Update: ACME Markets - Saddle Brook, NJ

ACME Markets

Opened: 2015

Owner: Albertsons Companies

Previous Tenants: A&P (late 1990s-2015)

Cooperative: none

Location: 75 Mayhill St, Saddle Brook, NJ

Photographed: October 4, 2024

We're back once again to the Saddle Brook ACME, where we most recently saw a renovation in progress back in May. The 61,000 square foot store held its grand reopening over the summer and looks good -- although not perfect. But it was definitely getting in the fall spirit when I visited in early October, with this wagon out front. Is this a traveling wagon that goes from store to store, like the antique truck that Shaw's takes with it for grand reopenings? Or is it something specific to this store? Either way, I love it.

Inside, the store looks a lot like any number of other renovated ACMEs -- and its decor didn't change in the renovation, as it had previously been stripped of its A&P decor around 2017 -- although we'll see some slight differences.

The cafe in the front corner has been turned into a floral department.

And as I mentioned in the previous post, all of the prepared foods counters are gone, leaving packaged prepared foods and the Picadeli salad bar.

But it does feel like the store is a little too big, and it feels like there's more space than there previously was. Still, it's very nice.

There's some new merchandising, such as this island calling out tropical produce.

The promotional and category signage on top of the produce refrigerators is new, too, and this is the only store I've seen it in. There are also callouts for local growers and producers, but they're not actually lined up with that grower's product.

The bakery department is quite spacious in the back corner. It's clear that this store is doing less volume than it was originally designed for, and it looks like the renovation was in part intended to address that. It means there aren't closed service counters or cases filled with random products that shouldn't be there, but it does make for a lot of extra space. Note, too, that the grand aisle was made slightly smaller in the renovation, and the HABA aisles were moved over.

The meat and seafood counter, however, is looking quite good at the back of the grand aisle.

Here we can see where the grand aisle was contracted. The solid-gray (white?) floor is new, and the row of produce refrigerators was previously to the left. The A&P blue HABA flooring was removed.

The grocery aisles' flooring, and the flooring on the rest of the perimeter, was not replaced, nor were most other fixtures as far as I could tell.

The ceiling shows age more than the rest of the store (although the flooring is original to the store, it looks pretty good because it's been refinished). It could've used a new paint job -- notice that when ceiling tiles were replaced, they weren't painted the same color as the rest of the ceiling.

New dairy refrigerators, and a new island at the end of the last few aisles.

But the refrigerators lining the outside of the store weren't replaced.

This store looks really good, and seems to be actually run a little bit better than it had been in the past (or maybe I've just had some good experiences here recently). It needs a little more love -- that it's probably not going to get -- to be truly up to the standards it should be at, but given that it seems to be middling-volume at best, I doubt it'll get more substantial work.

Check out this weekend's other stops here!

• Amazon Fresh's new store in Lodi, NJ
• A new gourmet market near Hudson Yards in Manhattan
• A CVS-turned-supermarket right on the NJ/NY border
• Ongoing work at two different Food Bazaars
• Renovations finished at the ACME in Saddle Brook (this post) and the ShopRite in Rochelle Park
• The end appears to be near for South Orange's gourmet market