TOUR: ACME Markets - Milltown, NJ

ACME Markets

Opened: early 2000s

Previous Tenants: none

Location: 10 Ryders Ln, Milltown, NJ

Photographed: February 2021

It's time for The Market Report to visit Milltown! This ACME has long been speculated to close, but finally (and coincidentally, this was announced on the day I wrote this post back in April) has been announced to close no later than April 2022. Acme Style, even back in 2013, started to document the store's decline which has clearly continued up to my visit. Despite that, the store is still looking very good even with its age. The pharmacy closed in 2010 and introduced that dark brown patch on the facade where the Sav-On logo was. The patch also appears on the street signs, and my assumption is that the lack of investment reflects a general understanding that the store wasn't long for this world.

Let's head in. We find all of the special services that Acme Style discusses long gone, with some of the basics winding down too...

The store was reset not long ago (having also been reset in 2015) with a clear reduction in services and selection. We see the grand aisle here, with deli and former kosher deli on the left side, and bakery at the back of the grand aisle. Meat and seafood line the back wall, with dairy and frozen on the right side of the store. The former pharmacy and floral in the front right corner, with customer service on the front wall.

The deli, seen here, was still fully functional and in fact very nice. The kosher deli just behind it has closed, and the signage had been removed.

Meanwhile, at the back of the grand aisle, the bakery is looking beautiful but the produce prep counter also is no longer functional...

A beautifully designed but greatly reduced meat and seafood counter is up next along the back wall.

Packaged meats and cold cuts are up next along the back wall, although we can see that the selection there had been cut back with a lot of iced tea and other beverages.

The grocery aisles are looking as good as day 1, though. That's usually the last to go.

Good Housekeeping HomeCare is one of the few departments that remains branded as it was originally!

It's quite a loss though to lose the giant barn... I must say, the design of this corner and the dairy/frozen end of the store is incredible. Over-the-top, awesome, and unbelievably corny.

Frozen takes up an aisle and a half, with dairy lining the last aisle.

I love this ceiling element, and I'm impressed with how nicely it's been maintained.

The Better Care Center (minus its pharmacy, visible in the back here) and the florist are at this side, which also has its own entrance and exit. I'm amazed that Albertsons would, as Acme Style mentions, adopt such a convoluted entrance and exit layout as they have here -- making it extremely easy to walk out of the store without passing through a register, and making it hard to access the exits from the registers.

Given the store's location (both in terms of its inaccessibility and proximity to Target, as well as its positioning in northern central NJ) it's surprising to me that it's lasted as long as it has when so many other large northern and central NJ ACMEs.

And a look across the front-end back towards the deli department. Well folks, that's probably the last store tour of this ACME that will ever happen given its impending closure, so I'm glad I was able to capture the store in its last year of business! Before we head into New Brunswick, we have to finish the southern suburbs first, with North Brunswick being the last we still need to see. Head over to The Independent Edition tomorrow to see our first North Brunswick store!