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!

Acme – Easton, Maryland

Location: 210 West Marlboro Avenue, Easton, MD

Today we're visiting the Easton Acme and I gotta say, this is one of the strangest exteriors I've seen yet! (The photo above is a little dark but the image from Googles maps below shows a little more details, particularly the odd color scheme.) Looks like the store has seen a ghost! Even more so if you compare it to the "before" photos down below...

BEFORE >>>

These photos are from 2013 when the exterior had a little more color. THIS a great looking Acme! Not sure why the landlord decided to whitewash the joint. Made Acme's poor sign virtually disappear!


The exterior was updated during the Premium Fresh & Healthy era which explains the white logo and red awnings over the windows. The store also received the updated aisle and category markers.


The green topped cart corrals have since been replaced with the newer white and red versions.


This post has a big mix of photos from several contributors who I will list at the end.


The Easton Acme opened back in the 70's mostly definitely as a 33M model. An expansion, possibly as early as 1995, was done to the right side of the store essentially adding on the whole Grand Aisle we're seeing here. This store had one of the most deluxe Grand Aisles of any Acmes probably due to the fact that it was built from the ground up rather than being remodeled from existing space. Back in the early 2000's when I would hopelessly google Acme photos, a picture of this very Grand Aisle would always pop up at the top of the search results. Took years for me to figure out exactly which store it was.


While the décor here is the Albertsons Marketplace package, it's a version that wasn't used in many stores. The Granite Run and Warminster stores were among the few other Acmes to have décor similar to Easton. Granite Run now has Quality Built and Warminster is closed.


New lighting has been put into this section of the store. I believe the change happened back in 2015 prior to the store holding a grand reopening.


A couple of older photos which show the original lighting...












Older picture here with a gaggle of geese ready to crap in your cart.












The hanging lattice structure above the checkouts was removed. You can see a "before" photo below.

BACK TO THE EARLY 2000s

The original lighting can be seen in these photos.




Register lights that were actually designed to match the décor! These exact lights have never been seen on the blog before. A shame Acme yanked them out and replaced them with the horrible generic lights which swept through the whole chain.

THE FORMER EASTON ACMES >>>

Location: 815 Dover Road, Easton, MD

The former Colonial Cottage Acme on Dover Road. I have no dates for the opening of closing of this store and historic aerials date back only to 1981. I would imagine this store closed when the West Marlboro store opened. 

Location: 134 N Washington St, Easton, MD

The original Easton Acme on Washington Street. Now a Goodwill Store. For some interior photos, click here. 

Sometimes google street views are so good, there's no need to visit the former stores in person!

HISTORIC AERIALS

2010

2005

1995

Hard to really tell here but construction on the addition may be happening above.

1981

Thanks to Jacob V, Ben from Delaware and Dwayne Groton for the photos!