ACME Markets
Opened: 2015
Previous Tenants: A&P (late 1990s-2015)
Location: 75 Mayhill St, Saddle Brook, NJ
Photographed: May 10, 2024
The Saddle Brook ACME is getting a pretty significant renovation, but it doesn't look like any decor will be changing. It's long been one of my least-favorite area ACMEs, and it's gotten relatively little investment over the years. (
Here's a previous post.) Since I wrote that, a fair amount of work has gone on here, and a fair amount more seems to be coming. The sad little cafe in the front corner here has been removed and replaced with a gigantic floral department, and the former floral department next to the entrance is now a Drive Up & Go staging area. Foods to Go is now cheeses and packaged deli items, with all the former A&P prepared foods counters removed. The deli is much smaller, condensed at the back. Several rows of self-serve prepared foods run in front of the deli. Produce has new fixtures, bakery has new fixtures, meat/seafood has new fixtures, the grocery aisles are being reset, and the perimeter refrigeration is being replaced. Notably, the floral and bakery departments have been expanded while the deli, HABA, and center-store selections seem to have been reduced.
The prepared foods counters, which never were really open much anyway, lined this wall.
I hope there will be new flooring installed throughout the grand aisle, because the existing flooring is in pretty bad shape and has only gotten worse with the new fixtures installed. I assume it'll be replaced soon enough.
The produce fixtures are new, and here you can also see the new Drive Up & Go section. The fact that the Fresh Flowers sign has been relocated without being changed makes me think the decor won't be changed, either. I'd love to see
this decor package making its way to more ACMEs, but I kind of doubt that'll happen.
Bakery needs some lights replaced, but all the fixtures are new and it's looking really good. Speaking of lights, the lighting around the rest of the store has been replaced, a much-needed improvement.
Updated fixtures here in meat and seafood, too. The flooring is so disjointed, though, that it needs to be fully redone.
HABA was undergoing a major reset.
And it looks like they may actually have taken out an aisle of HABA -- or at least relocated some nonfoods -- for the first grocery aisle. This blue flooring was typically associated with nonfoods or HABA in the A&P stores. (
Update: when I went back to this store, I realized that they actually reduced the width of the grand aisle, which is why the gray flooring above -- designed for the grand aisle -- appears in HABA, and the blue flooring extends one aisle beyond where HABA used to be.)
Here we can see A&P cases being prepared for removal, I assume.
Dairy cases are all new and look great...
Notice the mats on the floor where shelving was moved. It looks like actually a whole aisle was taken out, but
maybe it's no great loss...
And most interesting of all, ACME is preparing to replace all the registers! Here are several lined up over by the manager's office on the far right side of the store during the transition.
That's all for this ACME, and I'm going to have to come back and visit once the renovation is done!
Here's the other things we're seeing today!
Maybe Acme was trying to give their take on those small city stores that have tons of paper goods stashed everywhere? ;)
ReplyDeleteHA! That's a great idea. Of course, those tend to do it out of necessity (the stores tend to be very small and with tiny backrooms -- some don't even have a specific paper goods aisle -- whereas this ACME is over 60,000 square feet.
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