Update: ACME Markets - New Providence, NJ

ACME Markets

Opened: 2015

Previous Tenants: A&P (2010-2015)

Location: 1260 Springfield Ave, New Providence, NJ

Photographed: February and June 2021

Our first store of the Great Swamp area is a snowy return to the ACME in New Providence, built in 2010 as an A&P on the site of a closed 1970s-era ACME, and acquired in 2015 by ACME. I did an extensive tour of the very nice if extremely bland store in February 2019 here, and an unexpected return back in February aligned nicely with an unexpected remodel beginning.

ACME replaced the flooring and many of the fixtures here in the produce department, as we see. The tiny cafe and prepared foods department at the back of the produce department had been removed for more produce, and the deli was cut back in size (though mostly to remove unused prepared foods counters that A&P installed but never really used). The salad bar was moved from the left side, in line with the grocery shelving, out onto the sales floor, though I believe it is now out of commission.

This store is just about a mile west of the Kings in Summit, which you can tour here. I had just left Summit and needed to pick up one item: a single, solitary bell pepper. So I stopped by Kings and found all of their peppers old, wrinkly, and mushy, and the cheapest was $3.99 for one pepper. I refused to support such nonsense and left, traveling just a few minutes to this ACME where I purchased a gorgeous orange bell pepper for $1.99. ACME's most expensive pepper was, in fact, the same price as Kings' cheapest pepper. Now that was just about a month after Kings was purchased by ACME, but the Kings stores had not yet switched to the ACME/Albertsons distribution center. (I'm keeping an eye on it, but as of late June 2021, when I'm writing this, the Kings stores are still not being supplied by the Albertsons DC yet. They now are partially but seem to still be drawing a lot from Wakefern and others.) I want to draw your attention to what's actually going on here -- note that, with ACME's rearrangement of the grand aisle here, some of the departments were shifted around and ACME actually removed the A&P decor and re-mounted it on the walls in the new locations. You can see the spackle where the decor was removed. This was done before the installation of Quality Built, which happened at some point during the spring of 2021.

The former deli counter, to the left above, is now home to bread cases, another indication we're early in the remodel here since they do not yet have the signage attached to the top wood panels. The deli and a much-abbreviated prepared foods section are where the prepared foods counters were previously.

The seafood counter around the corner to the right has been consolidated a bit for a combination butcher/seafood counter (A&P's large ice display was traded out for a more space-efficient closed refrigerator glass case). The former butcher counter is now covered up with an upright meat case, seen here. Now for the post-remodel June 2021 pictures...

We go from one extreme to the other. We were in the middle of a 95+ degree heat wave at the time of my June visit, so now snow to be found here. Maybe if you're from the southern part of the US, you're used to that, but I sure am not up here in the northeast.

The remodel is looking pretty good here. The flooring and new fixtures are definitely an improvement! I'm seeing a lot of empty produce cases, which I assume is because I visited on a Monday after the weekend rush, but those should definitely be filled. There's definitely more color and personality on the walls now than there previously was.

There's more space here than there was in the A&P days, too.

Looking back up to floral on the front wall. This first aisle feels much wider than it used to be, but I don't believe a grocery aisle was taken out. The produce cases which used to back up to the grocery aisles have been moved to the back of the department in what used to be the long-closed prepared foods department...

Unfortunate signage fail here. 'Tis your ACME, perhaps? The rest of the signage is fully intact, thankfully. (It seems this was fixed quickly.)

Downsized deli department visible here, with bread cases in the back where the main cold cut counter used to be. And the bakery is in the back corner behind deli...

The rounded ceiling is quite attractive and left over from A&P. The cheese islands are new, I think.

And the newly combined meat/seafood counter is up next in this back corner, under its own rounded ceiling.

Apologies for the weirdly focused picture, which my phone for some reason insisted on taking in portrait mode. Packaged meats line the rest of the back wall, and with this iteration of Quality Built, you're not gonna forget what store you're in.

There are a lot of ACME logos around the store, and slogans (as we'll see shortly). Also lots of local New Providence pictures. Now, remember that Quality Built was introduced in 2014, so it's been more than 7 years at this point and it seems to still be going strong (except, of course, the newest ACME on Walnut Street in Philadelphia, which has its own unique decor package). I wonder when it's going to be time to switch it out for something new.

Very streamlined grocery aisles. I don't believe anything was changed in the grocery aisles except the aisle markers.

I remembered!

Frozen foods in aisle 16, and dairy in aisle 17.

These cases look very new, but appear to be original to the store's construction in 2010.

The House that Quality Built prominently displayed here in the last aisle. There's more frozen cases in the front corner, with another nod to ACME's history.

Proudly Serving You Since 1891, but sadly the logo wall (as seen at Beach Haven and others) is absent at most of the Quality Built remodels.

Remodeled front end, but the customer service counter is still in an island in the middle of the front end. Self-checkouts recently re-installed near floral.

The flooring in this section is left over from A&P. Now, that's not all for New Providence! Head across the street to check out a local gourmet market on The Independent Edition here! And tomorrow, we are moving west to Berkeley Heights for one store on Grocery Archaeology and a tour right here on The Market Report.