25 E. Germantown Pike
Welcome to the East Norriton Acme!
This property has a very interesting history when it comes to supermarkets! Acme opened here in the 50's, then relocated across the street to the Northtowne Plaza in the 70's. The Acme was demolished and ShopRite opened in 1975. ShopRite closed in 1995, with the store reopening as Super G in 1997, who sold to Shop & Save in 1998, who sold back to ShopRite in 2001, who sold back to Acme in 2023! This is the newest Acme, and only opened last week on October 20. Enough history, let's get inside!
The foyer is one of the few parts of the store that has been updated from ShopRite. I've never seen those carts used by Acme before.
The beer and wine area is on the front wall just upon entering. Interestingly, Acme never announced they were buying this store; the confirmation came when Brown's transferred their liquor license for this store to The Frosted Mug.
The seafood counter and butcher's block are in the back corner, completing the grand aisle. I don't believe this store has a meat counter.
A look down aisle 3, with Quality Built aisle markers.
The bakery, deli, and prepared foods line the back wall. The paneling on the walls is left over from Super G.
Dairy is in the back right corner. Those cases and freezers in aisle 22 look pretty old, and probably date back to Super G or at least when ShopRite first opened.
Frozen foods are in the last aisle. The store has a total of 23 aisles, which is more than many purpose-built Acmes.
Checkouts and customer service on the front end. This area got the most remodeling during the transition.
Other Images of Interest
Street View Images
2023
Considering all they really did was replace signage and repaint, Acme did a great job making this facade more modern.
2011
The pharmacy was removed and replaced with beer and wine sometime in the past few years.
Nearby competition
0.6 miles away: Weis of East Norriton
Norristown was the home of Genuardi's for its entire history, and this building was home to a Genuardi's from 1999 until June 9, 2012. Weis acquired this store along with the Doylestown and Conshohocken Genuardi's, reopening on June 16. We will be touring this store next week.
0.8 miles away: GIANT of Blue Bell
Just up the road behind the Acme is the Blue Bell GIANT, which opened in 1995 as the anchor to the shopping center. It was originally a typical 90's store with the glass trapezoid facade, but was remodeled to this look around 2006.
2.7 miles away: McCaffrey's of Blue Bell
This beautiful McCaffrey's store opened on July 22, 2016, in what was originally a Clemens Markets and later became a SuperFresh. I'm saving the best for last, so we'll be seeing this store in three weeks.
Well, that's all for our tour of the world's newest Acme! While this store definitely wasn't overly exciting, I'm still very glad to see that Acme is still trying to expand. Our adventure here in the Norristown area is only just starting, so come back next week! Sincerely, The Retail Connection.
This building has to have one of the most convoluted histories of any grocery store I've heard of so far! I've seen my fair share of grocery stores that have closed, became something else, and went back to the original grocer, but the fact that both Acme and ShopRite have had two runs in this space is wild. Throwing in all those others just makes it all the more interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming the building in its current form was built/heavily modified by Super G, going off the fact their original paneling still exists in a lot of places throughout the store. It's neat to see that, and also strange to see an Acme with ShopRite decor. I guess like the stores bought from A&P, a more extensive remodel will probably happen down the line, but Acme just wanted to get this place up and running as fast as possible. I know new Acmes aren't popping up like they once used to, so it's nice to see that the chain is still interested in expansion when they can find a place to do so.
It definitely is! While the original Acme wasn't technically in this space, since it was a different building, it's still weird that they were on this land in the 50's and then came back 70 years later. And ShopRite leaving for eight years and then coming back might be even stranger.
DeleteI don't know exactly what Super G's layout would have been, but there are definitely a lot of other remnants of them today. I've heard Super G had pretty bad layouts, but this one seemed fine. I agree that a Quality Built remodel is probably in the cards, but for now it's cool to see a ShopRite decor in an Acme. Thanks for commenting!
Native Washingtonian chiming in here. Home of Giant-MD who of course operated the Super G stores. I was in this store about mid-way through its run as a Super G. I had a college friend who lived nearby that I would visit.
DeleteAnyhow, the Super G (Giant-MD) layout at the time would be Customer Service to your right as you enter. Going counterclockwise around the store, produce is straight ahead along the right side of the front of the store. Floral was at the end of produce. The first aisle on the right side would be Dairy and Juice. Milk is at the back right corner. The prepared foods and deli, bakery and commercial breads. Then the pharmacy at the mid back wall of the store. Meats are to the left of pharmacy with seafood in the back left corner of the store. Frozen Foods would be int he last two aisles of the store on the left side. Coming around to the front would be beer and wine in stores that could carry those items or seasonal in stores without. Last would be the front end. Giant has used some variation of this store layout going back to the late 1960s. The biggest complaint about the Giant-MD layout is that chilled and frozen items are on opposite ends of the store. Frozen gets unfrozen and chilled gets warm while you shop the center of the store. Giant-MD's newer layouts under Ahold put all of the frozen and chilled items on one side of the store.
