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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1891 (134 years ago) (1891) inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | 159[1] |
Key people | Tom Lofland (president) |
| Products |
|
| Parent | American Stores (1917–1998) Albertsons (1999–present) |
| Website | acmemarkets |
Acme Markets Inc. is asupermarket chain operating 159 stores throughoutConnecticut,Delaware,Maryland,New Jersey, theHudson Valley ofNew York, andPennsylvania and, as of 1998, is a subsidiary ofAlbertsons, and part of its presence in the Northeast. It is headquartered inEast Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, nearMalvern, aPhiladelphia suburb.
Acme Markets has 159supermarkets[2] in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.
After many decades of being the largest grocery retailer in theDelaware Valley, Acme fell to No. 2 behindShopRite in 2011.[3] As of 2013, Acme was No. 3 behind No. 1 ShopRite and No. 2The Giant Company in the region.[4]
Irish immigrants Samuel Robinson and Robert Crawford founded what is now Acme in south Philadelphia in 1891.[5] In 1917, Robinson and Crawford merged Acme Markets with four other Philadelphia-area grocery stores, including English immigrant S. Canning Childs New Jersey–basedAmerican grocery chain; the new company was namedAmerican Stores. In 1927, smaller rivalPenn Fruit began operating in Philadelphia'sCenter City. In the late 1920s, supermarkets under theAmerican Stores banner rapidly sprouted throughout the Philadelphia region, rivaling New Jersey–basedA&P, which then featured downtown stores throughout the East Coast, and as far west asNew Orleans. American Stores first introducedself-service stores in shopping centers in the early 1950s.
In 1961, the American Stores company acquiredsouthern California'sAlpha Beta chain of supermarkets. Many of Acme's stores in the 1960s and 1970s were paired with a regional drugstore chain, aPLCB liquor store (in Pennsylvania), aKmart, orWoolco (earlier centers had aWoolworth), and in rarer cases a department store such asSears orJCPenney. American Stores also bought the Philadelphia franchise rights to the then fast-growing restaurant chainPizza Hut in 1968. Acme would also acquire a number of stores from Kmart Foods (as did A&P, Safeway, and Kroger); however, in the late 1970s, many recently closed 1950s-era supermarkets in Philadelphia and close suburbs were reopened as independentsIGA or Thriftway/Shop 'n Bag. Starting in the 1980s, these independents were overtaken by family chainsGenuardi's (later acquired bySafeway and now defunct) andClemens (also defunct) along withGiant-Carlisle andGiant-Landover in newer suburbs, and modernized Acme,Super Fresh, and Pathmark stores in the city and older suburbs not long after.
From 1978 to 1982, Acme acquired many stores during Food Fair's bankruptcy, including both ex-Food Fair (by then known as discount grocer Pantry Pride) and Penn Fruit units. The bulk of these dated to the 1950s. The former Food Fair/Pantry Pride stores were replaced by or remodeled into stores with the standard Acme prototype of the 1970s, as were many expanded A-Frame buildings and a few formerPathmark (these were formerShopRite) stores. Former Penn Fruit buildings, with their trademark barrel roof, could not be adapted to this model. Even many A-Frames were replaced by the often older but larger acquired stores.
In the early 1970s, Acme introduced a discount chain,Super Saver, in an effort to compete in densely populated areas.[6] Both chains had theslogan "Acme and Super Saver - you're going to like it here!" The brand Super Saver was retired in the 1980s, only to be resurrected in the 1990s in theWest. Some isolated stores retained the signage into the early 1990s, however.
American Stores were sold in 1979 to theSkaggs Companies which took the American Stores name, moving its headquarters toSalt Lake City. Also in 1979, American Stores announced that it would be closing most of its stores inNew York state. In the 1980s, American Stores undertook various acquisitions (includingChicago metropolitan area chainJewel Food Stores) which ran the Jewel-T chain; it operated in many former urban Acme buildings. In 1995, Acme sold 45 stores innortheastern Pennsylvania toPenn Traffic.[7] American Stores was acquired by major Western and Southern chainAlbertsons in November 1999.
In 2006, Albertsons' supermarket holdings were bought byCerberus Capital Management andSuperValu and divided between the two companies, with Acme going to SuperValu. In 2013 Cerberus, which was operating the Albertsons stores it owned under the name Albertsons LLC, agreed to purchase Acme from SuperValu.
In July 2016, it was announced that Albertsons had entered into a purchase agreement withAhold andDelhaize Group to replace aGiant store inSalisbury, Maryland as part of the divestiture of stores to gain clearance from theFederal Trade Commission for the impending Ahold/Delhaize merger. The store was rebranded under the Acme banner in September 2016.[8]
Acme is the third-largest food and drug retailer in the Delaware Valley,[3] where it competes with such chains asAhold'sGiant-Carlisle,Giant-Landover,Food Lion, andStop & Shop;Wakefern Food Corporation'sShopRite;Walmart and its warehouse club subsidiarySam's Club;BJ's;Costco; natural/organic products retailerWhole Foods Market;Wegmans Food Markets;Trader Joe's andAldi; and various smaller chains. Acme was the regional sales leader in the Philadelphia area for decades, and only lost its lead to ShopRite in 2011.
Acme offers online grocery shopping[9] for orders that can be picked up at the store or, in most areas, delivered to a home or business. In 2004, Acme introduced self-checkout stands, where shoppers could scan and bag their own groceries; however, many stores (including acquired stores - see below) have had their self-checkouts removed in an effort to expand customer service. In 2008, many Acme stores began adding hot food bars to the deli section.
In July 2015, Acme's competitor A&P announced it would be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in three years and ceasing operations after 156 years. A&P began placing many of its stores up for auction shortly thereafter, and Acme placed bids on 76 of them, eventually taking the leases to 71 stores in all from A&P's namesake brand and its subsidiariesPathmark,Waldbaum's,Superfresh, andThe Food Emporium.[10]
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