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PROGRAMMING NOTE:
As you have noticed, regular posting has yet to return to Acme Style since summer break. I'm hoping to have things back up an running in the next couple of weeks. When I have set date for posting to resume, I'll announce the date here on this post.
Today, the Nordstrom Rack at the former Rockaway Acme opens today!
ReplyDeleteThe last new SuperFresh to open, in Philadelphia's Northern Liberties neighborhood, is already in the process of switching over to ACME. More info here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-philly/northern-liberties/supermarket-changing-in-northern-liberties
Looks like the Fairless Hills Pathmark was auctioned yesterday as per this link: http://couponsinthenews.com/2015/09/28/what-will-become-of-the-remaining-ap-stores-the-latest-list/
ReplyDeleteWonder who bought it if anyone. Huge store, would make a good Acme location since Morrisville is gone and the nearest is in Jersey or in Levittown.
Did anything ever happen to the OLD Fairless Hills Pathmark? It was replaced by the current Pathmark in 1994 but sat empty at least a decade.
DeleteThe old Pathmark has been split into smaller stores, with the Fairless Hills Garden Center occupying one of the spaces. I think there may be a Dollar Tree there as well.
DeleteThanks. By the way is the old Walmart in Fairless Hills still empty?
DeleteYes there is a Dollar Tree at the old Fairless Hills Pathmark, on the right hand side, the same space was also briefly used by Rite Aid ( originally Eckerd) in the mid 2000s as a temporary store while a new large store was built in front of it.
Deleteand the original Walmart is still empty.
Acme has confirmed the Barnegat store on it's 2nd and Girard facebook post:
ReplyDelete"We're happy to say that we just received approval for an ACME store in Barnegat. We will be re-opening and rebranding the former Genuardi’s supermarket in early 2016. Looking forward to seeing you there!"
Just in case anyone is fearing that the Acme addition will be another Haggen, remember these facts:
ReplyDelete- Acme's store count will nearly be doubled, not increased by a factor of 13 times.
- Acme is going into new markets, but those markets are still familiar enough with Acme. Haggen's problems were in Southern California and Arizona, miles away from the original stores. This would be the equivalent of Acme stores opening in Georgia.
- Acme is going after the same demographic as former A&P brand shoppers, whereas Haggen went for the "Whole Foods hybrid" approach.
- Acme's conversions are done at the same pace as Haggen's, but far cheaper. (I had this in an old comment, but it got eaten). Haggen's remodels involved not only new lighting, but also a full swap-out of décor and a repaint. Acme's "remodels" are going to involve new lighting at best and stickers over the old Pathmark/Superfresh/A&P/Food Emporium brands, with more extensive remodeling to come later down the line.
You left out the biggest and most obvious point. Haagen was an independent. ACME has the backing of one of the largest supermarket companies in the country.
DeleteThe Haggen store sales have begun: http://fox5sandiego.com/2015/10/05/competitors-off-to-buy-36-haggen-grocery-stores/
DeleteO/T, but when will "Quality Built" (the latest Albertsons family décor package) be featured in the Décor Directory?
ReplyDeleteWinning bids were announced today for the first round of A&P stores to be auctioned off. Only about 1/3rd of the stores received bids, mostly in metro NYC. There will be a second auction held later this week. It's entirely possible that many of these locations may just go dark, like when A&P pulled Super Fresh out of most of Maryland.
ReplyDeleteThe Old Tappan store is going to Estevez Markets Inc which operates it's stores as Foodtown. This store was a Foodtown before becoming an A&P back in the late 90's!.
DeleteI heard that the Ramsey Pathmark lease was just about up and the landlord wanted them out. However, I also heard that Whole Foods had been there twice walking around the store but I don't know if there is any truth to that.
Just a heads up- you miscategorized the Shippensburg Acme as just "Acme", not a PA location in the sidebar thing.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteIs Acme actively converting stores, or did they just convert the one? Anyone have any timetables for the conversions of the rest of the stores, other than what has been posted here?
ReplyDeleteAnd am I correct in believing that all unsold stores will go dark as of Thanksgiving?
From what I've heard and read, the Food Basics at Frankford & Academy, in Philadelphia, closes on November 20, 2015, and the Pathmark Sav-A-Center, at Frankford & Megargee, also in Philly, and couple of blocks south of Food Basics, will close on December 17, 2015.
DeleteC&S just announced they are closing warehouses in Landover and Upper Marlboro and consolidating the operations to warehouses in Cecil County Md and one in PA. These are warehouses that supply Safeway. Is there any future possibility that they would supply Acme, or are they locked into a long term contract with SuperValu? How are the Safeway brands getting to Acme stores - from SuperValu warehouses?
