RACHEL RAY SURPRISES
SHOPPERS AT
WEEHAWKEN ACME
WITH FREE GROCERIES!
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THIS JUST IN >>>
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The Original Point Pleasant Acme!
Classic photo courtesy of Mike D.
Location: 505 Richmond Ave, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ
A real treat today with a look at the original Point Pleasant Beach Acme! While this location has been discussed on blog, the store has not made an appearance... until now.
Foodtown took over this locations years after Acme relocated. Mike believes Foodtown moved in sometime in the 70's with Stop and Shop taking over the space in 2011. Funny to think Acme could have stayed here and survived all of those years itself. It's been reported on the blog that the replacement store, just 9 blocks down Richmond Ave, was never very successful.
AERIAL IMAGES
POINT PLEASANT'S NEW ACME >>>
Photos courtesy of Lew
Location: 1513 Richmond Ave, Point Pleasant, NJ
Location: 1513 Richmond Ave, Point Pleasant, NJ
Course it's been long closed now but if you haven't already stepped inside, you can do so now by clicking here!
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THIS JUST IN >>>
RACHEL RAY SURPRISES
SHOPPERS AT
WEEHAWKEN ACME
WITH FREE GROCERIES!
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Store Count
The following Acme has closed:
BURLINGTON, NEW JERSEY
Location: 2200 Mount Holly Road, Burlington, NJ
This store was scheduled to close on February 16th. I don't have confirmation if it closed that exact date or a little earlier. The store was done in by an expanded Walmart in the same shopping center and a new ShopRite which opened in 2015 just down the road. For additonal coverage of the two former Burlington Acmes please click here.
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Article 0
News Break:
"IS ACME STUMBLING IN THE
NORTH JERSEY MARKET?"
"IS ACME STUMBLING IN THE
NORTH JERSEY MARKET?"
An article at The Food Institute Blog addresses this very question. Most of the article discusses Acme's apparent job-cutting plans and the company's trouble winning over shoppers from ShopRite and Stop and Shop. I can tell you that Acme's skyrocketing prices certainly aren't helping. I've been a loyal Acme shopper since the chain returned to North Jersey but have been so sticker shocked over the past few month, I now only buy items that are on sale. You know how they say... the more things change, the more they stay the same? Well Acme seems to be hindered by the same problem that has plagued them for decades, regardless of who's running the company... completely out of touch with the prices of its competitors and unwilling to do anything about it other than to close stores.
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Abandoned A&P Fresh – Holmdel, New Jersey
Location: 2101 Route 35, Holmdel, NJ
From A&P Food Market to the ultimate, budget-busting "fresh' remodel... to being completely abandoned. A&P pulled the plug on this place the minute they declared bankruptcy for the last time. Business here nosedived when ShopRite took over and expanded a nearby Foodtown.
BEFORE >>>
You can visit this store while it was still open by clicking here. Scroll down past coverage of the first two rounds of the "fresh" remodel.
According to a newsletter from Holmdel's Mayor, Hobby Lobby is planning to take over this space.
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Article 0
Discussions:
Have an off-topic comment or question?
Post it here for all to see.
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Falling Letters at Salisbury Acme!
Photos courtesy of Marv
Location: 751 S Salisbury Blvd, Salisbury, MD
Marv sent in a couple of photos of letters falling off the walls at the Salisbury store. This particular conversion was a big rush, so perhaps the letters were a little short changed with glue. Seems like it would be an easy fix though. Pretty embarrassing for a store that was doing a million a week when it was a Giant. No word on how business has been since Acme took over with their falling letters and rising prices.
For additional coverage of this location, please click here.
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Quality Built Remodel In Paoli!
Ofcs. Butler & Acker, @PaoliFire Chief Testa, and members of our @TredyffrinTwp community at Paoli @acmemarkets Grand Re-opening this AM! pic.twitter.com/Swg9GvkTQa— Tredyffrin Police (@The_TTPD) February 24, 2017
Location: 39 Leopard Road, Paoli, PA
The Paoli Acme held its Grand Reopening on Friday, February 24! The store now includes a Starbucks and Frosted Mug. Paoli is one of Acme's top performing stores and one of their most deluxe locations, even prior to the recent remodel.
