Original Tenant: ACME Markets
Address: 343 Mount Hope Ave, Rockaway, NJ
Opened: 1980
Closed: 2010
Later Tenants: Nordstrom Rack
Photographed: July 2020
It's time for a very quick look at the 41,000 square foot former ACME at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall. This store formed the replacement for both the downtown Dover and downtown Rockaway locations when it opened in 1980 and quickly became one of the highest volume ACMEs in northern New Jersey, being remodeled several times and finally closing in 2010. Nordstrom Rack opened up shop here around 2015, but if you want to check out a lot more information on the store along with pre- and post-closure pictures, see Acme Style's 2010 posts here! We also have a look at the ShopRite just over the border into Wharton at the other side of the Rockaway Townsquare Mall today, and tomorrow, we're taking a look at a former supermarket just north of route 80 here on Grocery Archaeology. Come back to check it out!
This store was only remodeled twice in all its years which always seemed odd to me considering how successful it was. The 80's remodel remained for more than a decade and was really showing its age. Not sure why it didn't the Checkerboard Arch package like Morris Plains and Shrewsbury.
ReplyDeleteAcme Style, your blog entry on "The life and times of the Rockaway Acme" was one of my favorite entries on your website. As you indicated, the once great Rockaway Acme was (very regrettably) in really sad and pathetic shape during the final years of its existence.
DeleteTo correct something that was posted here on Grocery Archaeology, the 343 Mount Hope Avenue location was (surprisingly) not intended to be a replacement for the Dover Acme, as that store actually closed in 1974. (For more information about the history of the Dover Acme, refer to what I wrote in the comments section for that store.) However, the 343 Mount Hope Avenue supermarket was indeed intended to replace the old Rockaway location on 25 West Main Street: the West Main Street store closed on May 31, 1980 and the Mount Hope Avenue location opened the following day. Interestingly (per an article in the May 30, 1980 edition of the Daily Record), many employees of the older Acme thought there was a chance that both stores could coexist.
--A&P Fan
Oh, very interesting -- thanks to A&P Fan for the correction and to both of you, as always, for your extensive history!
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