TOUR: ACME Markets - Blairstown, NJ

ACME Markets

Opened: 2015

Previous Tenants: A&P (1990s-2015)

Location: 152 NJ-94, Blairstown, NJ

Photographed: January 2021 & June 2021

Our first stop in the Hunterdon-Warren area is in northwestern Warren county in an area that feels an awful lot like Sussex County, where we just left. Blairstown is roughly 13 miles to the northwest of Hackettstown, where we'll be headed in a few days. This store is just outside what might be considered downtown Blairstown (not a large town but not a crazy small one either with roughly 6000 people), and route 94 here is fairly remote for a large supermarket like ACME. It's about five miles north from route 80, the major interstate through the area. This store was built as an A&P in the 1990s to replace an older 1960s-era location just east on 94, which you can see here. This small town also has another grocery store, Dale's Market, whose Branchville location we saw not long ago.

I first visited the store in January of 2021. This is notably the only acquired A&P store that ACME remodeled to Premium Fresh & Healthy 3.0 (shown here) in 2016 instead of Quality Built. However, this store did receive only the signage from PF&H 3.0; the wall paint colors and black and white landmark signage is Quality Built style.

Notice that we see the store in the early stages of a remodel here, with the floor exposed temporarily here in the produce department. As we'll see, the store was renovated five years after its first remodel, and this time to Quality Built in full.

Not sure the PF&H 3.0 signage so much works in front of the QB colors, at least not as well as it does with the original colors. I really couldn't stand this decor package until I saw it in person, and it's actually way better in person than it looks in pictures -- at least I think so.

Notice the upgraded lighting and cases here.

We have pharmacy near the entrance on the front-end, and customer service is at the front left corner. Bakery is in the back left corner, with deli and seafood in the back right.

Looks like this may previously have been another counter or department here, but it's hard to tell.

Heading back to the back wall, we see Premium Built 3.0 is looking pretty good here, although I do like it better with the colorful food pictures.

Heading into the freezer aisles, we see the middle cases (left) have been replaced because they used to be coffin cases. Apparently this was done in the first few months that ACME took over here.

We can see the store received quite a bit of upgrades before the QB decor actually went up, such as the bread cases and bakery tables here. I am not really a fan of Premium Built 3.0 because there's simply not enough on the walls, making for a boring and rather cheap-looking in-store experience. Quality Built, unfortunately, is frequently no better.

Notice that not all the local pictures are black and white here!

Dairy continues onto the front wall, with customer service up next on the front-end.

Now we return for post-remodel photos from June 2021...

New produce cases and flooring in the first aisle, although we see the lighting is hung a bit low here. Pretty sure I've complained about that in another ACME, but I can't remember which.

ACME hasn't done much of anything with that empty corner I pointed out before, which is now under the "This is Your ACME" sign. But check out that "Prescriptions" sign! This store had the Foodmarket decor prior to PF&H 3.0, so this would've been overlooked during that remodel and then again during the latest QB remodel of mid-2021.

Low-hanging lighting strikes again. The corner deli is at least in a corner here!

Seafood and meat looking good, too. It looks like the photos were replaced, but the walls were not repainted. There really wasn't a need for it since the store was so recently redone anyway.

Looking across the back wall. At 45,000 square feet, the store is significant but not enormous, and we can get an idea of the store's size here.

Looking in the other direction on the back wall.

HABA in the first few aisles, which extend out from the pharmacy department on the front wall.

The older frozen cases still haven't been replaced, although I guess there's not really a reason to if they're still in good working condition.

Bakery department upgrades finished, although as we saw they were mostly done before too.

This signage has a bit more personality than the older PF&H 3.0 decor, but the walls are still so empty. I suppose that cuts costs for remodel budgets, which is necessary when you're redoing so many stores at once.

And one final look across the front-end, where we can see not all that much has changed. That's all for the Blairstown ACME, but don't forget to see the former A&P and Dale's Market in town before we move on to a little general store just to the east tomorrow on The Independent Edition!