Most photos you will be seeing are from and anonymous source. A few others were sent in by @ in early December. Those photos show the Quality Built décor swap complete so I'm not exactly sure why the Grand Reopening was delayed until February. Could have possibly been due to the completion of the Frosted Mug and/or Starbucks.
Had a Starbucks been here previously? The store opened in 1999 with the Chalkboard Market décor. It's interesting that the remodels of smaller stores of that era had Starbucks added in but the newly built stores did not, as far as I know.
New lighting has been installed in many areas of the store.
BEFORE >>>
Premium Fresh and Healthy version 1 was here previous to the Quality Built remodel.
Photo above courtesy of @
Like in other remodels we've seen lately, the Salad Bar has been relocated from the side wall to a free-standing case. Not sure what is now in the spot of the original Salad Bar.
BEFORE >>>
Looks like some new cases were installed in the service area of the Meat Department.
Former Bistro seating is now the Frosted Mug's beer-on-tap bar.
BEFORE >>>
All drum-pendant lighting in the store has been removed.
The former home of Wild Harvest department is now beer and wine.
New flooring in this section.
Photo above courtesy of @
BEFORE >>>
Health Food has been bumped to aisle 2.
BEFORE >>>
Bright lights in Frozen!
BEFORE >>>
Not sure if new cases were installed or not. I believe these photos are from two different aisles.
Photo above courtesy of @
And not sure of the fate of the front corner here. When I visited the store, the front wall was pretty much dead space filled with chip displays. I'm sure the space has been better utilized now that the Frosted Mug ate up a full aisle of grocery.
Photo above courtesy of @
Holiday signage seen in the photos @ sent in.
BEFORE >>>
All new lighting across the front-end.
Thanks to our contributors for the photos of the remodeled Paoli Acme!
For additional coverage of the current and former Paoli Acmes, please click here.
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Progress In Paulsboro!
Photos Courtesy of @
Location: West Broad Street, Paulsboro NJ
The place finally looks ready but still no signs of Sav-a-lot opening soon. According to an update from the Mayor last year, Sav-a-lot was planning to open in July but eight months later there's still nothing here. Nice to see pitched-roof ceiling remained intact! Now stripped of it's tiles which makes it look more Acme-like than when this place WAS an Acme.
To see renditions of how the shopping center will look once completed, click here. For additional Acme Style coverage of this location, please click here.
Thanks to @ for the photos!
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Stop and Shop – Waldwick, New Jersey
Location: 19 Wyckoff Ave, Waldwick, NJ
The Waldwick Stop&Shop... clocking in at a mere 22.000 square feet... closed on March 2nd. According to reports, the company decided to close this location after a review of the store's performance. I suspect the age and size of the store were big factors in the decision. I have seen some comments online accusing the landlord for being at fault for the closing. I will say I was totally surprised at how busy the store was when I stopped by despite the low inventory levels and complete lack of a going-out-of-business sale.
This location was a former Grand Union that Stop and Shop acquired in 2001. Grand Union's late 90's remodel remains intact as does the wood paneling from the revolutionary 80's remodel.
All indications are the store was expanded into this section for the 80's remodel. Produce and the Bakery got crammed into the additional space.
Decent Bakery for such a small store. Still chock full of goods in the stores final days. The flooring and décor are from the late 90's remodel which was done at a fast and furious pace helping to sink Grand Union into debt it was never able to get out of. Still kicking myself for never photographing the interior of the Clifton Grand Union. The results were absolutely stunning right down to the old-fashioned styled register lights. You can check out a 90's remodeled Grand Union in East Rutherford by clicking here. Stop&Shop has since remodeled the store sending GU's beautiful murals and props straight to the trash.
Chef something or other is along the back of the section GU expanded in to.
Stop&Shop left this store pretty much as-is when it acquired it. New aisle signs and registers is about all this store got.
