ACME Markets
Opened: 2015
Welcome to what I think is our first ACME in a while! We were last here in 2020 to see the store with its full A&P decor and although it was renovated back in 2021, I didn't get here until just recently. The store is 38,000 square feet, and still feels a little on the small side even though ACME has streamlined the grand aisle a bit, I think with fewer fixtures.
And the store has full Quality Built inside! I'm not clear which (or how many) decor packages ACME is using right now, although it looks like the newest ACME, down in East Norriton, PA, is about to get Quality Built. Meanwhile, though, the Haddonfield location (which we saw here) is getting the same decor as the Walnut Street location.
The fixtures in the produce department were mostly replaced, but the lighting remains. The flooring is definitely good, but I think (this is not an uncommon opinion) the decor was a step down from the A&P decor. It looks lower-end and mediocre, although it's definitely newer and sleeker.
The Starbucks remains, but the floral department has been moved into where the prepared foods used to be. The prepared foods counters, which were never really stocked anyway, have all been removed and replaced with upright refrigerators.
Here's an example where the renovation is almost embarrassingly bad. Who designed or approved this awful deli signage? How was this not thought out better?
ACME has reopened A&P's liquor store after, many years later, getting A&P's liquor license back. This area had previously been a natural foods department and I guess those items had been moved into the grocery aisles.
The liquor store is easily the nicest part of the store, which also has its own register here.
This area, with lit shelving and all-new fixtures, looks great.
Around the corner from that, though, is this confusing Seafood & Meat signage. They couldn't have come up with something better than this? Also notice the multiple generations of lighting here.
Meats continue on the back wall, with some additional frozen meat on the back of the deli island opposite...
Bakery and dairy on the rest of the back wall. ACME has replaced the flooring on the perimeter, but not in the grocery aisles. They also haven't replaced any of the shelving or other fixtures, which also are showing their age.
As we can see, the assorted lighting and ceiling colors and patterns does not help the store look fresh and modern.
The grocery aisles were clean, but not particularly well-stocked.
The store is definitely brighter than when it was an A&P, but for once it's definitely not an improvement in my opinion. Here's a look at what the A&P looked like.
Looks like the older dairy cases have had new doors put on them.
Here's a look down the dairy aisle at the end. I like the signage but I don't think the yellow color is particularly good.
I do like this pharmacy signage and color scheme, though.
And a look at the front-end. Well, again I'm not sure I'd say this is an improvement, but it's definitely a more modern look. There are some parts where it's definitely not an improvement.
Opened: 2015
Previous Tenants: A&P (1970s-2015)
Location: 45 De Mercurio Dr, Allendale, NJ
Photographed: November 12, 2023
Tomorrow we're going to check out another store not far from here that's gotten some renovation on The Independent Edition!
Thank you for linking my East Norriton post! I do believe that store will be getting Quality Built, and Avalon is currently in the process of renovating to the same decor as Haddonfield. I believe those are the only current remodels. The former Jersey City Pathmark was apparently remodeled last month, but I don't know which decor that store got. I'm assuming Quality Built.
ReplyDeleteAnd wow, the Quality Built decor is not looking good here. The deli signage, as you say, is especially bad. I also wonder why they chose that meat and seafood signage. And the produce signage looks more similar to the earliest Quality Built stores (like Cape May Court House).
I wonder why ACME still even uses this decor ten years later. I'm surprised they haven't fully replaced it (at least in new remodels) with the new decor in Philly/Haddonfield, some version of Albertsons' Heritage decor, or even one of the Safeway decors!
Wow -- Avalon looks fantastic! At least from pictures on Google Maps. It's beyond time for Quality Built to move along, and I think the newer decor package looks pretty well-executed in Haddonfield and Avalon. It felt nice but pretty boring in Walnut Street, so it's nice to see they've jazzed it up a little.
DeleteYes, the 440 store in Jersey City got Quality Built -- they posted some pictures on their Facebook story the day of the grand reopening. I have thought about going out there but it's just not exciting enough for me to justify the trip to somewhere I rarely go otherwise. And agreed, I've seen the Florida and Colorful Lifestyle decors in person (at least that's what they call 'em on Retail Watchers) and they look much better than Quality Built.
I grew up in Upper Saddle River, and this was one of our nearby stores, along with the larger A&P flagship (later ACME, now Whole Foods) on Chestnut Ridge Rd in Woodcliff Lake. When I first came here in the mid-1990s it still had its original FutureStore decor, which management had already begun to design around rather than accentuate; it would seem that the closure of the larger Wyckoff FutureStore in 1994 was a signal that A&P was doing away with that format entirely. By 2001-2002 or so any traces of FutureStore decor were gone.
ReplyDeleteI'm in agreement with you that this store has been in slow decline for awhile, starting in the immediate post-FutureStore era when A&P was focused on opening large new Foodmarket stores in Mahwah, Woodcliff Lake, and Midland Park. Allendale and its surrounding towns are upscale commuter suburbs where residents are quite likely to drive several miles to flagship or specialty stores for a weekly shop. In the last two decades the area has gained a fair number of those: Wegmans in Woodcliff Lake; H Mart in Paramus; Whole Foods in Ridgewood, Paramus, and Woodcliff Lake; Uncle Giuseppe's replacing the aging Pathmark in Ramsey (not to mention two Fairway stores that have come and gone, in Paramus and Nanuet). It tracks that the local area would outgrow its midmarket store in that sort of retail environment; the Stop & Shop (ex-Grand Union) at Route 17 and Linwood Ave suffered the same fate. It also tracks that the liquor store is the nicest part of the Allendale store, as it has consistently been the most popular department of that location.
Thanks for your input! This is all really interesting.
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