Acme – Little Silver, New Jersey

Location: 507 Prospect Street, Little Silver, NJ

Today, the Little Silver Acme officially arrives on the blog. I had considered this store sufficiently covered since it was the subject of an extensive Bonus Store post back in June 2014 and, unfortunately, Acme has done very little with the place other than yanking out the self-checkouts and adding more lighting. The store is still quite nice but a Quality Built décor swap along with a new coat of paint would really freshen the place up. I'm surprised Acme isn't bothering to do this while the landlord is renovating the entire shopping center with a new facade. The parking lot has been reconfigured and replaced. And check out those new lamp posts! It's a no-expense-spared project for sure.


The "before" photo above shows the A&P completely intact with nothing more than a sign swap. You can see the old light poles here along with the angled parking spots which have recently been made straight.


Huge improvements to the exterior of the store!

Odd color choice for the section where Acme's sign will eventually be placed. The dark paneling is not being used anywhere else in the shopping center. According to the rendering of the completed shopping center, Acme's sign will be mounted to a white rectangular panel to help it pop on the dark paneling.


A&P's second round of their "fresh" remodel is alive and well. Looks great at this end of the store but we'll see some problems on the other side.




Some additional photos, like the one above, were sent in by dougbalt back in 2015. The organic signage has since been removed as you can see below...


This area may have been A&P's health food department. Acme has since reset the store which these aisles now being regular groceries.

BEFORE >>>

The division between the original store and the addition which came sometime in the 70's.


Acme has since added new lighting to the last few aisles. Something that wasn't done during the initial conversion of the store. Ceiling fans added as well to Frozen and Dairy.

BEFORE >>>

The photo above is one of Doug's from December 2015.




Yikes! Not sure what is happening here. A&P product mural has been taken down and is all busted apart. Why they are even saving it I don't know. Same situation in the Dairy aisle...




The signs cannot be saved. The photos are torn from the panel being broken apart.

BEFORE >>>

This store tops out at just 7 aisles.


Acme got rid of A&P's coffin cases that were here and replaced them with cookies and crackers.

BEFORE >>>

Doug's photo above showing A&P's checkout lights which have since been replaced with the Quality Built lights.


Self checkouts gone. Acme added this counter with express registers. Part of A&P Customer Service Counter is still in tact behind food donation display.


Not terribly busy for a Saturday morning but there were definitely more shoppers in the store than these photos would lead you to believe.




Workers were on the clock Saturday morning! The design of the facade is evolving from what is shown in the rendering.




Doug snapped this photo of the rear of the store. Old Acme trailer with its logo removed thanks to good ol' SuperValu.

AERIAL VIEWS

HISTORIC IMAGES

2012

1979

Expanded to its current size by 1979.

1957

The original barrel roof store in 1957.

Acme – Old Bridge, New Jersey

Location: 3500 Route 9, Old Bridge, NJ 

Acme took over the Old Bridge A&P fresh on November 8, 2915. As it is with many of the converted stores, virtually nothing has been done here to upgrade the shopping experience from the A&P days. The store seems to do a decent business which had me wondering why Acme hasn't invested in some much needed improvements.


The exterior is rather unique to A&P. The Kenilworth store is the only other store that I know of with a similar exterior. A&P never embraced entrances and exits on both sides of the their stores. The Old Bridge store actually looks more like a 90's Acme than it ever did an A&P.


A bit of fresh paint on the outside but it could use more. Looks like the green paint has been running down over the gray boarder. My impression of the outside of the store wasn't helped by the wet nasty weather.


A quick google of the situation suggest Old Bridge is the only Acme/Santander combo out there.


Very cool entry ways on both sides of the store!


I don't believe the green floor is original to the store, although it certainly looks that old. Not sure what era the flooring is from.


Customer Service is missing the letter V. Overall this store is pretty nice but when you start to look closer you can see a lot of rough spots throughout.


Acme added their express counter just across from Customer Service. THREE registers open just in the express lane? Pretty remarkable for an Acme. Of course when I was ready to checkout there was only one open.


