Former ACME — Stevensville, MD

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Location: 1169 Shopping Center Road, Stevensville MD

An update on the former Acme in Stevensville Maryland coming your way today. The first round of photos takes us back to the early 2000's when the store had the extremely deluxe version of the Checkerboard Arch décor. Not long after, that décor was swapped out in favor of the Albertsons Marketplace, which was a horrible match to the 80's flooring. 

ACME opened here on August 7, 1953. It is difficult to pinpoint the original ACME in the historic aerials as views of all those years ago are limited. I would guess the original building was torn down and replaced with this 33M model but I cannot verify. The store closed for good on November 1, 2012, having taken a big hit by a brand-new Safeway that opened down the road.

When these photos were taken, the store appears to be very successful. Produce is piled high with the rest of the store busting at the seams with inventory. Interesting twist here with the decor. I have never seen wood paneling in this décor package as we see behind the produce sign. 

As I've said many times, this is probably my favorite décor package of all-time. It feels very ACME to me and goes perfectly with the 80's remodel flooring which was left behind. 

Notice one of the deluxe elements here with lighting added to the top of the cases to illuminate the walls. Interesting to note, the dairy aisle is the first aisle with frozen at the other side of the store. 

Awnings around the store too in deli and bakery, not seen often in these remodels, which ultimately were more décor swaps, leaving cases as-is and no new features added to the stores. Wonder if this guy was going to address all the burned-out ceiling lights!

You can see the awning down in the bakery department here. And the blue light boxes added over frozen, which was not often done in smaller stores. 

CLOSING TIME...

And now for a quick look at the Alberstons Marketplace décor swap. 

The odd paneling behind the produce sign remained. 

Truly one of the worst décor/flooring pairings of all-time. Just dreadful. 

THE ACME TODAY...

The ACME is now the Cult Classic Brewery and Taproom. Definitely one of the coolest reuses of an ACME we have ever seen! They even play up the building's original use with the sign saying "A Brewery in a grocery store"! Some interior photos below...

Here we can see some of ACME's backroom space and the walls having been removed around the sales floor. You can jump back to previous coverage of this store by clicking here. 

Closed: ACME – Middlesex, NJ

Location: 125 Bound Brook Road, Middlesex NJ

The Middlesex ACME closed down on February 3, 2022 after an impressive 67-year run. Originally, the store was 1/2 the size you see here and was eventually expanded to match ACME's 33M format while being a good 15,000 feet short of a standard 33M store. I don't recall an official reason given by ACME for the closing but it did happen during a time when ACME was shuttering other smaller, outdated stores.

Exterior pictures are from various map sites, which caught the store in various states of operation. 

The image above is from Manny X's video on the Middlesex ACME on YouTube. Really great labelscar photo. The store wouldn't last long in this condition as you can see below. 

A bit of blue paint to freshen things up. Notice even the red, white and blue squares along the awning are all blue now. 

Several videos on youtube show the store emptied out. The image above is from Manny X's video.

The rest of the images are from WallieB26's video. Really great views of the abandoned interior! 

A zoomed-in shot of the back wall of the meat department showing the brown and orange paneling remaining from the Colonial Decor package. In the 80s Remodel, upright cases were installed in the meat department and pushed up against the walls, leaving little reason to paint over the old decor. We see these panels in nearly every abandoned ACME. 

Here we see a mess of the 80's tile floor as new registers were installed at one point. The original pattern not recreated. 

THE INTERIOR WHILE STILL OPEN>>

Middlesex had the 90's Checkerboard Arch décor until its closing day. The only store in the chain to keep this decor well into the 2000's and beyond. Only a handful of New Jersey stores received this and Middlesex was the only store that I know of, which got this particular version, which includes a cursive font for some departments as well as a couple of design elements not commonly seen. The aisle markers are from the Red/White/Blue package, which was next up in the 90's. The markers here were most likely taken from a closed store. 

The cursive font for deli and seafood. 

Portions of the walls were hit with some beige paint, perhaps to soften the look of all the maddening checkerboards! This is an all-time favorite of mine, particularly in stores that received the full remodel. 

TODAY>>

Today, the ACME space is operating as a Planet Fitness with about 1/3 of the building still available for lease. Looks like I'll need to do a workout here someday! Now, what aisle is this treadmill in?

Under construction. 

The initial replacement of the red oval sign with the block-letter sign. ACME would eventually circle back and upgrade this section of the facade. 

You can visit additional coverage of the Middlesex store by clicking here.

Check THIS out...

Early Version of the 

Checkerboard Arch Décor
Alive and Well Today!

Location: Hannaford, 7 Medway Rd, Milford, MA 

A hot tip came into Acme Style from James about some pictures seen over on yelp for the Hannaford store in Milford. The store has an early version of the Checkerboard Arch décor, minus the checkerboards. It must have started it's life as a Star Market or Shaws. The builing is nearly identical, both inside and out, to Acme's 90's models. I'm not sure if any Shaws were built with this model but I do know some Star Market stores were. Acme never used the Checkerboard Arch décor in any of their new stores. It was used only for remodels. 

