ACME Markets
Opened: 2015
Previous Tenants: A&P
Location: 125 Franklin Tpk, Mahwah, NJ
Photographed: December 2020
About six miles to the east of the Stop & Shop we saw yesterday, we find a very different store here in Mahwah. In fact, one of the reasons the areas are probably pretty different is that there's a very large reservation between them with no road to get from Ringwood to Mahwah unless you circle way to the south or up north through Sloatsburg, NY.
This 53,000 square foot store is a 1990s-era A&P that was just five miles from their home base in Montvale, meaning it was one of their top stores. And while their flagship, Park Ridge, was also taken over by ACME in 2015, it closed just a few years later and is a LIDL. Mahwah is the complete opposite -- my visit showed one of the busiest ACMEs I've ever been to, that has clearly been upgraded by both A&P and ACME. As we'll see, there is some wear and tear on the store but that's almost definitely just a result of the volume it does.
Unlike many of the Quality Built renovations, this one included all-new fixtures in the produce department, new flooring, and other upgrades around the store. The store is beautiful today.
Starbucks in the front corner, with floral between the entrance and customer service counter on the front end.
A little unusual to see the "proudly serving you" sign condensed to such a narrow space, right? And there are a few other quirks of this store's version of the Quality Built decor, such as a deluxe Boar's Head branded deli instead of just the regular Corner Deli. Oh, and this is as good a time as any to point out that Acme Style has already said everything I'm about to say.
My picture of deli is better than Acme Style's, but their meat/seafood pictures are better. The store was so crowded I was just trying to grab whatever I could and get out. But that's nothing compared to our next stop, which was a nightmare in every way.
As was common in A&P stores, frozen foods cut through the middle of the store. A very strange place, if you ask me -- what are you supposed to do, leave your ice cream melting in your cart for the rest of the shopping?
The phone camera didn't fully capture it, but the frozen aisles were weirdly dim. Notice how little lighting there is in this section. Unlike in some other renovations, it doesn't seem that ACME upgraded the lighting here.
Nice Quality Built category markers, though. And as much as it would've been great for ACME to replace all the flooring, A&P's 90s-era flooring actually works pretty well with Quality Built. We'll see that again in at least one other store a little later.
A beautifully upgraded bakery takes up the back corner. The wall here is actually painted tile, which is interesting. I believe that dates back to the store's original Foodmarket decor. However, not all of the fixtures were upgraded in the renovation. I think ACME will have to replace the freezer cases sooner rather than later, which were rumbling unhealthily at the time of my visit, and the dairy cases which seem to be losing their lights...
Don't get me wrong, the store still looks great. But it's odd that such a high-volume store in an affluent area that got a deluxe renovation had some things overlooked like these cases and the lighting.
Pharmacy is on the front wall in the corner of the store, which is new to ACME (A&P would've had it over where ACME has floral now, near produce). I'm not entirely sure what the last few aisles would've been in the A&P days, but they're HABA now...
And now for the extremely crowded front-end, with every register but one open and lines at each...
As crowded and busy as this store was, it didn't feel hectic, cramped, or overly unpleasant. Up next we'll be taking a look at a store just to the south that's clearly very popular but is hectic, cramped, and overly unpleasant. Enough commentary! Check it out tomorrow right here on The Market Report!
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