The more former A&P fresh stores I visit, the more I realize the fresh remodels were often just a décor swap. The few A&Ps I frequented over the years were lucky to have had major remodels during the fresh era but it seems like they were the exceptions.








The Deli wasn't lucky enough to get any signage or perhaps it was removed at some point. There is a tiny Dietz and Watson sign over to the right.


Old school A&P salad bar!


Found it very odd that there was no signage back in this corner. Nothing to draw shoppers to one of the most profitable areas of the store.








Things start really going downhill in the grocery aisles. The floors are a mess! It didn't look like new shelving was put in for the big reset like it was in most other stores.


TWO double wide aisles in Old Bridge. The first is the water and soft drink aisle.






And the other double wide. Seasonal at the front half with paper products in the back half.




Have to say the staff here seemed really great. I was pleasantly greeted and asked if I needed help both in the Deli and the Bakery.
















A&P registers remain in place. Acme has replaced these older models in most stores I've been in. I was surprised to still see them here. For some reason the gray bumpers were removed from all sides of each restore making them look even more like a mess. The store did get the Quality Built lights.


You can see where the bumper strips were attached in the photo above. Holes remain in their place. The customer side of the registers were even more of a mess with the bumpers being removed.


Starbucks was recently remodeled and apparently downsized. Not sure if this happened before or after Acme took over.


No Acme sign on the wall over 2 years later.


Starbucks old flooring remains in this area. Acme has filled this alcove with discount racks, a common feature at most stores since Acme cannot seem to get a handle on its product mix. I've been noticing in my local Acmes that we're in for a whole new round of clearance. The tags are popping up all over the store. Ice cream and frozen foods are getting hit particularly hard.

AERIAL VIEWS

A Matress Firm store was added to the property in recent years.

A FORMER ACME

JUST MINUTES AWAY!

Location: 2500 Route 9, Old Bridge, NJ
Opened: June 27, 1962

This former pitched-roof model is one mile north of the current Acme.




The pitched-roof disguised by that careful placed panel.


You can see a bit of Acme's roof from this vantage point. Best shot I could get.

A little further up Route 9...

Location: Fairway Plaza, Route. 9, Old Bridge, NJ

Had to check this ancient place out. After stepping inside, I couldn't believe something so awful could still have the ShopRite name plastered to the outside. Apparently a new 90,000 square foot ShopRite was planned to be built at Schulmeister Road but as far as I can tell, the project is dead. 

And the award for the world's ugliest décor goes to... this store! Half the neon lights in the place don't even work. The department signage could not be more mismatched with the tiled walls and floors.








Tiny in-store Bakery tucked away in this corner.




ShopRite expanded into neighboring stores with the least amount effort spent to make the new space cohesive with the existing store.


When I first walked in, I thought the place was going out of business. The first end cap I came to was completely empty of product, on a Saturday morning! Cases in Produce, which appeared to be working fine, were also completely empty. Even if a replacement store has been in the works for a few years, why hasn't this place been fixed up in decades?


Took a double take at the crazy color scheme of the registers.

Wait, there's more... 

Location: 1043 Route 9, Old Bridge, NJ

The abandoned Old Bridge Fathmark is about 3 miles North of the ShopRite. This store was among 25 that closed immediately following A&P declaring bankruptcy in July 2015. The store was also the scene of a tragic shooting back in 2012. You can google the details but I'll leave you with this link to nj.com which has a story of the store's reopening and includes a photo of the memorial plaques hung inside for the victims.











Department signage was removed from the wall and was left leaning up against the produce cases.








Doubtful another supermarket will ever move into this space. BJ's is just up the road with Walmart across the street.


An aerial view of the former Pathmark and the surrounding competition. Interestingly, the Home Depot was able to drive Lowe's out of business leaving that massive store abandoned just south of Walmart.


With Old Bridge coverage complete, we have just 4 more New Jersey stores to go! Two South Jersey stores and two shore store all coming soon to Acme Style!