Acme | Elkton, MD

 

101 Big Elk Mall

Welcome to the Elkton Acme!

Maryland is new territory for us, but at least there's some familiarity in the Elkton Acme! Acme opened a location here on May 4, 1976, as the original anchor of the Big Elk Mall, later being joined by a now-closed Kmart. In the 1990s, the store was expanded to the left, also receiving a complete interior remodel to the Red White & Blue decor, as well as this facade upgrade. The Wilmington location looks similar to this store, although that one has been more recently upgraded and repainted, while Elkton is pretty much true to how it looked for its grand re-opening. Notice the Sav-On sign? This store still has a Sav-On Pharmacy - and pre-Quality Built decor! Let's check it all out!

Not a glamorous foyer by any stretch of the imagination, but we do get to see this store's decor - Premium Fresh & Healthy 2.0! This decor was put into stores in the very late 2000s as a successor to PF&H 1.0. The wall colors are darker and the physical decor is less intricate, but there isn't a drastic departure between the two. PF&H 3.0 was a much bigger change.

The produce department is to our left. This store even still has the original '90s produce windows! The view isn't that exciting, though.

The small bakery counter is past produce but still on the left. Those two hanging pieces of decor are definitely not part of the actual package; they were probably found by a random baker at HomeGoods.

Delicatessen and the butcher block are on the back wall. This is the first time I've seen a word placed on a leaf in this decor; usually, they were put off to the side. They would've had room to put it on the left, but I guess they thought this looked better.

This is probably the only Acme left that still has a Shop the World department, even though it isn't really Shop the World. Interestingly, while Acme dropped that branding long ago, Jewel-Osco continues to use it in current decor today.

Frozen foods are in aisle 7. It's quite surprising to see how even the aisle markers have remained unchanged. The Concordville location has Quality Built aisle markers, even though the rest of the store still has PF&H.

Packaged meats continue down the back wall. Notice how the flooring is still from the RW&B package.

Dairy is on the right side of the store. The last aisle has quite an interesting selection, ranging from cheese to visit our bakery to cough and cold. I wonder how they decide which department to promote with the extra slot. I've seen other stores with "visit our deli" or the grammatically incorrect "visit our floral."

The last two aisle markers are labeled as "wellbeing" even though they don't actually have HABA items. Although, yogurt and cheese are both good for my wellbeing.

The pharmacy and floral departments are in front, just next to the other entrance. This is the only store I've seen with that lit-up "Sav-On Pharmacy" sign. The pharmacy hours sign is, I believe, the only Quality Built element of the entire store.

It may come as a shock to hear that checkouts and customer service are in the front of the store.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2018

Notice the M&T Bank signage on the right tower. I would assume that that was where the DriveUp & Go department is now.

Nearby competition

1.1 miles away: Redner's of Elkton

Next week, we're headed to our very first Redner's, a discount chain based out of Pennsylvania. This particular location opened back in 2005.

2.0 miles away: Food Lion of Elkton

Last week, we toured the Elkton Food Lion, which is probably the easternmost supermarket in Maryland. It opened in 1999 and anchors its shopping center.

4.8 miles away: Safeway of Glasgow

Safeway is quite common in Elkton's state of Maryland, but not as much in Delaware, where there only two other locations. This store opened in 2004 in a former Genuardi's.

This was a nice store. I was glad to see that Premium Fresh & Healthy was still fully in place. Thank you for reading! I'll see you next week at Redner's. Sincerely, The Retail Connection.