ACME Markets
Opened: 2015
As we can see, the store has been greatly streamlined with new fixtures in most places. By the way, the store was unusually empty the day I took these photos -- it's usually much more crowded. And because my big ol' thumb slipped on my fancy new phone, we have this accidental photo done in Portrait Mode which actually creates a cool effect...
A much better (and more attractive) use of the space. Meat and seafood have been consolidated down into one counter for both, in new fixtures where the seafood counter used to be. The butcher counter has been replaced with upright refrigerator cases.
Temporary Balducci's cases, even with the Balducci's decals still on them. They were quickly replaced with these brand-new cases...
In the first aisle, and the second freezer aisle...
Looking great with new cases and fixtures.
And while we're back in this corner of the store, an obligatory aisle 12 shot for the Flickr folks...
Here we can see the newly relocated Starbucks with customer service at the far end...
Opened: 2015
Previous Tenants: A&P
Location: 801 Kenilworth Blvd, Kenilworth, NJ
Photographed: May 2016, May 2020, June 2020, November 2020, and February 2021
Today we're touring the ACME in Kenilworth, which was my local store for about 6 years back when it was an A&P until about 2006. Then, beginning in March 2020, this became my weekly shopping store again. So I know this one pretty well! The store opened as an A&P in the 90s, probably as a Sav-A-Center, being remodeled to Fresh 2.0 in the mid-2000s (see here). It was supposed to be a replacement for the nearby Union store, an expanded Centennial, which lasted until the early 2000s due to its proximity to public senior housing. ACME took over in November 2015, with the Quality Built renovation bringing new decor and some new fixtures in spring 2016. I took the following pictures to send in to Acme Style for coverage of the store.
The 66,000 square foot store has two entrances, one here (pharmacy/dairy), and the other one to produce. The front wall has pharmacy in the front left corner, customer service and a Starbucks in the middle, and a UPS Store in the front right corner. Deli/prepared foods, seafood, meat, bakery, and milk take up the back wall in that order from right to left, with dairy in the last aisle. Frozen foods are in the middle of the store.
Exterior photo from November 2020. In the 2020 remodel/reset, dairy was extended from one and a half sides of the last aisle to both sides of the last aisle. This remodel also brought new fixtures to produce, deli, bakery, and dairy. We'll take a closer look at that in a little bit.
This was my first time in an ACME for years, and my first time seeing this new logo. It looks amazing!
Produce begins on the front wall, with the new UPS Store behind this.
Great signage all around. Some of these signs were removed in the 2020 remodel as the organic section was expanded and relocated.
Multi-tiered cases here in the middle were installed new in the 2016 remodel, then some were replaced in the 2020 remodel. Others were moved around. From the following 2020 pictures we can see the changes.
Here we see a selection of the new cases, not yet fully stocked. I sure hope they replace this green flooring soon, it does not look good. Sadly, I'm pretty sure that won't be done since the remodel was looking pretty complete in February 2021 with the green floor still in place...
Now let's get back to my older pictures...
A&P's space-wasting cheese counter, which was never fully utilized (it's not a store where people are looking to buy custom cut gourmet cheeses), was removed in the 2020 remodel. It was replaced with multiple smaller cases.
Notice the ACME hanging sign (which is also now gone) and the A&P border on the case. Also notice how much space this whole thing takes up for a very small selection of cheese.
Deli and prepared foods at the back of the produce aisle. Before, and after...
All the fixtures in this front area are new, replacing the single cheese island. The prepared foods departments, which A&P gave up on many years ago, have also been replaced with self-service cases...
Before, and after...
Seafood and meat take up the center of the back wall.
Frozen foods, in a holdover from A&P, run right down the middle of the store. I don't have a "before" picture of frozen, but in February 2021 the freezer cases were all replaced. ACME had just purchased fixtures out of several closed Kings and Balducci's locations, briefly sending a few freezer cases from the Reston, VA Balducci's up to this store before installing all-new cases the following week.
Now on to the back wall of the store...
Bakery takes up the back corner of the store. Almost all of the fixtures we see here were replaced in the 2020 remodel. You can also see how large the store feels here. Before...
And after...
