Lawereceville Acme's Final Days...

Photos courtesy of Mike S. 

Location: 2497 Brunswick Avenue/Route 1, Lawrenceville, NJ

The PF&H version 3 refresh wasn't enough to save the Lawerencville Acme. The store closed this past August. (Exact closing date unknown at this time). Acme had taken over this location from Pantry Pride in 1981. You can check out a photo of the Pantry Pride by clicking here. Word came just a while back that Acme had signed a long-term lease here. Apparently they didn't and have now left the building just as major upgrades are underway at the shopping center.






















You can check out additional coverage of the store by clicking here.

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ

Location: 2497 Brunswick Avenue/Route 1, Lawrenceville, NJ

Despite reports that Acme had signed a long-term lease for this location, the company announced a few weeks ago that they are shuttering their Lawrenceville store by month's end. Acme claims the stores has not been meeting company goals for a few years now which seems odds since a decent amount of work was done to refresh the interior in 2017. The store's closing comes just as the facade is undergoing renovations. Those renovations have apparently been scaled down from the initial plan that appeared on the blog in October 2017. You can see them below.

THE PLANS WENT FROM THIS >>>

TO  THIS >>>

This rendering has me wondering... why bother? 

Coming Soon – Lawrenceville's New Look!

Location: 2497 Brunswick Avenue/Route 1, Lawrenceville, NJ

We heard a while back that the Lawrenceville Shopping Center would be getting a major exterior renovation. The new owners of the shopping center have finally revealed their plans and as you can see above, the Acme will be completely transformed! Isn't it crazy how similar it will look to the old-school 50's stores...

Classic Brick Acme – photo courtesy of Patrick Richardson 

The rendering appears to indicate that Acme's entrance and exit, which are currently in the center of the building, will be relocated to the right side. Hard to know for sure if that's the official plan or if the rendering is just taking some creative license. Judging from the site map included in the brochure for the project, Acme will not be expanding into one or both of the empty storefronts on the left side. We'll have to wait and see if Acme will be doing a more extensive remodel to the interior as the exterior gets significantly improved. The store did receive the Premium Fresh & Healthy décor package back in early 2016. You can check out the current interior by clicking here. For more renderings of the upgraded shopping center, please click here.

Thanks to Paul Richardson for the update on the upcoming makeover!

Remodeled Lawrenceville!

Location: 2497 Brunswick Avenue/Route 1, Lawrenceville, NJ

When we last saw the Lawrenceville store on the blog back in September 2014, the self-checkouts were being removed and rearranging had been underway in some departments. This was around the same time news broke that Acme had signed a new long-term lease here. The news was accompained by word that the landlord was going to make a huge investment into the shopping center. There's absolutely no sign of that ever happening. In fact, the center seems to have more vacancies than ever with the Acme the only store drawing any significant business. As mentioned in previous posts, there is intense competition on Route 1 including Wegmans, ShopRite, Whole Foods and Trader Joes all within close proximity to each other. The Acme happens to be just far enough south to enjoy a comfortable distance from the competitors. This is a surprisingly busy store especially considering its relatively small size. 

Ever since my visit in 2014, I've been planning to check back in to see if a remodel was in fact underway. Turns out it was! Sort of. This is one of those situations that I would call a refresh more that a remodel. Not a whole lot has changed beside the décor. That said, the store does look really good....


The Premium Fresh & Healthy version 3.0 décor has replaced the Chalkboard Market signage and color scheme.

BEFORE...

The coffin cake case was replaced with upright refrigerators for the Bakery with enough room remaining for some additional cases for Produce. The Bakery sign here used to hang over the service counter but was moutned to this wall in recent years. Too bad they didn't give this perfectly good sign to the Lincroft store to replace their wacky Bakery sign.


The product images and fresh messages that normally accompany the department signs were not included here. Perhaps they were cut since they would be a bit overkill with all the new "Acme loves local" signage.

BEFORE...

BEFORE...

BEFORE...

The service departments would look a million times better if the back walls were tiled. Particularly with Seafood, it seems like we're looking into the back room.


The frozen food cases were updated years ago.


All of the former green sections of the ceiling have been painted white...

BEFORE...

No department signage in the back section of Dairy, just a stunted aisle sign.

BEFORE...

As mentioned in the last visit to Lawrenceville, the last aisle has been removed to give some much needed breathing room for Dairy. The grocery selection must have taken a pretty big hit since this wasn't a very large store to begin with.






The front-end didn't get much love during the remodel. The old register lights are still in place with some just about to fall over. The self-checkouts were located in this spot.

The Lawrenceville Acme...

IS Getting Better!

Location: 2497 Brunswick Avenue/Route 1, Lawrenceville NJ

Work is underway at the Lawrenceville Acme! As previously reported on the blog, Acme has recently signed a long-term lease for this location and the shopping center is about to undergo a major renovation of its own. What is not happening here is a full-scale remodel. The somewhat tired looking Chalkboard Market decor is remaining in place. Seems like it would be rather easy to remodel this store from a decor perspective. Most of the cases have been updated in recent years and the floor is in relatively good shape. Perhaps a remodel will happen once work on the shopping center begins, which at this point, has yet to begin.


First "improvement" underway... removal of self-checkouts! Personally, I love self-checkouts so I don't see this as an improvement. The company is giving the standard explanation for this change by saying they want customers to have more interaction with the employees. It is generally believed that stores yank the self-checkouts out to curb shoplifting. As recently reported under September Discussions, Acme is removing the self-checkouts from all of their stores.


More views of the front-end under transformation...




One huge change to happen here is the removal of the last grocery aisle. This change does make a big difference in the Dairy aisle which was once as narrow as could be. See below...


The last aisle used to be very tight. While it is great to now have extra room in the last aisle, the selection in the already smaller-than-usual-store must have taken a bit of a hit. To make up for some of the loss, 2 mini-aisles were added over in Produce for health foods and Heath and Beauty has been reconfigured for more shelving...


The direction of the aisles have been switched here. Floor tiles still need to be replaced.


I believe shampoo was moved from the grocery aisles to the former "Vitamin Center", which you can see below. In the photo above, you can see some old tiles right under the shelve. They appear to form a checkerboard pattern as if they were left over from the 80's but they are alternating between blue and red which doesn't make much sense.


Above is a photo of how this area used to be arranged.


Looks as though the "Photo" portion of Customer Service is getting the boot. Couldn't quite tell for sure. In person, it looks like this area is being prepped for removal.


One final look at the deluxe Frozen Food cases. These have been in place for a while now. They date back to June 2013 when the store had it's full Acme Style treatment which you can check out by clicking here.