I visited the ACME in Fort Lee back in May 2016 before the Quality Built remodel. It's a store that Acme Style has
extensively covered, so I'm going to keep my own coverage fairly brief. It's a store that clearly was beautiful, but is definitely showing its age in many places. I don't know how it's doing now, since I haven't been back since Quality Built came in.
The store is in a somewhat awkward arrangement, so the building had to be customized to face in two different directions.
Check that out, a miniature version of the facade on the monument sign! It looks great, although because the ACME is pretty much the only thing in this complex (well, except for Valley National Bank), the lower signs are all advertising services in the supermarket. The top right one would have advertised A&P's liquor department.
Hmm... paint needs a little help here.
As Acme Style notes, there's a very substantial floral department here.
Prepared foods and deli run along the right side wall of the store, with bakery in the back corner and seafood and meat on the back wall. Dairy/frozen are at the far end of the store, with dairy on the far side wall.
These fixtures are all Fresh 2.0-era. ACME definitely replaced the salad bar, but the rest are in good enough shape that I believe they kept them.
Looking towards the front end from the prepared foods department.
Deli didn't have a sign other than the
ridiculous extravagant impressive Boar's Head promotion, visible here.
Cheese island in the back.
As Acme Style points out, the bakery seems to have lost its signage at some point. ACME seemed to be supplementing this with hanging promotional signage.
The back wall of the store looks pretty much exactly as it would have as an A&P. Except, of course, for the hanging promotional signage.
ACME streamlined the produce department and removed liquor, which was in the first aisle.
It's a pretty nice produce department, although the Quality Built remodel did remove all of the signage.
That about wraps up my coverage of the store, which I know is pretty lopsided. But tomorrow we have a new store tour of a different ACME! This one is located at 2160 Lemoine Ave, Fort Lee, NJ.
Photographed May 2016
Thanks for the shout-out!
ReplyDeleteCouple of updates to Fort Lee... self-checkouts are back! Big improvement to the poorly arranged and rarely staffed express resisters. Produce has been rearranged back to the way A&P had it creating a lot of clutter and poor flow. Suppose it makes the displays more eye catching from the entrance. The cheese department has been stripped of its rear display case. This is being done in most former A&Ps, leaving the departments appear somewhat abandoned. The store overall is not being maintained as well as it was. This is an issue in all of ACME's Hudson County locations. It appears they're ready to give up and leave this area. Weehawken is closing after 4 years of absolutely dreadful service and price gouging that locals became completely fed up with. It has become the single most hated store in town. People have switched to the new Whole Foods to SAVE money!!! (Crazy but true)
Hi Acme Style, nice to hear from you!
DeleteIt's a shame that they aren't keeping the store up to standard. It's a great location but you have to put the money into the facility (and then follow it up with good quality products and prices that aren't outrageous).
I was in Boston this past summer and was struck by how much better, across the board, the Star Markets are than the ACMEs in the NJ area. I guess the competition is weaker in Boston (pretty much only Stop & Shop, and you don't have the smaller chains/coops like Key Food or Foodtown), but the stores are clearly better run up there.
Thanks for the update!