Acme – 19th and Oregon Ave, Philadelphia

Location: 1901 Johnston St, Philadelphia, PA

The first big store post in quite a while has us at this Albertsons built store in South Philly. This location opened in the early 2000's and has been very successful despite being blocks away from an established ShopRite. Acme had a presence in this part of the city until the late 90's. After taking a break for a few years, the chain returned bigger and better than ever.

19th and Oregon is a virtual twin to the store in Clifton, New Jersey. Aside from the styling of the exterior, the building itself and interior layout is nearly identical. I was even getting a little freaked when I was inside. Thought I may have been teleported to Clifton when I walked through the front doors!

One significant difference between the two stores was the location of Customer Service. In Clifton, the service counter is on the opposite side of the front-end near the Pharmacy. As you will see down below, Customer Service is just left of the entrance but that is not the case anymore. These photos were taken back in May before the arrival of the Frosted Mug Café! 19th and Oregon now has a beer department. It was added right where Customer Service once stood, bumping that department over to the Pharmacy side. Work had just begun on the transition when I here but at the time, I had no idea what was going on.

As you may know, these beer cafés are going into several Acmes including Devon, Granite Run, Glen Mills and Bala Cynwyd. Flourtown was the very first Acme to have the beer café. For a look at the newly added department at this Acme, click here.


A quick look at the delivery bays on the right side of the store. Like Clifton, this is the only area of the store for receiving. Notice the scar on the trailer from the red-oval logo. Thanks SuperValu.

"ACME" was moved up to make way for Sav-on. 

Can I get a P? It's there. Didn't realize it wasn't in the shot until I was preparing the photos for posting.


The original location of Customer Service just to the left of the entrance. The Frosted Mug Café is now located here.


The Photo department had been removed from this store and replaced with lottery ticket dispensers. The mural on the wall painted over in brown. You can see what it used to look like the photo below...


This shot is from the failed Alberstons built store in Moorestown, New Jersey.


I've said it before and I'm going to say it again, Acme has a great selection of breads in their bakeries. They've got ShopRite and Pathmark/A&P/SuperFresh all beat by a mile. I'm fascinated that with all of ShopRite's success and market dominance, they can continue to run the absolute worst in-store bakeries. Even when things look good, they don't taste good.


The Deli is in the very front of the store just to the right of the entrance.




A major flaw with this decor package are the leaning department signs. A little too top heavy.


Looking toward the front of the store.


Meat and Seafood all the way in the back.


No Wild Harvest in the first aisle. I believe that trend was started with the SuperValu stores and remodels. I didn't see a dedicated natural foods section in this store.


Aisle 5 and 6 form a double-wide for seasonal.


I was pleasantly surprised how clean and organized it was here for being a city store. Having opened around the same time as Clifton, this store has held up a bit better over the years.








Looking along the back wall down to Produce. The Dairy alcove is to the left...






Sav-on still going strong. It's been shut down and abandoned in Clifton.


A look across the front-end. Not sure if the self-checkouts are still there. The registers have been given the "Quality Built" lights. In the far corner, you can see sections of the wall have been removed. I suspect this was happening to prep the area for the Customer Service department. The work had just begun when I was here. I thought they might have been addressing a water a leak or some other type of malfunction in the wall.