News Break:
BROWN MILLS DAYS ARE NUMBERED
BROWN MILLS DAYS ARE NUMBERED
Location: 80 Pemberton Browns Mills Road, Browns Mills NJ
Really hard to believe the abandoned pitched-roof Acme in Brown Mills is still standing. It has been empty since 1996 when Acme relocated to the Pine Grove Shopping Center. The township is currently moving forward with plans to purchase the property so it can be redeveloped. If a deal cannot be reached with the owner, the township will then move to have the property condemned essentially taking control from the owner. Either way, the days of the old Brown Mills Acme are definitely numbered. For more information on the townships plans check out this article on BurlingtonCountyTimes.com.
THIS JUST IN >>>
Woke up this morning to find this incredible photo in the Acme Style inbox! Huge thanks goes out to Leetta Tamn for taking the time to provide this classic photos for our enjoyment!!
Location: 63 Wanaque Ave Pompton Lakes, NJ
This store has been the topic of many discussions here on the blog. Seemed like a decent location for for Acme to acquire, especially since Acme once had a store on this very property, but the company passed and the store remains abandoned. ShopRite reportedly toured the store recently but wound up passing as well. So what gives? A&P must have done decent business to have survived until the very end. Turns out, there is simply too much competition in the surrounding area to make this a viable location for a large supermarket. Both Walmart and Target have stores close by with Stop & Shop just minutes away. I would think ShopRite could easily crush the Stop & Shop and lure plenty of people away from Target and Walmart with the extensive fresh foods they offer in their newer stores but apparently they don't agree. You can read a detailed article about the struggles of finding a replacement for the A&P at NorthJersey.com.
FYI... The store in that photo isn't the Pompton Lakes A&P. It's the Pompton Plains A&P on Route 23 that was acquired by Stop & Shop a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteFixed, thanks!
DeleteI kept hoping Acme would take back this location. There's a Shoprite in Oakland but if you're in Pompton Lakes, that's at least 10/15 minutes away. Maybe they don't want to go up against the Wanaque Stop & Shop, which was my favorite grocery store when I lived in the area. It was a nice store, perfectly sized for large orders or running in for a few things. I miss shopping there.
DeleteWhat is the rent situation on that store? What is the potential dollar volume for a store that suze ,with heavy competition? If the rent is low enough or if you can a sub tenant to pay some of the rent, then a chain may take a shit at it.
ReplyDeleteHoping you meant to say "shot" at it!
DeleteFat fingers strike again
DeleteThe Pompton Lakes store is a very interesting store... the inside is ridiculously broken down, which is probably why no one wants it... it would be costly to fix. Salvation Army is supposed to take 2,000-5,000 sq. ft. of the A&P space, according to the broker I contacted.
ReplyDeleteAlso, while speaking to the broker, there is an independent chain that is interested in the whole space... My guess is that it's Key Food. Yet another location that will probably take the Superfresh or Food Emporium name, and close in a year... like Garwood.
Within Key Food, it's all about the member's skill. On the whole, they do better with smaller stores, but some can successfully run larger, suburban stores. Garwood and Edison, two of the A&P acquisition failures, were owned by the same person.
DeleteOn the other hand, would a Foodtown be interested in that building? Maybe either Nicholas Markets or Jack's Supermarkets, both of which stand up well to the big chains, could open.
I agree. Kevin Kim is a good example of a great member of Key Food.
DeleteFoodtown may be interested in the building, but I highly doubt it. It's a more upper-class town, primarily people who shop in Princeton at a Trader Joe's or Wegmans.
P's and Q's, I'm not sure I agree with you on either count.
DeleteKevin Kim runs decent urban, ethnic-type stores (the SuperFresh in Fairview is a great example), but he owned both Edison and Garwood. He doesn't seem to be able to adapt his model to the higher-income, suburban stores as well. On the other hand, I think the SuperFresh stores in Belleville, Bloomfield, Irvington, and Paterson are much better run.
And are we talking about the same store? I meant the Foodtown/Key Food question about Pompton Lakes, where people are not shopping in Princeton, halfway across the state. Pompton Lakes is a middle-class area, even with some lower-income pockets, where people are most likely shopping at the nearby ShopRites in Oakland, Wayne, or Lincoln Park, or the Stop & Shops in Haskell, Pompton Plains, or Kinnelon.
Foodtowns are already in the area, with Jack's in Wayne and Nicholas in North Haledon. In reality, the closest Key Food comes to the area is the SuperFresh in Glen Rock or the various stores in Paterson -- pretty far away, and very different demographics.