ReplyDeleteVery different questions there. First off, the "company operating distribution centers" is more of a contractual thing and rarely has anything to do with the actual brands being offered. The C&S warehouses that did Safeway work (the only Safeway DCs to do, not even Dominick's or Texas) still carried Safeway brands, and also they operate BI-LO/Winn-Dixie DCs and carry their brands too, as well as Stop & Shop). It's worth noting that (and this is mentioned in the article) that the Upper Marlboro facility is actually owned by Safeway (the Landover one wasn't, but did GM/HBC).
DeleteNow the first question, is if they (C&S) would supply Acme. The answer to that is NO. Acme's distribution center may still be "operated" by SuperValu as part of a lingering agreement following the end of their reign, but it's also a massive, modern facility and that control is ending (which is the second part of the first question). The better question would be if the Acme warehouse would supply Safeway, since their product line is basically merging, and the answer to that question is "I don't know". The post-2014 redivision made it clear that Acme and the original Safeway Eastern division would still be separate divisions, and even Genuardi's (when it was part of the Eastern division) had a separate DC (also operated by C&S).
The Safeway brands come into the DCs from 3rd party manufacturers, which are all spread out, and may come from different plants entirely. (For a non-Acme but still C&S-related example, the Stop & Shop-branded frozen quesadillas come from a small independent plant in a small Texas town of 1,500 people). The only exception to the "Safeway/Signature foods coming into warehouses" is to the DCs that are completely owned by someone else, like SuperValu's Mississippi warehouse supplying Louisiana Albertsons.
So, what's going to happen? The article mentioned consolidation of facilities as per SEC filing, but that likely relates to the Safeway/Albertsons overlap in the West Coast, which is happening already (the combined Southern California division was left with FOUR DCs, for instance). Since Albertsons Cos. owns the facility, it's POSSIBLE that they could reopen it and run it in-house, which they should've done, but at this point, it's probably too early.
I mean to say, too early to tell.
DeleteLooks like Stop & Shop picked up 25 more A&P stores today at auction. Meanwhile, their first 5 converted stores from the 1st batch will be opening next Friday (10/16). Also appears they are doing their conversions in groups of 5. Details in the article below:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.progressivegrocer.com/industry-news-trends/regional-supermarket-chains/stop-shop-acquires-25-more-ap-stores?cc=10
These are the same 25 stores they agreed to purchase in July. Ahold is purchasing 25 total.
ReplyDeleteJust going by the article link which clearly says acquires-25-MORE-ap-stores
ReplyDeleteThe link doesn't make sense. They only acquired 25 stores total, not 50. And they are converting them 5 at a time, closing the stores for a week. Much more aggressive than when they converted Ukrop's, where they closed each store for two weeks, but they probably did a lot more work in those stores.
DeleteOnly 1/3 of the stores that weren't part of the initial bids (Key Foods, Stop & Shop, Acme) were actually sold last week at auction. They supposedly had a second auction this week, so we will probably know more early next week if anyone picked up the stores or if they will go dark.
I was at the ACME and SuperFresh in Roxborough today, and from comparing the two, I'm surprised ACME didn't try to buy it. The SuperFresh is practically brand new, easily three times the size, and is just overall a nicer store. Any ideas as to what may become of it?
ReplyDeleteOne thing I've noticed is that Safeway had milk plants for its divisions except its acquired ones (or Eastern). Given that they still have them for their West Coast ones, and the ones that Safeway built and spun off still have them (their Houston division had a milk plant now in use by H-E-B). I wonder if Albertsons could build milk plants and bakeries for those other divisions, or is it even necessary anymore given better shipping?
ReplyDeleteOnly 8 stores went in the second round of auctions. So it looks like about 70 or so stores will be closing with no bid, or the bidders tried to low-ball A&P and their bid was rejected.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if the second round of auctions focused only on the NY metro stores or did it also include SE PA-South Jersey-Delaware? I haven't seen many reports of auction activity in the Delaware Valley besides the Wakefern offer.
DeleteSeems kind of odd in a case like this where they are dissolving the company and trying to repay those they owe money to. You would think that even a low offer would be better than getting nothing for a location?
DeleteMars Super Markets in Baltimore is exploring selling itself (http://best-met.com/news/mars-super-markets-reportedly-seeking-sale-option/). Would Acme want to move back into Baltimore?
ReplyDeleteProbably not, as Safeway has stores in the region already.