Bad attempt to zoom into the décor above the former prepared foods. I didn't get as many shots along the back as I would have liked. This place was crawling with employees with at least two looking at me with a "what's that guy up to" look on their faces.
Some aisles were more empty than others. Guess the remaining merchandise was going to be moved to other stores. There were a few end caps with discounted merchandise but that was it. I couldn't believe how many shoppers were strolling up and down the aisles like everything was normal here.
Another extreme close-up. Kept waiting for that manager to get off his phone and disappear. He never did.
Category signs by Stop and Shop.
Wood paneling from the 80's remodel still on most of the walls around the store.
Frozen was one of the most wiped-out departments in the store.
Looks as though Stop and Shop walled in this area here. It's missing GU's wood paneling and they added a S&S clock just around the corner...
Old school cart coral!
AERIAL IMAGES
HISTORIC VIEWS
2002
1995
1987
Looks as though the store hadn't expanded by this point. I believe Grand Union's remodels kicked in high-gear around 1988.
1979
1970
1966
1953
Map above shows the Stop&Shop in relation to the Allendale Acme, which will be coming to the blog soon.
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Scheduling Notice...
Leaving word that posts will be few and far between for the next few weeks. I'm on a mind-draining, massive project at work and won't have much free computer time to generate posts. There will be a store post this Friday and one for some point next week. I expect to be cranking out posts on a regular basis again by mid-April.
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Acme's Trying To Get Better...
AGAIN.
On March 12th, a comment came in to the latest discussions post about a memo that was addressed to the employees of each and every store. Changes were underway to improve Acme... yet again. It seems Acme went drastically off course toward the end of 2016, at least that's what this Acme shopper observed. Out of control prices and deteriorating service. In recent weeks, I had left some comments on the blog which mentioned the troubling trends I was seeing. An Acme employee wrote in to share some behind-the-scenes information in to let me know drastic improvements were coming soon. Turns out that Jim Perkins, former chief or operations for the Easter Division, had returned after being transferred to the Texas division. last year The person who had replaced him was from Safeway and decided to run Acme as a Safeway clone which lead to higher prices and declining service. Fortunately, that person no longer is involved with Acme and Mr. Perkins is fast-tracking some huge improvements to get Acme back on track!
PRICES ARE ON THEIR WAY
BACK DOWN!
The "Something More for Less" shelf-tags, that used to number in the hundreds up and down every aisle, are thankfully gone. I tend to think that campaign ran it's course a while ago. The "Xtra" tags are bright, bold and more to the point. Walk up and down any aisle and you see there's no denying that Acme has just slashed prices.
ACME'S FRONT-END DISASTER!
While I do think all of this is a step in the right direction, Acme has one very serious problem on it's hands that does not seem to be getting addressed. It all began with the removal of the self-checkouts. Oh sure, they want the customers to have interactions with the employees. Sounds great on paper but what happens when their aren't nearly enough cashiers on duty to handle the customers? Everybody gets pissed off. Plain and simple. In most North Jersey stores I'm in, I find the FOUR self-checkouts that have been removed have been replaced by only two to three manned registers. A few weeks ago, I visited a bunch of converted stores for the blog on a Saturday afternoon... prime grocery shopping time. Every single store I was in, with the exception of one location, had only THREE registers open and most of those stores had long lines. In Elmwood Park, the lines were so bad at the three open registers, I gave up trying to buy a bottle of water and protein bar and just walked out. A few weeks ago I was in New Providence. TWO registers open with long lines and neither register was express. The Fort Lee store NEVER has an express register open when I'm in there.
Hey, don't take my word for it. Type in any North Jersey or New York Acme into Yelp and read the reviews. You will see endless complaints about the removal of the self-checkouts and the ridiculously long lines at store after store after store. You'll even find people leaving comments on Acme's very own Fresh Press Blog about the long lines and lack of open registers under posts that have nothing to do with service. There seems to be an overall lack of front-end management in these stores. Edgewater is the only Acme I know of that has a front-end manager on duty monitoring the lines. In other stores I'm in regularly, I have watched managers walk along the front-end completely unfazed by the insane lines at the 2 to 3 open registers. Wow, what a change from the days that I worked at Acme. Long lines = getting every employee who had the slightest clue about running a register ON a register. These days customers stand in frustratingly long lines with plenty of time think twice about ever coming back to Acme. My advice to Acme, which they'd never take but here goes... BRING BACK THE SELF CHECKOUTS!!!!