Looking at the store in this post, there is quite a bit of Super G left. As others have said the red tile in the service departments and the slatted walls that would have had the neon interior elements of the day installed on them. It looks like the majority of the back wall of the store with deli, meat and seafood are still where Super G located them. I'm assuming the still closed pharmacy is in the back center.
If I'm ever through Philly again, I'll have to make a stop at this store. It is always interesting to see what is left over from each grocer especially one (Super G), that has been gone for 20+ years.
Thank you for the details! Other than this store, the only other former Super G I've been in is the Wilmington store (now a Giant-MD), which doesn't have the layout you described. It does sound pretty odd, at least compared to the stores I'm familiar with, and I can see how dairy and frozen being on opposite sides would be an issue.
DeleteI didn't know the red tile was left over from Super G. It seems like it has held up pretty well over the years. I don't know where there would have been space for the pharmacy in the back of the store. ShopRite's was on the front wall right next to the entrance, but I'm not sure if Super G's was there, was on the back wall but got moved, or they didn't have one.
It definitely is interesting to see the remnants of such a long-gone store!
The Super G on US 40 in Bear, DE definitely opened with the store design that I described. I'm pretty sure the store on US 202 near Concord Mall did as well. Both stores were remodeled in the early 2000s to the Super Giant format which from what I understand came from Stop and Shop. That format had two entrances. The right entrance led to the grand aisle with produce, deli, bakery and meat/seafood. Packaged meat was on the back wall. Dairy and Frozen were finally moved together on the left side of the store. Inside the left door was floral and pharmacy along with general merchandise/seasonal. Along with the remodel, the Super G name was dropped for Super Giant. As you know, now both are just Giant. My guess is that ShopRite moved the pharmacy to expand the selection in the meat section. Giant utilized refrigerated island units in the aisle in front of the meat coolers for additional meat shelf space. It was confusing because not everything meat related was together.
DeleteGiant built solid stores and maintained them well. Before Ahold did a big purge of old and outdated locations int he 2000s, there were Giant-MD stores that went back 20-25 years that were still in very good condition with their full original interior or elements of the interior still in place. I can think of several former Giant stores down here that are international grocers that still have elements of Giant leftover, many years after Giant closed. It is impressive to me that the stores have held up so well.
The red cart you're referring to is called the "Caroline's Cart", which is designed for people with special needs, child or adult. It is built on the Renaissance chassis, and has a contoured seat with an occupant capacity of up to 250 lbs. Also has a platform and front/rear locking brake to provide stability for loading/unloading occupants. Wanzl NA (Technibilt) provides extensive literature on this product, including a request form for caregivers to request the retailer provide said cart. The default color is blue but retailers can specify a different color to match it to the rest of their fleet.
ReplyDeleteHere is some literature about this cart if you want more information on what these carts are:
https://technibilt.com/carolines-cart/literature-downloads/
Thank you for the information. I was referring to the Renaissance model. I knew about Caroline's Cart, but didn't realize that the one in my picture was one.
DeleteActually, the Pharmacy area was (is still) to the right as you walk into the beer garden/produce area and next to the service desk...it's just blocked over with displays. It's a shame Acme didn't reopen it. Not sure what the beer garden area was before it was added, maybe a floral section or a large produce department.
DeleteThanks for the information. I was never in this store when it was ShopRite, but I could tell the pharmacy was there from old photos. Acme is planning on remodeling this store soon, and a new pharmacy doesn't seem to be part of the plan, but I guess they could still reopen it at some point if they think it would do well. Acme definitely does better in the pharmacy department than ShopRite.
DeleteThanks for covering this store! I've been following the transition as much as I can but it's great to see full coverage like yours. The decor here is... not great. Thanks, too, for linking Cheltenham! The decor looked really great there but it looks flat and boring here, not to mention the remnants of Super G paneling making it look older. I hope ACME does a pretty extensive remodel here, if only to unify the look of the place. And there's an indication that they might -- it looks like not only are there new registers and decor on the front end, they also replaced the flooring there. Hopefully that is an indication they'll continue that throughout the store!
ReplyDeleteThank you - it's great to hear that from you! And yes, Cheltenham definitely has a much nicer implementation of this decor than this store. Katnapped posted a photo on this store's Google Maps page which shows the plans for a remodel, including lots of "expanded" and "upgraded" selections (even though it doesn't seem like they're really expanding anything), but I'm definitely curious as to whether this store will get Quality Built or the new Philly decor from University City. Haddonfield recently got that decor, and it seems like Avalon is in the midst of remodeling to it as well.
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