King of Prussia Acme's Final Days...

Classic photos courtesy of John from WISL1480.com

Location: 320 West Dekalb Pike, King of Prussia PA 

Extensive tour of the King of Prussia store it its final days! The photos were taken by John's brother last week. He was told by the manager that the store was doing a self liquidation until the 10th and then equipment and supplies would be distributed to other local stores. Still can't wrap my mind around this place closing. As I've mentioned before, this was the very first 90's store I ever stepped into. Never saw an Acme as big, bright and BUSY as this place! Back in those days the store had the Red/White/Blue décor. As far as I know, it was only remodeled one time in the 2000's with the Industrial Circus (cursive font) décor. The remodel was one of the most extensive ever done to a 90's store. 

The Reading Center in the alcove to the right was removed a few years back. Produce was originally located in the spot where the Deli now. This store did have the windows along the far wall.





















Wild Harvest department located behind Produce.








Premium Fresh & Healthy aisle signs added sometime during the SuperValu years. Not sure when or why this store's downfall began although according to comments left on the blog, the issues with this store were due more to bad management than to competition moving into the area. Reviews on yelp and google tend to support this theory.
















Frozen cases relocated from the center of the store to the left side during the remodel.






Floral got booted to the Produce side with the Pharmacy being moved to the corner. I would imagine Acme would have remodeled many of the 90's store this way if they had had the budget to do so.








Self-checkouts were removed a few years back. Like so many others locations, you can find a lot of reviews online complaining about the change which only brought longer lines to the minimally staffed front-end.




For full coverage of the King of Prussia store, please click here.

Thanks to John and his brother for sharing these great photos of this once great store!

Soon-to-be-former Acme – Lansdale, Pennsylvania

Photos courtesy of John from WISL1480.com

Location: 1150 Welsh Rd, Lansdale, PA 

The classic 90's Lansdale Acme is scheduled to close in June along with two other locations. Sad to see this store go as Acme has been a presence on this property for nearly 6 decades. The original store opened June 24, 1959 as the sole business on the massive property. As we recently saw with the Edgewood, Maryland store, the property was cleared and paved to make way for more stores which didn't arrive until many years later. According to the historic aerials, Acme was the lone business until at least 1971. Additional stores were eventually built creating the Lansdale Village.

Some additional information from JoshAustin on flicker:
"the original store closed no later than 1994 with the new Acme opening in 1997. originally the site of an older Acme which closed in the early 90s (no later than 1994), and a small shopping center called Lansdale Village. In the mid 90s the Acme and rest of the center were demolished for one large Acme, which opened in 1997 (and is a twin of the former Quakertown store)."

The Lansdale Acme has suffered from new competition moving into the area. ShopRite opened less than 3 miles north in 2011 and Wegmans opened about 3 miles south at the Montgomery Mall in 2013. Not helping is the fact that Acme sits alone, just like the original store once did, with no other accompanying stores to draw in customers.

I always hated those carts. Acme was never green. Not for one minute. Red, white, blue, yellow...yes. Green no.

90's Red/White/Blue décor painted over with the basic Albertsons Marketplace signage up on the walls. The floor throughout the store is unchanged since 1997.


The store received the Premium Fresh and Health aisle markers and light up store directory. You can also see the self-checkouts sign hanging from the ceiling. They have since been ripped out. John took these photos a few years ago during the "getting better" era. Since then, Acme has done nothing but get worse thanks to the company's flat out refusal to staff stores with cashiers. Their new tagline should be "Damn, that's a long line".


The Salad Bar remains in it original spot rather than being relocated to the Mellon Bar/Bakery walls.

The store is not without some nice upgrades. It must have performed well before getting stuck between ShopRite and Wegmans.


Coffin cases in frozen were not replaced with upright cases in the early 2000's like they were in other 90's stores.














The original registers remain in place having not been painted a color that matched the updated décor.



While putting this post together, I checked out the reviews on google to see what people were saying about the store. To be fair, there were quite a few positive reviews. I cherry picked the ones that mentioned high prices and/or terrible checkout experiences as these are two of Acme's mot serious problems of which they refuse to address. As you will see, the removal of the self-checkouts is a source of many complaints...

Mel
2 months ago
Pharmacy is helpful. Wish they had self checkout.

Mark D
5 months ago
Everything is overpriced, there's no more self checkout so expect a line. No reason to come here over shop rite or Giant if you have the option. 

Crystal Sackal
5 months ago
Decent, but some of their prices are WAY too high.

Nicole Lupacchino
7 months ago
Well stocked grocery store! I just wish the prices was lower.

Audrey Booker
8 months ago
They had good sales but the everyday items not so much

Stanford Burrell
8 months ago
Decent prices. No self check out.

Creativity Blog
10 months ago
Selection is ok, has no self checkout.

Andrea Jaffee
a year ago
Not enough lines open, takes awhile to check out.

Chris Faulkner
a year ago
My main complaint is that they got rid of there self service check outs which make quick trips into long trips sometimes waiting for cashers or lines.

Gabrielle Guerre-Chaley
a year ago
This ACME is going down hill fast. Very dirty and the employees don't seem happy.

AERIAL VIEWS

Still looks like a relatively new store from this vantage point.

HISTORIC IMAGES

2004

1999

1992

The original acme is at the bottom of the photo and in the photo below...


John shared this picture with us back in 2013. It was taken in May 1981.

1971

1969

1967

1965

1960

Thanks to John from WISL1480.com for bringing us BOTH of the Lansdale Acmes!