First round of photos courtesy of Dan Asnis
Location: 609 E Bay Avenue, Manahawkin, NJ
Despite all odds, the outdated Manahawkin Super Fresh survived to the bitter end. Competition in the area is overwhelming for this place... ShopRite, Walmart, Target, Costco and BJ's are all just minutes away. But not easy minutes away during the summer months which is this place's saving grace. Regardless, A&P seemed to give up on the store many years ago. The interior had no department signage on the walls and absolutely no décor to speak of and. Acme is now in the process of giving this store some much needed attention.
The first Super Fresh logo is still the best!
OPENED AS ACME ON
NOVEMBER 15, 2015 >>>
Acme loves a store at the Jersey Shore store so they were sure to snap up this place! Nearly 2 1/2 years later, they have launched a much needed remodel, the scale of which is still difficult to pinpoint. The interior changes are occurring while renovations are happening to the entire exterior shopping center.
I love how big these letters look on this relatively small facade!
A&P didn't even give this place the laziest of all updates like it did with their Ocean City store. A&P's lighting remains in place in Produce.
Update 3.27.18: Turns out Acme removed all of the signage and décor. For a look at the Super Fresh in its final days, please click here.
Plain, plain, plain. For all the stores they closed over the years, you'd think they could have rustled up some department signs to put in this store. A&P did add the "Fresh Obsessed" era aisle markers.
This aisle is like a time warp. I feel like if I stare at this photo long enough, I'll go into a trance!
Bakery and Deli up in the front corner with Customer Service to the left...
This store had a similar layout to the Marlton Super Fresh which you can explore through the years by clicking here.
EXTENSIVE RENNOVATIONS
CURRENTLY UNDERWAY >>>
Photos courtesy fo dougbalt
Big changes coming to this long neglected store!
A newer entrance at this side of the store. We'll exit through a much older version later on.
As of last weekend, the most obvious changes inside are the Quality Built colors going up on the walls. Some work has been done to the backroom area as well. As of now the remodel appears to be minor but it's too early to know for sure. The floors are in desperate need of replacing.
Acme has repainted the cases black throughout the store. This was done during their initial conversions at most acquired locations.
Not sure what's happened to the aisle here on the left but it looks like shelving has been removed or moved.
New stuff here! I have no idea what it is despite zooming in for a closer look.
Work is even being done behind the scenes.
Huge improvements here with nothing more than some fresh paint.
I love the DIY cabinets along the Deli's back wall.
No doubt these registers will be replaced.
Come on Acme... this store needs a new floor!
Older doors with magic carpets on the Customer Service side.
Doug snapped this picture of the shopping center across the street which is the original home of ShopRite and Kmart, both of which relocated to Route 72.
AERIAL VIEWS
1986
The store first appears in the historic views in 1986. Check out those crowds!Update 3.27.18: styertowne reports the store opened on October 30, 1973.
A look at the nearby competition and the stores proximity to LBI. Pathmark was also in the mix on Route 72 but is abandoned. You can check it out by clicking here.
Update 3.24.18: The Kmart closed in September 2017.
Thanks to Doug for getting us photos of the Manahwkin Acme with the renovations underway!
I have shopped in this store several times over the summer last year. It's clean, well stocked and the employees were very friendly! I believe the KM on RT72 was shuttered in the last wave of closures.
ReplyDeleteYour right, Kmart closed in June 2017 and the owners of the plaza are gonna redevelop the space, It’s suppose to become an Burlington and old navy (two stores we don’t have in southern ocean county).
DeleteHow long have the walls been decor-free here? The floor tiles and facade indicate a '90s style store - did they have '90s-era department signage at some point that got removed? Maybe at some point they were planning a refresh that they never went through with. In any case, I'm glad it's finally being updated.
ReplyDeleteIs Acme renovating the facade to their look (similar to those of Beach Haven and Yonkers), or is the center doing their own thing?
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ReplyDeleteThank you for including my photos as part of this blog. It should be noted that, although the ACME may seem relatively close to lots of major competition, it still feels as if it is in the other part of town. It is very easy to get to it, whereas the big box stores are harder to access with lots of traffic and lights. The neighborhood with the lagoons you see on the map on the mainland, which is called Beach Haven West, and a large portion of LBI are very upscale, and the ACME is the closest supermarket for them.
The Pathmark was doomed to fail because it was in the same parking lot as Walmart, and it was very close to Shoprite. It also smelled funny inside.
In my opinion, all Pathmark stores smelled funny no matter where they were or how clean they appeared.
DeleteIn some places the smell still lingers. The Woodland Park Fairway has this issue from time to time...last time I was in there, I sensed an odor that I hadn't whiffed since the store was a Pathmark.
DeleteI worked on a corporate merchandising team for A&P; I believe the smell in Pathmark, as best I could figure out, was due to the chicken fryers. A&P didn't carry fried chicken, and I could always notice when I was in a Pathmark in the AM when they turned them on to start for the day.
DeleteThe PATHMARK smell I was thinking about was DEAD meat and fish! Especially FISH! If it was the fryers, then it was the oil because many supermarkets have fried chickens and they don't smell like that PATHMARK smell.
DeleteThose aisle markers hung on for awhile in some stores. Bloomfield had them until the very end, as did Garfield. Those stores didn't get updated like others in the area did; Bloomfield had the original Food Market decor and Garfield got the Super Fresh remodel that Maplewood had.
ReplyDeleteWall and Brick had those aisle markers until the end as well.
DeleteFirst of all, the "Lube Dr." sign is hilarious. How have I never seen that.
ReplyDeleteI snapped a full set of photos from this store on 6-November, 2015, and the store has the full A&P Food Market interior (the earliest version), so the bare walls are all on Acme. The interior looked very similar to other early 1980's dual-entrance A&P stores such as Fanwood or Passaic. The interior in my photos actually looks extremely similar to Fanwood at closing.
BTW, Pathmark has been fully renovated into a healthcare facility and looks pretty great (despite being in a Walmart parking lot): https://vimeo.com/250206052.
Do you have those pictures on your flickr photostream? I searched all over for pictures of this store to see what the décor used to be and for clues of who removed it.
DeleteSo why did Fanwood bother replacing the A&P sign on the outside with the Funky Fresh logo, if they never touched the inside of the store?
ReplyDeleteGot to look at some of the demolition pictures they took...that store had to be older than an 80s store, no?
@chris p: The Manahawkin Superfresh also replaced the capsule sign with the Fresh version 3 logo, if I recall correctly. Hopefully I have a pic.
DeleteI believe Fanwood was a 1960's A&P Centennial store which was enlarged into the 1980's dual-entry model, like so many others. The mansard roof hid everything....sort of.
That's what I thought. Because I noticed the Centennial veneer hidden under the mansard roof in one of the demolition pics.
DeleteMaybe that oughta be a challenge...how many former A&P locations still have the mansard roof design intact. Passaic does.
Unfortunately they are among the tons of pics I have sitting in my dropbox for posting some rainy day :) I can certainly send you some if you'd like. Just let me know where and I'll look for more of them tonight. I saw a Produce, a "Seafood Cove" and a few checkout pics yesterday. I am sure there are more...
ReplyDeleteThat would be so great! I would love to add them to this post. Send them to acmestyleblog@gmail.com. Thanks!
DeleteMy old A&P in Brewster, before the new one was built had those exact same check out stands. They were painted green for the Sav-a-Center decor scheme. They never made it to the new store which opened in the same plaza with the Food Market decor scheme.
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