I know he owned Garwood and Edison. How they were opened is my point-- no renovations, or an open-then-close for renovations situation. I agree that he can't open high-class stores.
DeleteDid I say Princeton? I meant Wayne or Morristown (Which is a drive alone)... I was thinking of another store at the time (Superfresh Plainsboro). I'm not too familiar with that part of New Jersey, honestly.
I agree that Nicholas Markets would do well in the area, and I love the North Haledon store dearly, but the space seems rather large for them. Although, I'm not sure how big Washington Township's store is.
Delete@P's and Q's: OK, I see what you're saying.
Delete@Minhaj Hussain: Well, I'm pretty sure Washington is somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 square feet. I swear I read that somewhere, but I can't find it just now. Although the Pompton Lakes property is larger at just under 63,000 SF, it appears that the owner wants to subdivide it into two roughly 30,000 square foot spaces. These would be perfect for either a Foodtown or a Key Food affiliate. https://www.ripcony.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/PomptonLakesNJ_PomptonLakesTowneSquare_MarketingPackage_2018-1.pdf
If they did divide it, then it would work well. I love how in depth their marketing package is! That's how you know they mean business.
DeleteThe traffic situation around that store doesn't seem well-suited for a high-volume store like ShopRite. Wanaque Road is a main road, but there are constant backups at the intersection to the South of this strip mall, and the location is almost downtown. It's not the type of location that is ideally suited for such a high-volume retailer. A&P did well with its usual older clientele, but I think ShopRite is smart to skip it.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know how the beautiful Boonton Acme is doing? When it first opened, Lincoln Park ShopRite seemed notably slower, but now the rumors are that Acme is dead, even on weekends.
Wonder who in ShopRite would be in that area (or if it would matter)?
ReplyDeleteNot totally sure how they work in terms of which member(s) can be in what area(s) down that way, or where the corporation themselves (the ShopRite Stores subsidiary) can open stores (as they do have a couple in NJ, but those have been, I think, the same places for many years, unlike their expansions up here in NY).
Since it is a coop and all membershare in the profits of the warehouse, its not as big a problem as you would think. The corporate stores have a checked past, sometimes members would get into trouble and Wakefirm would bail them out ,by buying them out and running the stores. Thats the nature of the beast,that owners prifit comes from the success ofthe warehouse
Delete@William Graham: This is a very good point, and important to consider when looking at the way a retail cooperative works vs the way a corporation works. In Pompton Lakes, the three closest ShopRite stores are all operated by different operators: there are single-store owner/operators in nearby Oakland, NJ and Lincoln Park, NJ, as well as Inserra, one of the biggest operators (~30 stores) next door in Wayne, NJ. This is a common setup in these areas of NJ where the cooperative has operated for decades. If one owner proposes to open a store which will cannibalize another's store, it can be a big source of contention and can definitely kill a deal. This is why we see big, well-funded operators like Village Supermarkets, which primarily operates in NJ and PA, looking to avoid these disagreements by opening in New York City and Washington DC for growth, where there are fewer stores.
DeleteAs for SRS, the stores they operate in NJ are legacy stores, which they have operated for years. SRS opens replacement stores in NJ, but no new stores.
But look at some of the towns you mentioned. Wayne and Pompton Lakes border. Lincoln Park isn't that far. If the owners of the Nutley store (why they call it Nutley Park is still beyond me) can open in Belleville, which is really close to them, what's stopping Inserra from jumping in?
DeleteI was told that the owner of an existing store is given first option to build another store in their area and if they decline, another owner is given the option. Not sure if that's how it works but it makes sense.
DeleteIf there is a disagreement over a store from one member taking business away from another, the member makes the case to the co-op (and lobbies behind the scenes), and it’s voted upon. Each member has one vote—no matter if you operate one store or 100 stores, each member still only gets one vote. Even though the stores are in co-operation with each other on a wholesale level, they very much compete with each other on a store-by-store level.
ReplyDeleteThere can be resentment when a new store or a replacement store from one member takes business away from another (such as when the replacement Paramus store (Inserra) was opened and Rochelle Park (Glass Gardens flagship) was impacted, or when Inserra’s first PriceRite opened in Garfield and ShopRite of Passaic/Clifton was impacted.
Glass Gardens owns Paramus too. Inserra doesn't.
DeleteThe Garfield PriceRite is nowhere near the Cuellars' ShopRite, so I don't know what business Inserra is siphoning away from them.
If you want resentment, Inserra closed their Passaic store to open in Wallington and a lot of folks were upset on both sides of the river.