Unlike the Checkerboard Arch décor that we're familiar with, this package uses a variety of fonts for the department signage.




This flooring never officially made it's way into Acme. Remodeled stores kept their 80's checkerboard flooring which was still relatively new when this décor package was rolled out. The only Acme I know of that had this flooring was the old Beach Haven store.














Additional photos are available on the yelp review for this store. To view them, please click here.


A satellite view of the exterior which clearly shows the similarities to Acme's 90's stores. The store is set back too far from the main road to catch any good views from google street view.

Step Inside the Former Pittston Acme!

Courtesy of John from WISL1480.com

Location: 401 Kennedy Blvd, Pittston, PA

We're heading back to one of the very first stores covered on the blog. This time we will be taking a look at the fascinating interior. While the store has been converted to several different banners over the years, the place is still ALL Acme inside and out.

The classic photos that are kicking off the post are from the Wyoming Valley Blog which is,  unfortunately, no longer on the internet. The person running the blog was kind enough to allow me to access to all the great photos he had taken over the years. It was just the thing Acme Style needed to get off to a great start! For coverage of all of the former Wyoming Valley Acmes, please click here.

Above you see the Pittston store with the Acme/Super Saver sign. The awning is disguising the pitched-roof just behind it. You may also notice the banner on the left side of the store displaying Acme's 100th Anniversary logo, which was launched in 1991. Pretty crazy to see a store where the Super Saver sign lasted until the 90's. This was, by no means, a neglected location. The store received the 80's Remodel but for some reason did not get the red oval logo sign. Instead, the Super Saver sign would finally come down for the Checkerboard Arch decor of the early 90's, when the new block-letter logo went up.

And in giant 3D letters to boot! Just a few years later, this Acme would sold off to Penn Traffic along with 44 other North Eastern Pennsylvania stores. 

This location would become Penn Traffic's Insalaco's banner...

Not sure how long Insilco's lasted by but by January 2006, the store had become Bruno's.

Bruno's with a fresh coat of paint here. Notice the panels covering the old windows now painted in red and green. 

Bruno's closes in 2008.

Quinn's took over next, continuing on with the Shur Save branding. Not shur what the difference is between Shur Save and Shur Fine. I'm more familiar with the latter.


Quinn's has really brightened the place up with a new paint job!

The window covers are now blue and green.


Interesting situation here. The produce delivery door is now located on the dairy aisle side of the store. From all indications of the interior, Acme gave this place a major overhaul, completely flipping the layout.


An addition was made to the left side of the building which looks to have happened when the store was given the Super Saver awning. A bank once occupied this front space with Acme expanding into the rest. The addition allowed for the store's standard 50's/60's layout to be converted to the 33M format which remains today. Pittston must have been a good money maker for Acme. It certainly had plenty of remodels and upgrades here over the years.

Let's head inside and check it out!


Time to check off another item on my wish list! Well, not entirely but at this point we'll never come across a pitched-rood store that still has the Checkerboard Arch decor intact. This is as close as we're gonna get. While the checkerboards are gone here, the arches remain giving us a very good idea of what the store looked like back in the early 90's. The ceiling tiles may or may not be original to the store. Some pitched-roof models where built with them rather than leaving the ceiling exposed. They may have been added here later as both the tiles and lighting look relatively new.


This interior shots is a screen grab from a news report I found online. I couldn't help but to include it so we would have more views of the interior. A little hard to see all the details here but the original dairy side of the store is now the produce aisle. I believe the entrance is on the other side of Customer Service. A drop ceiling has been added over the front-end of the store, which is something we have never seen before on the blog. Again, all of these changes most likely happened when the store was converted to a Super Saver. In more recent years, the tile has been replaced in this section of the store.


Looking across the back of the store we see the good ol' 80's Remodel floor! Deli all the way in the far corner but originally would have been in this corner.


The red Meat Department tiles extend all the way over to Dairy.


These cases remain from the 80's Remodel. The blue Dairy tiles kick in at the creamer section.


A great view of the arches along the wall. Not sure about the chick coming out of the egg. That's not whatcha want to see at breakfast. Below is a picture from the Middlesex store which gives you an idea of what this wall looked like back in the Acme days.




In-store Bakery undoubtedly installed during the 80's Remodel. The tiles here are looking more red than the dark gold color they should have been. This image is a screen grab from the news video.


We have never seen a pitched-roof store on the blog with a drop ceiling across the front-end! I am assuming this was added years after the store had opened. I've certainly not seen anything like it in a pitched-roof store before.



A look around back on this snowy day...

AERIAL VIEWS

You can clearly see the addition made to the left side of the store.

HISTORIC IMAGES

2008

1999

1992

1969

Unfortunately no historic images available between 1969 and 1992. 

Thanks to John for the long awaited tour of the Pittston Acme!