Friday, April 20, 2018

Acme – Elkton, Maryland


Photos courtesy of Jacob V. 

Location: 101 Big Elk Mall, Elkton, MD

Acme Elkton MD
Some additional photos from Will flickr collection

The 6th and final Maryland Acme has arrived on Acme Style! Additional former Acmes of Maryland may find their way to the blog but this is the last of the currently operating stores.

The Elkton Acme opened as a 33M back in the 70's having replaced a smaller store in town. A major expansion and renovation happened in the 90's to the left side of the store erasing all of its 33M attributes. The two pyramid structures along the front were a design feature rolled out in the early 90's and were often added to expanded stores.

Acme Elkton MD
The Produce windows, a standard feature at newly built 90s stores, were included along with the expansion on this side of the store. 


Inside we find the Premium Fresh & Health version 2 package, a tanner, stripped down/cheaper version of PF&H v1.


The flooring from the 90's Red/White/Blue décor remains in place. 

Acme Elkton MD
Elkton used to be a high volume store but has been crushed by competition in the area. Walmart relocated to a SuperCenter and Redner's built a new store about a mile away. 








Light-up Pharmacy sign not seen in many Acmes. Definitely eye catching! 


Looks like this store has a walk-on floral cooler which were common features in newly built 90's stores.




Self-checkouts replaced with the dreaded express register counter. This change undoubtedly looked great on paper but in reality it's a total dud as stores rarely has any of these registers manned. I've been in Acmes that have completely given up on this newly added feature by never having any of the registers open.

AERIAL VIEWS


2010


2002
The view here clearly shows the addition to the left side of the store.


1995
Still a classic 33M!


1982

THE ORIGINAL ELKTON ACME



Location: 134-38 Railroad Avenue, Elkton, Maryland
Opened 11.20.1957

The former Acme along with the A&P have since been torn down to make way for parking lots. 



Acme Elkton MD

7 comments:

  1. This is the third store I recall seeing on this site to have this facade. I think the former Wayne Acme pulled it off best. It might be the color scheme but everything looks a bid faded. That produce section looks really high end though; doesn't even look like you're in the same store.

    Apparently, somebody died here in 2012.
    https://www.wmar2news.com/news/region/cecil-county/man-sentenced-for-elkton-acme-killing

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  2. yay! so close to the bear store. i cant wait to see that one. I worked there from 96-06

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  3. ACTUALLY THE history of this store is interesting. It was at one time o e of the highest volume stores of the Baltimore Division. Why? Simple prior to 1988, there were no supermarkets east of 896, in route 40.south of the Acme , there was only the Galena Market and the old Millington Acme. East of the store the closest store was the Pathmark in rt 13 in NewCastle. Middletown had an ancient former A@P that was a Thriftway and a tiny Acme. My wife wiuld drive the twenty minutes to Elkton to do her shopping. WHAT hurt this store was that Acmes seperate divisions were run as seperate operations. ACME quickly built the Bear Acme, the Elkton Road Acme, Thriftway opened in Glassgow, GIANT in Bear. BALTIMORE was on shakey ground and did not have the funding to expand this store. We wiuld see many folks from Elkton shopping in Bear. IT wasnt untill the 90s before Acme expanded the store. BY that time the volume was still high for the shore, but walmart opened and a d killed it. Thecheap rent keeps it open.

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  4. What is going on with the ACME sign in the first pic? I can't tell whether the red has worn off or there is a strange glare. Hopefully, it is the former.

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    Replies
    1. If you look at the second pic, it's clearly glare and not faded.

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  5. I saw that, but if the pictures were been taken at different time periods the sign could have been damaged in the meantime.

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    Replies
    1. The signs are fine. I took my photos around noon in the summer. The others that look 'broken' are just from sun glare.

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