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Acme – Allendale, New Jersey
Location: 45 De Mercurio Dr, Allendale, NJ
The Allendale Acme began it's like as a standart 70's A&P which was converted to the chain's very first ground-breaking Futurestore in the 80's. The interior and exterior were completely overhauled again for the "fresh" remodel in the 2000's. The Allendale A&P must have been very successful over the years to have been completely transformed three times over, although the Futurestore incarnation lasted far beyond it's prime. From what I observed and read online, Acme isn't having quite the same success. While the parking lot looks crowed, there were very few people in the Acme on what should have been a very busy Saturday afternoon.
Former Centennial A&P located to the right. This shopping center is quite beautiful and you'd never guess it's been here for as many decades as it has. I would imagine the landlord renovated the whole place when the A&P was remodeled. It's a shopping center worthy of being smack-dab in the middle of town.
Futurestore photos courtesy of John's flickr collection
A photo from A&P's 1985 annual report showing the newly remodeled Allendale Futurestore.
The exterior of this store still looks brand-new! How about those parking lot lights? Impressive.
Absolutely beautiful interior! This had been a very well maintained A&P and Acme is doing an outstanding job keeping looking great. That's one thing Acme has been very successful with in these converted stores. They're super clean and well-stocked. Maybe Acme could shift some labor hours from maintenance over to the cashiers. As much as I love a clean store, I don't want to stand in line for 15 minutes for a few items.
THE FUTURESTORE DAYS >>>
Hard to believe this is the same store! Non too happy with myself that I had never once been in one of these Futurestores. We didn't have any in the area of New Jersey where I grew up and I think they were getting fazed out elsewhere by the time I got my license and stared driving everywhere to check out grocery stores.
Great looking Starbucks. Looks like a more recent model. Does anyone know if it's been remodeled lately?
This totally threw me... Floral being in the spot that's used for the café. A little weird seeing flowers right next to the pizza oven.
As you know, I usually try to take people-free photos. That wasn't a problem in this store. Here IU was actually tring to get a couple WITH people so the place didn't look so sad.
Former liquor and wine now home to a sprawling health food department...
This place literally has a full-sized health food store in the back corner. Still, doesn't seem to interest the residents of Allendale all that much.
Not a soul. I had just come from the Waldwick Stop and Shop which, I swear, had more shoppers in it than the Acme and their shelves were only half-stocked!
Crickets in Seafood at a quarter after noon on a Saturday.
I believe the Bakery may have originally been in the back corner but is now 3/4 of the way down the back wall due to an expansion out of the far side of the store.
This store is stocked with fresh-foods like it does high-volume sales. Maybe the lack of customer was just a fluke during my visit.
If A&P got one thing right it was the second round of the "fresh" remodels. The décor, floors, colors and styling were about as good as you can get in a traditional supermarket.
Acme is installing ceiling fans in the frozen food aisles in many of the converted stores.
What is up with this place? A gorgouse store like this should be drawing much bigger crowds! I'm not really familiar with the area so I don't know what competition is nearby. I did see mentioned somewhere that a ShopRite is about 5 minutes away.
No Quality Built checkout lights to replace A&P's re-numbered lights.
Couldn't even spring for an Acme sign to hang here.
AERIAL VIEWS
The parking lot certainly doesn't help things here. It was a good 3/4 full when I was here and still no one in the Acme. There is a large section on the other side of the entrance driveway, off the right side of this photo.
HISTORIC AERIALS
2006
The more recent historic aerials are terrible making it difficult to pin down the year of the "fresh" remodel.
2002
1987
1979
Now this is a great shot! We can clearly see the 70's awning with the A&P sign front and center!
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Article 0
Discussions:
Have an off-topic comment or question?
