Acme Markets
Acme Markets Inc. is a supermarket chain which operates 163 stores throughout Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania and, as of 1999, is a subsidiary of Albertsons, and part of its presence in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic. It is headquartered in East Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania. Acme primarily serves the New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore Metro Areas.
Acme was established in 1891, when Irish immigrants and friends Samuel Robinson and Robert Crawford opened a store in the city of Philadelphia. The company as of today, has 163 supermarkets under the Acme name in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.
After many decades of being the largest grocery retailer in the Philadelphia Metro Area, Acme fell to #2 behind ShopRite in 2011. As of 2013, Acme was #3 behind #1 ShopRite and #2 Giant Food Stores in the region.
History
Irish immigrants, Samuel Robinson and Robert Crawford, founded what is now Acme in the city of Philadelphia in 1891, however according to some sources suggest that it was founded either in 1887 or 1872, but it is not sure if that is true. In 1917, Robinson and Crawford merged Acme Markets with four other Philadelphia-area grocery stores, including English immigrant S. Canning Childs New Jersey-based American grocery chain; and the new company was named American Stores. In 1927, smaller rival Penn Fruit began operating in Philadelphia's Center City. In the late 1920s, supermarkets under the American Stores banner rapidly sprouted throughout the Philadelphia region, rivaling New Jersey-based A&P, which also operated in the Northeast.
Identity
In 1961, American Stores created a new logo (known as the "fish eye"), as an attempt to eliminate the inconsistent use of the Acme Markets or Acme Super Markets script logos of the 1950s; however, its implementation was not carried out throughout the chain. American Stores' distribution center, on U.S. 30 in West Philadelphia, retained the gold script "Acme Super Markets" signage until its closure in 1993. The complex remained abandoned, complete with sign, as the last Acme store in West Philadelphia had been sold in 1980.
In 1995, Acme sold 45 stores in northeastern Pennsylvania to Penn Traffic. American Stores was acquired by major supermarket chain Albertsons in November 1999, many fans argue that this changed Acme forever, while some don’t.
In 2006, Albertsons' supermarket holdings were bought by Cerberus Capital Management and SuperValu and divided amongst the two companies, with Acme going to SuperValu. In 2013 Cerberus, which was operating the Albertsons stores it owned under the name Albertsons LLC, agreed to purchase Acme from SuperValu.
In July 2016, it was announced that Albertson's had entered into a purchase agreement with Ahold and Delhaize Group to replace a Giant store in Salisbury, Maryland as part of the divestiture of stores to gain clearance from the Federal Trade Commission for the impending Ahold/Delhaize merger. The store was rebranded under the Acme banner in September 2016.
Current and future operations
In July 2015, Acme's main competitor A&P announced it would be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in three years and ceasing operations after 156 years. A&P began placing many of its stores up for auction shortly after, and Acme placed bids on 76 of them, eventually taking the leases to 71 stores in all from A&P's namesake brand and its subsidiaries Pathmark, Superfresh, and The Food Emporium. This enabled Acme to expand its footprint in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, where they competed with both Pathmark and Superfresh for business, re-establish its presence in the New York metropolitan area, which had been greatly scaled back over the previous two decades, and return to former market areas like Delaware and Maryland.
In addition, Albertsons was able to return to Connecticut and New York with some of its purchases; in 2006, Acme's corporate sibling Shaw's sold off or closed all of its stores in Connecticut. It was also announced in August 2015 that Acme would be taking over a former Genuardi's location in Barnegat, New Jersey; this was made possible by the merger of Albertsons and Safeway, which had owned the Genuardi's chain before shutting it down a few years before, and continued to own the lease on the property. (This store opened February 5, 2016.) Acme has also completed the purchases of the leases of two closed A&P stores in Boonton, New Jersey, and Patterson, New York, The Boonton store opened on September 18, 2016, The Patterson, NY store opened on August 23, 2016, as well as an A&P Wine & Spirits location in Riverside, Connecticut. In April 2016, Acme closed three stores it had operated in Oxford, Pennsylvania; Bridgeton, New Jersey; and Shrewsbury, New Jersey. The Shrewsbury location, however, was essentially just replaced by a former A&P Fresh store Acme acquired as a result of the A&P bankruptcy in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. However, the Tinton Falls store closed in 2018.
Headquarters
The headquarters of Acme Markets are in East Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania. The company was previously headquartered in Center City, Philadelphia, but moved to 75 Valley Stream Parkway in East Whiteland Township in 1988. Acme continued to house some support departments, including its accounting department, in Center City.
