Location: 321 Route 440, Jersey City, NJ
Opened as an Acme on November 4, 2015
Today we'll be taking a look at the second Acme in Jersey City. This store was a former Pathmark, in case it's not TOO obvious from the sign. I don't know what Acme was thinking when they put their sign up. Could it look any worse? They should have at least painted the whole thing beige so it wasn't so obvious that the letters aren't centered in Pathmark's frame.
The Pharmacy sign did not get changed out here.
These days, Acme lovers to keep their Floral departments stocked! My local Acme easily offers triple the floral selection than the Pathmark ever did. As you can see, the décor here is from A&P's last remodel package for Pathmark. Interesting that this store was remodeled with the latest look considering it had been remodeled in the mid-2000's with the fancy Go Fresh, Go Local décor.
These photos were taken this past Spring which is why you'll be seeing some Monopoly signage and Easter candy. It's possible Acme may have swapped the décor out here but I doubt it. The other Jersey City location and the Hoboken store still remain untouched.
All the flooring is left over from the mid-2000's remodel. Looks kinda odd with the newer red and white theme. Notice the ceiling drops lower in the section that Pathmark expanded into.
Former home of Customer Service. It was moved to the other side of Floral.
Shrunken aisle signs for this area of the store.
Soda and water seems out of place in the first aisle. I believe it's the only grocery offerings at this end of the store. Household and Health & Beauty take up the rest of the space from here to Produce.
Path to Savings flooring remains in this stockroom!
I'm so glad Acme doesn't put these generic, feel-good words all over the walls. What's the point? First time I've seen these red panels when they were used for a department sign.
I bet ya there isn't a fully intact "very" in any Pathmark that was remodeled with this package. The descender in the "y" just never had a chance.
Very unusual to see a Parhmark with lights installed on the ceiling rather than directly above the aisles, at least in my experiences.
Global Cuisine in the front corner.
The relocated Customer Service desk. This store has a terrible express register situation. These conversions go either of two ways... some get deluxe express register counters while others are left with 2 regular express registers, with only one ever being open. It's a chronic issue at the Edgewater store.
The Parhmark had expanded over into this area but I guess the liquor store gets the outside wall. It is located in the very corner so they don't have much wall space for signage.
Acme shares the shopping center with a Kmart that still in business. Both stores attract a lot of shoppers as neither one has much competition in this part of town. Condo construction is also booming in the already densely populated area.
AERIAL VIEWS
HISTORIC AERIALS
2013
No significant changes to the exterior over the years...
2002
1995
1987
1979
Update 8.11.16: mtn sent in some photos of Stop & Shop's treatment of a former Pathmark facade to go with the comment he left...
Stop & Shop did take more time converting the stores they acquired from A&P than Acme did. They also had 2/3 less stores to convert than Acme and took more time doing them. I believe all Stop & Shop conversions had full décor swaps and other upgrades.
This Pathmark package reminds me of drug store décor. Normally, I would welcome a different package, but it's clear that it hasn't aged well and it needs to be replaced.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's really that bad...all that 'red' going on never really made sense with Pathmark, but it seems to fit in just fine with Acme.
DeleteGrew up just up the block from this store but I was too young to remember shopping at it (although I do remember shopping at the Acme on Garfield Avenue all the time- miss that one). To the south of this is a large building (want to say it's some kind of furniture liquidator but I'm not certain) that was a Pathmark and, before that, Shoprite.
ReplyDeleteWonder what kind of volume this store does? It's huge and all those trailers indicate a lot of inventory going into the building.
3 remodels over the past 15 years would also indicate that it is a very success store.
DeleteIt's one of the few Pathmark/A&P stores that was open 24 hours all the way to the end. It's the only supermarket in that area of Jersey City, although Bayonne has a ShopRite and S&S.
DeleteI think it looks better in person than the pictures appear. It's really not that bad looking.
I agree completely that the logo placement looks extremely awkward. It's obvious they were trying to center it on the façade instead of within the Pathmark logo-shape box, but it just turned out tacky!
ReplyDeleteAcme has two locations in Jersey City?
ReplyDeleteThey sure do.
DeleteKinda funny too because they're both from the same project. Very interesting.
DeleteIf you look closely at the picture, you can see the Pathmark logo box is actually slightly sunken in, so painting it beige would still make it obvious that there's a Pathmark-shaped logo behind the Acme logo. I suppose you could add some more stucco and then repaint it, but it isn't quite as simple as it looks.
ReplyDeletethe outdoor sign looks terrible unless you block out the lighter color. If the pathmark sign wasn't there, the sign would be placed perfectly.
ReplyDeleteThey covered up that spot at Pathmark stores converted to Stop&Shop.
ReplyDeleteAcme was very lazy in this case it seems.
Obviously the correct way is to resurface that "Pathmark" area like Stop&Shop did.
Not a S&S fan, but they did do it right.
1) I'm guessing that's the South Orange Pathmark? S&S only took over three and the only other one I know of is in a mall. (Too bad the old style Maplewood A&P got demolished next door)
ReplyDelete2) I have to imagine there aren't as many Kmart stores with the Big Kmart logo still in use. The only other one I know of that still uses it is the Elmwood Park store and that has every reason to considering it's two floors and has just about everything a Kmart could have. (Think it might've been a Super Kmart branded store after Kmart took it over at first)
Actually, I'd say the majority of Kmart locations use the "BigK" signage- many still haven't gotten remodeled after so many years. The ones that don't have it either are very successful, or have even older signage.
DeleteIf that is the South Orange Pathmark, it never had the Pathmark stripe:
ReplyDeletehttp://villagegreennj.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Screen-Shot-2015-07-20-at-5.27.27-PM.png
But sometime before 2007 it was renovated from this:
http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/94614501-shopping-carts-sit-in-a-pathmark-parking-lot-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=X7WJLa88Cweo9HktRLaNXlau%2Fmkt0gc0b6MG858wniEojsN7JFauN%2FbwcT7MnTF2s4zVWxCwRudtd3S3GlzDSw%3D%3D
I don't know about other Stop & Shop / Pathmark conversions, but there was no Pathmark stripe on South Orange.
The South Orange Pathmark was covered on the blog, didn't need to link. It's in the bonus store entry for the Maplewood A&P (and considering, I could even make the argument that the "stripe" was on it).
DeleteI sent that photo in as an example. Many PM taken over in NYC had that 'stripe' and were filled in or resurfaced when S&S took over. Even so Acme did not have signs up right away, they could've resurfaced that area, it looks like they painted the exterior however.
ReplyDeleteThis is really random and irrelevant and late, but i just noticed that this property is owned by the same company that owns the Wayne Hills Mall property, which is also a KMart and former PathMark. But the two seem like they were paired quite often bakk then.
ReplyDelete