Dairy takes up the last aisle. The section was reset in the remodel, by shortening the last few aisles and adding some more display islands. The dairy department was also expanded to fill both sides of the last aisle, in the section previously occupied by packaged bread. Before...
The ongoing reset over the spring of 2020 was fairly maddening when attempting to shop weekly at the store, but the layout makes a lot more sense now. It was stuck with the A&P layout previously. Except bread is now in aisle 5. What?! And after...
Back to 2016...
Pharmacy in the front left corner.
Aisle markers not featuring the new updated logo, unfortunately.
A look across the front end. The first few registers have been replaced with self checkouts.
Floral and Starbucks near the right-side entrance. I do wish the whole wall had been painted white here, the beige at the top looks dingy. It looks better here...
This section has been under construction for a while now, with the Starbucks and customer service counters switching places (and an expanded seating area next to the Starbucks). Great sign featuring the new logo! Here are some post-remodel pictures of the front-end...
Now we'll be revisiting the old A&P just over into Union, but we have a few stores in the central part of Union County to hit first. Come back tomorrow to tour another former A&P acquisition that has since closed!
Nice post! Always fun to see another ACME. It sounds like lots of little improvements were made in the 2020 refresh, so that's good. The only thing that strikes me as a little weird is consolidating the meat and seafood service departments under the seafood sign -- normally I see that done under the meat sign instead, with frozen seafood cases installed under the seafood sign. Plus, that makes it clear that service meat (which I imagine is the more utilized service anyway, given how often we see closed/removed seafood counters) is still available. But I also understand they probably made that decision based on the space they have, and that changing the décor for such a relatively minor change is a big ask!
ReplyDeleteI agree about the fisheye-reminiscent logo being awesome, although it seems it has never been used anywhere except for the walls in this décor package -- not even on the aisle markers! I saw photos on flickr of a Jewel-Osco store with what must be their variation of Quality Built, and it turns out their logo has received a similar in-store-only treatment... I'm curious to see if these logos will survive once new décor packages debut in the future (which, by the way, not that I'm wishing an end to Quality Built at all -- but hasn't it had a really long lifespan for a corporate décor package?) Also, lol at the Aisle 12 shot!
"The only thing that strikes me as a little weird is consolidating the meat and seafood service departments under the seafood sign".... same thing was done at the Edgewater store! Even stranger there since the seafood department is in a completely different location than the meat department.
DeleteI will say this... Acme is seriously about seafood. Both the Hoboken and West New York stores have received brand-new seafood cases with virtually no other upgrades. The manager at the Edgewater store told me their new crab leg case cost $40,000! Found that out when I was chatting with her about the recent "remodel". I was trying to get some answers as to why the remodel was so half-assed, particularly with the floor. They patched areas where they removed an aisle and shortened others with dark gray tile while the rest of the store has white tile. She told me it would have cost $400,000 to do the whole store. Then she said "yeah it looks like Tetris". Baffles me every time I’m in the store as to why they didn’t use white tile for the patching when the rest of the store is white!
Lots of good stuff here!
DeleteRetail Retell - yes, and there have been a few adjustments since but mostly small things like product mix, not decor and fixtures. Yes, agreed about the seafood but ACME seems to be consistently putting meat and seafood both under the seafood department sign. Also, Acme Style might know this more than me, but anecdotal evidence from my ACME and others suggests that the seafood counter is more heavily used than the meat counter. Obviously, that's not to say that the store sells more seafood than meat -- just that people tend to buy the packaged meat but use the service counter for seafood. And yes, I think sadly these cool retro logos are only to tie into the decor package.
Acme Style - Yeah, I'm impressed! The seafood at ACME has gotten way better lately. I still don't buy my seafood there (Food Bazaar all the way) but it's way better than it used to be. Both in terms of quality and selection. I've seen catfish, monkfish, red snapper... a lot more than I've seen previously. But as serious as ACME seems to be about seafood (and produce, wow, once again I buy all my produce at Food Bazaar but for once ACME gives them a decent run for their money), they are not focused on flooring. Kenilworth has needed new flooring since they took over, and they did resurface it once way back but it's still in need of replacement.