Acme – Dover, Delaware

Another long-awaited Acme makes it to the blog! I hate to admit it but Gary sent in these pictures two years ago and I have been meaning to get them up ever since. There is a huge back log of photos in the Acme Style inbox and I do tend to loose track. Sometimes I postpone posting pictures if I'm not in the right mind-set to post a particular store. Sounds crazy but I've gotta be feeling a store to get it up on the blog! 

I believe there are only three other Acmes to have this exact exterior treatment... Hockessin, Ogletown and the long-gone Acme in Turnersville, New Jersey. Stores like Downingtown are nearly identical to these just without the greenhouse-style vestibule.

The very first time I saw this store was back in the early 90's. Wound up passing it on my way to Ocean City, Maryland for vacation. Nearly drove off the road! I had never seen an Acme like it before. At the time, the red oval logo was on the front of the store and the greenhouse-style vestibule was all clear glass and wide open on the inside. It has since been covered over with apples, drop ceiling added inside and walls added to create an interior alcove. Not nearly as much fun as it used to be! The interior of the store had the 80's Remodel, although it hadn't been remodeled. It was built with the décor. (If memory serves me right, this was a replacement store for a 33M model just up the road. That store was abandoned with the 80's Remodel clearly seen through the front windows. The building appears to be gone now.) Upon entering this store, I couldn't believe how bit and beautiful it was! I think I walked around the whole place with my jaw on the floor. Acme had built other stores in the late 80's about this size with the same layout but I had never been in one. A HUGE difference from the 8 to 10 aisle stores I had been familiar with up until that point. 

So let's head inside to see how the store looks today! Assuming it hasn't had any major changes in the late two years.

Here's a shot of the right side of the vestibule. (We started to head into the left side). You can see the wall and drop ceiling that have been added since the store was built. Just a plain old vestibule now. 

This store had the deluxe Premium Fresh and Healthy version 2 remodel in recent years. We're going to get an exclusive look at the previous décor package in this post was well. 

All new flooring throughout. While the layout is virtually identical to the stores built during the 90's, these late 80's/very early 90's stores didn't have the windows and arched ceilings in Produce. 

The fresh cut fruit section was moved to the side wall. You can see the signage under "fruits & vegetables". The former Fruit Bar is now the Salad Bar, as you will see after the "before" photo.