Ollie's Bargain Outlet | Media, PA

 

1154 W. Baltimore Pike

Welcome to the Media Ollie's!

A bonus day of the year means a bonus post! This December visit to the Media Ollie's marked my first time photographing an Ollie's for the blog, and also my first time in an Ollie's in general. This location held its grand opening on May 15, 2019 as the first Ollie's in Delaware County. If you couldn't already tell from the facade, this was previously a Toys R Us, which opened in the early 90s and lasted until the original chain closed for good in June 2018. Let's head inside and see if we can find any Good Stuff Cheap!

Ollie's Bargain Bookland is in the front left corner and food is straight ahead past the main entrance. I didn't realize Ollie's had food, and I was surprised to see that most of it was actually not expired. The oldest food item I saw was probably Halloween Cap'n Crunch.

Clothing is in the back left corner of the store. I know Ollie's stores are known for being in disarray, but this area in particular isn't far off from a thrift store that was hit by a hurricane.

Health and beauty aids are in the center of the store. The flooring left over from Toys R Us actually works pretty well here.

The Toy Box was well-stocked for the Christmas season, calling back to the building's past life as a toy store.

Carpeting and furniture run down the back wall of the store. It seems like Ollie's keeps a limited number of lights on, which isn't a problem up front where the light shines through the windows but makes the back of the store quite dark.

On this side of the store we find housewares, domestics, and other miscellaneous items.

The signage gets quite busy as we get to the front end.

The most obvious leftover from Toys R Us is the flooring in front of register one! What other store would leave this?

You can't see it in this picture, but my favorite sign in the whole store was the red arrow reading "Ollie's Complaint Department" that pointed to the exit door.

A look at the recycled Toys R Us road sign, with the Promenade at Granite Run, formerly the Granite Run Mall (the name everyone still uses), in the background. Last week's Acme is just barely out of site.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2017

This store looked pretty new at the time of closure, as it was remodeled in the early 2010s (it looked more like this before).

That concludes this tour! I was actually pleasantly surprised by Ollie's. I ended up finding a few things in there and I'm sure I will go back again. It was also really cool to see all the things left over from Toys R Us. Tomorrow, we're headed about three miles south to Brookhaven to tour one of their supermarkets. See you then! The Retail Connection: Good Stuff Cheap!

Acme | Media, PA

 

1095 W. Baltimore Pike

Welcome to the Granite Run Acme!

The first ever post on this blog to go up on a Friday was the Acme of downtown Media last May. Today, we'll be seeing the other Media Acme, this one being located on the Promenade at Granite Run property, formerly the enclosed Granite Run Mall. The store opened on November 17, 1975 as an outparcel to the mall and the largest Acme market at the time. Originally, it occupied 33,500 square feet, with other stores like Thrift Drug and a JCPenney Catalog Center taking up the rest of the space. In the 90s, Acme expanded into the entire building. Let's take a look inside!

The Frosted Mug is just to your left upon entering. This area was formerly a Starbucks, though it closed long before The Frosted Mug took over, and was blocked off by displays in the interim.

Foods to go, the corner deli, and the bakery are on the left side of the store, with meat and seafood being the first department on the back wall.

The produce department is on the other side of the grand aisle. Here's a photo from Acme Style of this area before. This store previously had the early deluxe version of Santa Fe, which was also seen in stores in Easton, MD (which still has it), Bala Cynwyd, PA (which now has Quality Built), and Warminster, PA (which closed in 2014). That version was used around 1999-2000.

Lancaster Brand Meats are up next, past the service butcher block counter. That movie theater in the second photo from the left is still open today.

A look down aisle 6. The version of Santa Fe this store had heavily drew from the Chalkboard Market decor, including having the grocery aisles under a drop ceiling.

Dairy is in the back right corner of the store and wraps around to the right wall.

Granite Run's pharmacy still uses the Sav-On name, with signage similar to Cape May Court House.

HABA is in the front corner past the pharmacy. This was previously the customer service center, which was moved closer to the checkouts in the Quality Built remodel. The area is definitely used better now than before.

Interesting floral setup, also seen in Grocery Palace stores.

Thank you from your Granite Run Acme!

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2015

Not much change to the Acme itself since this picture, but the trees seen in the background have since been cut down for an apartment complex called 50 at Granite Run.

Nearby competition

3.5 miles away: ShopRite of Brookhaven

This ShopRite, which we toured in August, opened in 2016 in a former Pathmark. I don't know why Acme didn't take this store, but I guess they were fine with having a monopoly on Media.

3.6 miles away: GIANT of Brookhaven

The Brookhaven GIANT opened in 2016 as a relocation from their previous store across the street, which opened in 1987 as one of the first GIANTs in the area.

That concludes this edition of The Retail Connection! This was a very busy store, and definitely one of Acme's nicer locations. While it's sad that a rarer decor was removed, Quality Built looks really good here. Next week, we're headed to a non-grocery store just across the street. See you then! Sincerely, The Retail Connection.

Acme | Media, PA

 

527 E. Baltimore Avenue

Welcome to the Media Acme!

Hello again, and welcome back to The Retail Connection! For today's post, we'll be checking out this Acme store in downtown Media. The store opened in 1964 as a "Colonial Cottage" style store. It was extensively remodeled in the early 2000's, expanding into the former Eckerd drug store next door and getting this new façade. Inside, the store has the latest Acme décor, Quality Built. Let's check it out!

Heading in through the pharmacy entrance...

HABA and the pharmacy are in the front right corner. Even though it's been expanded, the store is still relatively small and tight.

Dairy is along the far right wall past the pharmacy. This store has a grand total of 16 aisles.

Packaged meats follow dairy. I love the huge Lancaster Brand Premium Beef signage. Lancaster has been Acme's house brand for meats for a long time.

This was the best picture I could get of fresh seafood and meats.  This department is up against the aisles and there were lots of employees around.

Here's a look down aisle 12 for Retail Retell. I find it kind of funny how the aisle marker says "pancake", not "pancakes". You can buy one singular pancake, and you're going to like it!

Fresh bakery is in the far left corner, selling custom cakes for all occasions. This is a pretty good-sized bakery, at least compared to my local Acme.

More cakes as well as grab and go foods are next. Proudly serving you since 1891.

A very spacious produce department takes up the most of the left of the store. We're looking back towards the bakery in the second shot, and also getting a glimpse of the floral display.

And the last department on our tour is the Corner Deli.

Customer service and checkouts in front. I'm assuming they used the generic "Thank you from your neighborhood ACME" signage because there's another Acme in Media, in the Granite Run Mall.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2018

At this point, the pharmacy was still branded as Savon and beer and wine wasn't being sold yet so the left entrance said "FOOD". The store had the Broadway 2.0 décor, which is now extinct from the chain (one example of the first iteration remains), at this time.

Thank you for stopping by The Retail Connection again! All in all, this store seemed to be pretty well-kept, though it was a little hard to navigate and wasn't very organized. I can understand why, though, since this is a relatively small store. Acme is the only supermarket in Media, so both locations do very well. Thanks again for reading and have a great weekend! Sincerely, The Retail Connection.