the lower left side of the photo.


Remodeled from floor to ceiling with the Chalkboard Marketplace decor and layout in 1999.


Looks like I'm standing in the store but these shots are through the windows!


A Starbucks was located here in the front with the Bakery and Deli running along the side wall.


Some walls had been removed since my last visit. When I was first here, some lights were still on inside. You can jump over the original post by clicking here.


Ahhh… the 70's brown and orange paneling in the Meat Department. They never bothered painting over it when they switched out the single tier meat cases for the multi-tiered. You can see this in the abandoned Rockaway, Belmar and Berlin stores as well.






Customer Service was located on the right after being moved from it's original spot by the entrance during the remodel of '99.







Aerial Views...




When I first covered this store, one of the satellite images showed the store still open.



Photos courtesy of Billy F.

Today a portion of the former Acme is home to Bottom Dollar.




Doing some good business here!






Some satellite views show the store under construction…



Historic Aerials...


2008


2007


2006

The Route 130 store through the years...


2002


1995


1979
The 50's flat roof building still open in 1979 with the new store being built just behind it!


1971


1963


1957


1956
This is quite a site… the original Acme under construction in 1956.


1953

6 comments:

  1. Hamilton Sq. also has a drive through pharmacy.

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  2. As does Chester Springs.

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  3. You can add the store at 8200 Roosevelt Blvd in northeast Philly to the drive-thru list.

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  4. Does anybody know why the Bordentown Acme continues to prosper? Is there just not a lot of competition in the area? Does the Bottom Dollar Food appeal to a different demographic?

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  5. This is the acme location that is featured in one of the new acme commercials

    ReplyDelete
  6. the bottom dollar at the old acme became aldi according to google maps.

    ReplyDelete