TOUR: ACME Markets - Haddonfield, NJ

ACME Markets
Opened: 1955

Previous Tenants: none

Location: 40 Ellis St, Haddonfield, NJ

Photographed: January 2021

Arguably the frontrunner in the contest for the world's most classic ACME is the Haddonfield location, opened 1955 and not significantly expanded since. At 25,000 square feet, it's also one of the smallest ACMEs. Acme Style visited the store back in 2010, and the truth is the space really hasn't changed much since then -- for better or for worse, as we'll see. The exterior is wonderful and completely unique, having been constructed around an existing Friends Meetinghouse, for Quaker gatherings. The building dates back to 1851, but ACME opened up shop here in 1955.

And as Acme Style explains, the signs around the property are sadly not original but instead were installed as recreations in the 1990s.

That aside, the signage is quite attractive and matches the quaint setting in downtown Haddonfield. The store is oriented as narrow and deep, so the registers line the street side. Produce lines the left side wall (the wall facing the parking lot, shown in the photo below), and bakery/deli are in an island facing. Seafood and meat are on the back wall with frozen/dairy on the right side of the store. There's no pharmacy, but there is a designated HABA department in the front right corner.

I got lucky with a beautiful day to photograph this store, too.

And as we see, the entrance/exit are in the front of the store between the parking lot and sidewalk. It seems that's where they've always been.

As Acme Style explains, there's not much to see inside in the way of unique architectural features. The store is still (as far as I know) sporting the Chalkboard Market decor. Not only does it look pretty outdated at this point, the store's maintenance has not been that great and so the age of the store comes across much more strongly than in, say, Maple Shade Main St.

Bakery at the front of the deli-bakery island. The grocery aisles are behind this area.

All the chalkboards have been removed here, but the black and white pictures remain which looks nice. As we can see, though, there have been no upgrades of any kind here. Not even new fixtures or lighting, which we see a lot in other ACMEs.

The two possible exceptions to that is these seafood cases, since they look newer than the rest of the store, and one or two produce cases which we can see just the edge of below to the left.

Looking back towards the produce department. The store isn't in bad shape inside, as we see the shelves are plenty stocked and so on, but there hasn't been any serious work put into this store for some time.

Lancaster Meats going strong on the back wall.

Here we see the first aisle on the back of the deli-bakery island, and we can get a sense of how narrow the aisles were. I wasn't prepared for that and was very surprised when I saw the store in person for the first time. We can also see that maintenance here is not nearly as good as at other ACME locations, with the very obvious lightbulbs burnt out all around the store.

The shelving here is also pretty high to account for the smaller size, which makes for a slightly claustrophoic experience.

The floor is in good condition, though.

I'm surprised there haven't been any changes here at all -- not even Quality Built aisle markers (or even PF&H from a closed or remodeled store).

Frozen looking a little cluttered, too. I don't know how old these freezers are, but they don't look that old.

And in dairy we have some older but painted cases -- and some chalkboards! Not too easy to read, though, after this time.

"Baby Care" in the front corner now HABA of all kinds. Was this department ever truly all baby items?

Here we're taking a look back towards the entrance area. We can see the deli-bakery area with a blank department sign on it.

And for a look at the very un-upgraded front-end. No changes here, not even QB lane markers. But that's not to say the store is in very bad shape, it's just not as well-maintained as many of the other ACMEs around here. Tomorrow, we're moving to the northeast for two stores in Cherry Hill right here on The Market Report!