Post it here for all to see.
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Acme – Ocean City, Maryland
Location: 9507 Coastal Hwy, Ocean City, MD 21842
Photos and information on the Ocean City Maryland store sent in by Marv...
This store is attached to what was once known as Ocean Plaza Mall in Ocean City MD on 94th street. The mall is closed to the public and is currently vacant. Acme and Roses are the lone tenants in this shopping center along with a BB&T bank and a local seafood/sushi restaurant.
Superfresh had an iron clad lease on this property. No renovations of the mall or any of the plaza were permitted as long as Superfresh was in this plaza. Since Acme assumed this location options have opened up for redevelopment. The bank which was Susquehanna at the time could not build an normal A frame roof when the replacement bank was built back in 2010. Superfresh's rights to the plaza dictated that a flat roof building had to be built.
Acme is supposedly going to construct a new store on this dormant plaza in the future. It is unknown where or when this may occur. The interior of the mall is in good shape still and could easily be renovated for a new store. I peeked through the once former mall entrance inside Roses today. Rumors are floating around that if the Mall isn't converted to a new store a replacement will be built in the front of this one and the old store will be demolished and condos will be constructed here.
Roses is beginning to renovate the exterior of their store so some activity may be happening soon.
Acme however has spent little money on this location. They have done some minor painting and installed the quality built check out lights. Superfresh's graphics and aisle markers are still in use. A few new Express registers were installed where self checkout once was. The store while clean is showing its age really bad. A replacement is desperately needed.
The Superfresh was my go-to grocery store when I would vacation in Ocean City. I can still vividly remember a trip I took to the store after a late night at Seacrets. I was picking up some junk food and waiting in line at the checkout. Started feeling really sick and was praying I would make it out of the store before anything happened. I was in a full sweat heading for the exit. Luckily I made just far enough out into the parking lot to toss my breakfast with a bit of privacy. Ahhh... the good ol' days. Pretty sure that was the last time I was at the Ocean City Superfresh.
Image above is from Google street view. I was hoping to catch the store as a SuperFresh but Google has been back through the area since the conversion. Superfresh is still intact in the aerial photos below.
AERIAL VIEWS
Thanks to Marv for bringing us the Ocean City Acme!
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Article 3
News Break:
IT'S OFFICIAL:
PENN'S FRESH GROCER OUT,
ACME MOVING IN!
Acme is planning extensive renovations on the space but is not offering a time line as to when they will take over the space. Fresh Grocer is continuing to take legal measures to fight it's eviction even though they had failed to renew their lease on time. The news of Acme's victory broke on numerous sites on Monday and Acme Style's inbox blew up shortly there after. I'm including a link to an artile on bizjournals which has some additional details not found in the others. You can check it out by clicking here.
IT'S OFFICIAL:
PENN'S FRESH GROCER OUT,
ACME MOVING IN!
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Acme's New Bags!
The new white bags debuted a couple of weeks ago, replacing the standard tan colored bags with the "Something More for Less" message. "Your Favorite Local Supermarket" has been kicking around for a while now but has been mixed in with a variety of other messaging. Nice to finally see it on the bags! The receipts, however, still have "You're in for something fresh." which dates back to the SuperValu days. Get rid of it already!!!
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Reset Underway at Saddle Brook!
Location: 75 Mayhill St, Saddle Brook, NJ
Some photos have been sent in of the reset of the Saddle Brook store. Still strikes me as very odd that Acme is not reseting stores in conjunction with the décor swap.
Interesting they mention "More new for you items". Many reviews on yelp complain about selection in this store. And many reviews complain about the lack of open registers and long lines. Here's a good one... they have a billion registers and no one to work them.
When this photo was take about 2 weeks ago, the greeting cards were temporarily in Produce. Acme has been moving them from the Health and Beauty aid areas over to the grocery aisles to line up with seasonal merchandise. I'm guessing this store will also be getting the double-wide water and chips aisle.
