Friday, May 29, 2015

Acme – Folsom, Pennsylvania



Location: 124 Morton Ave, Folsom, PA 


We're continuing to move on down MacDade Boulevard with a stop today at the Folsom Acme, one of the most deluxe stores in the chain. This location opened in 1999 and served as a replacement to the Acme at 1937 MacDade Blvd, which was seen on the blog last week, as well as the Acme that was located at 1245 MacDade Blvd in Woodlyn. That location was a former Penn Fruit and will be coming to the blog soon.


This store opened with the Chalkboard Market decor and was remodeled quite extensively in the mid-2000's with the Premium Fresh & Healthy v1 package. Overall the store is very similar to the Paoli location and appears to be equally, if not more, successful.



Heading in the left side entrance...


The grass planter boxes remain along top of the Produce cases. The grass has been removed. These photos were taken back in February 2014 so there may have been some changes inside since then. The original green ceiling remains throughout.


PF&H v1 flooring. Pretty remarkable since the original flooring was probably in good shape at the time of the remodel and would have been a decent match to the new decor.


A look across the front end from just inside the entrance.


Floral on this side of the store which is bit unusual for a 90's store.


Slightly scary floral display above the roll and bagel bins. I would imagine they are gone now. The grass too. This store did not get the spot lights installed along the department awnings like the Paoli store. Click here for a look.


Some seating between the Bakery and Deli but the store doesn't have a designated café area. Surprisingly, no a la carte station either.


Salad Bar across from the Deli.


All new tile put up on the back walls in the last remodel.








Deluxe Wild Harvest department...




Check out the homemade directories hanging from the display shelves. 




The grass remains along the meat cases.




No grass along the frozen food cases but the planter boxes remain. The cases appear to be original to the store.




The ceilings from the Chalkboard Market built stores are the coolest Acme has ever had.







The Pharmacy is along the right wall of the store instead of in the front corner. This creates an alcove in Dairy at the rear of the store.




This area is a mystery. Normally you would have Floral here but as we've seen, that department is on the other side. Perhaps the Starbucks was located here.

Update 5.30: This is where Photo used to be located before camera phones killed it off. Thanks to Michael from PA for the info he left in the comments section!




I'm assuming there are second floor offices along the front of the store but there are no windows looking out onto the sales floor like in earlier 90's stores.





AERIAL VIEWS


Pathmark is located on the other side of the Home Depot. It has been here since the late 60's.


All aerials show this store with substantial crowds in the parking lot.







HISTORIC AERIALS


2010


2008


2008


1999


1992
An A&P once stood on this property! It's the building all the way to the right. The whole shopping center looks closed and abandoned at this point. I scrolled over to the Pathmark to see if this was just an early morning shot but the Pathmark was packed when this image was taken.


1971
And this was an early morning photo. No cars at the Pathmark either.


1965
Here we see the A&P open with a plenty of shoppers.


1958

Summer is better at Acme!


Acme's summer tagline is here! Last year's "From City to Shore" is out... "Summer is better at Acme" is in! Matching signage is going up in stores now. The new summer logo is seen on the cover of Acme's "Big Book" above, which features sale prices in effect for the next month. 


O Organics and Open Nature are now officially available at Acme! An announcement was not made on Acme's Facebook page like it was for Jewel. This is the first week these products are being shown in Acme's ads. The brands are being advertised as "new" in the Big Book but not in the regular circular which can be seen below... 


I'm curious to see what happens with the branding of the Wild Harvest department. Wild Harvest encompassed both organic and "natural" products whereas Safeway has a brand name for each category. Will there be an official name for the health food department or will it just be called something generic like "Organic & Natural"? 

One other note... looks like Essential Everyday isn't going anywhere for the next month. The products are featured in the Big Book so they will definitely be on Acme's shelves for the next month.