Update: ACME Markets - Droyer's Point, Jersey City, NJ

ACME Markets

Opened: 2015

Previous Tenants: Pathmark (1979-2015)

Location: 321 NJ-440, Jersey City, NJ

Photographed: January 12, 2024

One of the last un-renovated stores ACME acquired from A&P in 2015 was this former Pathmark in western Jersey City. It's one of two ACMEs in Jersey City now, with the other one being just under four miles northeast. This store was renovated and had its grand reopening in the fall of 2023, but I just don't like Jersey City that much and don't go there very often so I didn't get to check it out until recently. The biggest improvement? The obvious Pathmark stripe remnant is finally gone from the storefront...

Inside, the 60,000 square foot store still has a few Pathmark elements left, but has a full Quality Built decor package. Oddly, ACME seems to be using two decor packages at once, with stores in Haddonfield and Avalon getting the same decor as Walnut Street in Philadelphia, around the same time this store got Quality Built.

The layout hasn't been changed at all, with Pathmark's setup still fully intact. The only change in that regard is that, as I predicted, the international foods section in the front right corner has been removed and covered up with a new row of freezers. The space is now used for Drive Up & Go prep area.

Basically nothing that's not cosmetic has changed since my original pictures, which I took way back in 2016. The store looks good, but it's obvious this was a pretty minimal renovation. That said, many of the fixtures were replaced, such as most of these in the produce department. The flooring in produce was replaced, too.

On the back wall, we look right for meat, deli, and dairy, straight ahead for seafood, and left for bakery...

It looks like some of this flooring was replaced, too. Not positive about the grocery aisles, but the whole store might've gotten new flooring. Still, the changes are relatively small -- no walls were moved or anything like that, no aisles were added or taken out, and so on. Here's an unfortunate result of the very low ceiling on the left side of the store -- part of the bakery signage is really over the seafood freezer cases, and the service bakery itself has no actual signage.

Still, it's not a bad setup. It definitely feels more like an ACME than a Pathmark these days, although the layout still gives it away.

A very cramped Proudly Serving You sign runs along the last aisle all the way to the left.

In the front left corner are floral and pharmacy, and the This is Your ACME signage now runs along aisle 6...

Back over into the right side of the store, we see the combined seafood and meat counter at the back of the produce aisle.

And looking across the back wall...

A new ShopRite is planned for just across route 440. Although they're close together, route 440 is very difficult to cross for those who aren't driving -- and really annoying to drive on, while we're at it.

There was a rumor that when ShopRite opened in Sussex (a very nice store that I have yet to visit), the ACME across the highway was set to close. It's been a few months since ShopRite opened and the ACME doesn't seem to be closing (yet?). It looks like it received the Quality Built renovation in early 2023. We'll see what happens to that store and this store, especially once the ShopRite here opens -- which probably won't be for another few years.

The other big question mark in all this is the ongoing Kroger-Albertsons merger. I have no idea what Kroger's plans for ACME might be if they acquire the chain. And if the merger dissolves, what happens then to ACME? No idea. I have plenty of theories, but no real information. We'll just have to wait and see.

I hear (and have heard, for a long time) that ACME is very expensive. I've been shopping at ACME pretty consistently for a few years now and haven't found that to be the case, but just in case I was making a horrible decision, I started doing some price comparisons between ACME and other stores. I typically find ACME is right in line with ShopRite and slightly lower than Stop & Shop, though of course that varies week to week. One of the biggest things that I've done recently that saves me lots of money is switch to buying HABA, paper, and cleaning at Target. They're not always cheaper, but when they are, they're significantly cheaper than ACME and ShopRite. But as I found on a comparison a few weeks ago, their grocery stuff was in more than a few cases quite a bit higher than both ACME and ShopRite. What I find is that on an order of stuff that I buy, ACME and ShopRite are rarely more than a couple dollars apart for the whole order -- some weeks one is cheaper, other weeks it's the other one.

The deli is in the back right corner. I believe these fixtures were recently installed.

The black refrigerator islands opposite the deli counter are definitely new, as are the freezer cases...

Aisles 22 and 23 are frozen foods, with more that you can see on the front wall.

And aisle 24 is cold cuts and dairy. It looks like the older refrigerators here got doors in the remodel, rather than new fixtures.

And in the front corner, the frozen foods cases here block off the Drive Up & Go prep area, which used to be the international foods department.

I couldn't really get a shot inside the Drive Up & Go area, but it looks like all that happened was the shelving was removed. I believe the refrigerator that used to be international dairy is now used for cold storage for Drive Up & Go orders.

And a look across the front-end...

This store looks really good, but it's still -- like most ACMEs -- not a particularly exceptional supermarket. It's definitely solid, but the new Inserra ShopRites (and I assume the new Jersey City store will be Inserra-owned) are much more impressive. We'll see how this and the Sussex store fare! That's not all for today---check in on a ShopRite not too far away here. And it's back to Rockland County on Monday!