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Acme – Elmwood Park, New Jersey
Location: 58 Broadway, Elmwood Park, NJ
Big surprise once I sat down to start putting this post together... the Elmwood Park Pathmark was built in 2002! I never would have guessed that when touring the store. Felt far more dated but Pathmark never really shook things up with their new store construction. The interior has what I call the "Path to Savings" décor which may have been what the store was built with. If not, it would have had to have been remodeled not long after it opened. This décor package was rolled out to most stores during the "It's about time" campaign which launched in 2004. Not sure when it officially debuted. Fortunately this store was sparred of the obnoxious "SAVE" messaging which A&P unleashed on Pathmark after they bought the chain.
No exterior painting was done leaving the Pathmark and SuperCenter scars still visible. This store does not have a pharmacy which is odd.
The service departments feel a little crammed in around Produce which is another reason why I thought this was an old store. The layout here feels like a step backwards from the stores Pathmark was opening in the mid to late 90's.
The store was fairly busy on this Saturday afternoon although you won't be seeing many people in these pictures. I'm surprised it wasn't busier as there doesn't seem to be much competition nearby and the area is densely populated.
Seafood department in the back is no bigger than a closet.
Clean and bright so why does if feel so old?
The service counter in the Meat Department looks like a holdover from the 70's. Hard to believe this was Pathmark's design for a store built in the 2000's.
Not sure if this store has had an official reset. I should have investigated more carefully but I'm pretty sure this double-wide aisle is leftover from Pathmark.
Looks like Frozen Food got all new cases in recent years.
This store lacks the "Path to (fill in the blank)" messaging on the walls. I unfortunately don't have a picture of that on the blog. The line of "Path to..." phrases were covered over with "SAVE" panels when A&P took over. You can get a glimpse of those in the former Randolph store by clicking here.
Heading for Acme's good 'ol front-end DISASTER! The standard 3 registers open on a Satruday afternoon.
ELMWOOD PARK'S
FRONT-END DISASTER
The photo above was the line situation when I first arrived. It was even worse when I left. You can see long lines at the 2 open registers in the distance. Things were was so bad at the one express register when I was ready to check out, I put my purchases down and walked out. I did glance over to Customer Service to see if someone could ring up my two items but no one was there.Enough of my critique of the front-end, time now to hear from some other customers who have shopped here. Below are comments from reviews of the Elmwood Park Acme on both Google and Yelp...
Zahair – OK but lines are always long
Gabriela – The lines are always long since they don't usually have more than 4 cashiers open. They also removed the self checkout that Pathmark had which slowed things down even more.
Diane – When your just running in for 1 or 2 things it could take a half hour to get through the checkout.
Lisa – Good prices. Need more registers open. Clean.
Andre – Bit pricey and not that many registers open.
George – Not usually crowded. But usually not enough registers open to accommodate the customers that are there.
Janet – Oh wait another 20 minutes at the registers, at least Pathmark had self service check out. This place is never crowded but always very SLOW!!!
Dave – Pretty good sales. But long lines. That's because they only keep 2 registers open at all times.
Cara – If you are purchasing one item, plan on spending a half hour minimum to check out.
Jessica – They don't have enough checkout lines open whenever I come here. They should fix that.
Diane – ...and the checkout lines are so long.
And check out this doozy...
Mike – Went here twice. Both times the front end was such a disaster that verbal arguments resulted.
As I've said before, you can yelp and google any converted North Jersey store and hear the exact same complaints. Is Acme paying attention to all these dissatisfied shoppers? Doesn't seem like it. I was in my local Acme this past Saturday. ONE express register open out of the six available stations. Huge line. Only two other registers open, both with lines. I keep telling this same story over and over but it's the same situation at Acme after Acme. I'm with Jessica when she says "They should fix that"!!!
AERAIL VIEWS
Unusual Kmart at the bottom of the photo...
The Kmart is a former Grandway.
For more history on this store, click on the photo to jump over to flickr.
HISTORIC IMAGES
2006
2002
Never would have guessed this place was constructed in 2002.
1995
Have to say, like so many other North Jersey stores I've been in, the Elmwood Park Acme is not living up to it's full potential.
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