DeleteHighly unlikely, but you can never say never. Mars has some great neighborhood stores that do a good amount of business. Their core Baltimore county stores are the true money makers. Mars recently left Harford County likely due to the competition of Shoprite and Wegmans. The closed 2 year old Bel Air store is now being auctioned out: http://www.grafeauction.com/auction_detail.php?id=268986
DeleteI suppose it's not out of the realm of reality, that Safeway could probably pick up another store or two...however, it's not really ACME (even if further homogenization takes place) and right now, acquisitions are not the route that ABS needs to take right now. Their IPO isn't to open as strongly as they wanted to (once they get it up), they're still a disorganized company (compared to Kroger, at least), they have a lot of debt that they want to pay down, and it would only worsen the whole "identity crisis" many divisions have. By the end of this year, 40% of ACME's stores will be former A&P stores, each with unfamiliar layouts and décor. That's a huge percentage! And you thought the "Albertsons-in-all-but-name" ACME stores diluted the company...
DeleteGreat job of twisting the acquisitions of 70+ stores into something negative for Acme. Your points don't even make sense.
DeleteWhy do the Acme trucks use the ancient ACME logo that hasn't been put on new stores since the early 1990s at the very latest? I admit, the oval "ACME" is charming to a degree, but when I drive by the Randalls Distribution Center in Houston and see bright, colorful trucks with images of chocolate chip cookies, the Albertsons logo, and the "it's just better." trademark, all clearly from the year 2015, it just contrasts it all that way more. Are there any trucks with the new ACME logo and Albertsons family branding, or is the old ACME logo still on there for contractual reasons?
ReplyDeleteGreat job of twisting the acquisitions of 70+ stores into something negative for Acme. Your points don't even make sense.
ReplyDeleteYeah, except I didn't. I think it's cool that Acme is New York or Connecticut or at the base of a residential tower, and unlike Haggen, they can afford it. But I'm trying to look at the health of the whole company, which can affect Acme drastically (which is how Acme got stuck with SuperValu). As it stands, Albertsons is stuck with a lot of debt from the Safeway acquisition, which is why they want to go public (to pay it off), and they're still trying to absorb Safeway in a highly competitive market.
Put it simply, once the dust settles from the A&P acquisition, they should focus on "quality over quantity" and improve logistics, store brands, and other stuff through other chains and building larger, ground-up stores. The last thing I want to see is for the vast quantity of stores that Albertsons Cos. has is to be closed en masse like they have been in the last decade and a half.
I recently found a really cool feature on Google Maps, on the street view tool. You can see older street-view pictures (if they're available and have been updated). This is especially interesting if you're looking at a store that's been changed in the past few years. For instance, here's the most recent Google Street View for the former Acme in Newton, NJ:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/maps/@41.0491109,-74.7567519,3a,75y,111.16h,68.49t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sM5hMZlTkdI3ugwAP_zTuTg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
Click on the little clock next to "Street View - Oct 2013" and drag the slider back to 2008, then click the magnifying glass. Here's what you get:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.0491172,-74.7567522,3a,75y,111.16h,68.49t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPq-RYErY-giY-o1TNZAgFg!2e0!7i3328!8i1664!6m1!1e1
Notice that the Dollar General on the left has become Acme again, and the Santander Bank on the right goes back to being Sovereign Bank. Unfortunately, this isn't available everywhere, but where it is, it's really cool. Here's another example of a more recent change:
ShopRite, Wallington, NJ: https://www.google.com/maps/place/ShopRite+of+Wallington/@40.8438804,-74.1068167,3a,75y,18.83h,88.45t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s1w2Jjnt0v-Tht2J_HSZFvA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D1w2Jjnt0v-Tht2J_HSZFvA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D13.371774%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!1m2!2m1!1sshoprite,+wallington,+nj!3m1!1s0x89c2f8db85dc7379:0x617ce4d19206bad2!6m1!1e1
Turn back the clock to when it was empty: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8438857,-74.1068263,3a,75y,18.83h,88.45t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJysQ77ckh5msJV_EB1GM-A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
And go back all the way to when it was a FoodBasics: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8438857,-74.1068263,3a,75y,18.83h,88.45t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQwRq9W_bMJhCN4_SQdCkCA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
Maybe this is old news to everyone who's reading this, but I found it and thought it was interesting.
I recently just found the clock feature as well. It's really cool to see so much change in just a few years.
DeleteSouth Plainfield NJ ACME store to open Sunday, Nov. 1.
ReplyDelete