Possible former Acme

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Ephrata1966
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Possible former Acme

Post by Ephrata1966 »

The building at 5261 Marlton Pike in Pennsauken/Merchantville, NJ is shaped like a 1970s Acme. Half just became a Dollar General, and the rest I think is offices. Many Dollar General stores in the area are in obsolete grocery/drugstore buildings. Notice the creepy empty cinema. This was run by Australian company "HOYTS" and has been abandoned 8 years. I wonder if a department store like Sears or JCPenney, or maybe a discount store such as Zayre was on that spot at one time.
Rob Ascough
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Re: Possible former Acme

Post by Rob Ascough »

My records show a number of Acme locations in that immediate area, but not the building you mentioned.
Ephrata1966
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Re: Possible former Acme

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Thanks. How close are we talking here?

I knew there would have to be a few close by, since this is Camden County, not far at all from Philadelphia. There is an abandoned Acme (condemned?) on the other end of Pennsauken, right over the Camden line. I think Acme bought the Clovermarket (part of the Clover department store chain) in Cherry Hill, right over the line with Marlton and Burlington County. This might actually have been the original Clover from 1971. The store is not recognizable as a Clover at all anymore, since it was passed by Kohl's. They bought the Bradlees in Marlton which closed before the chain in 1996. That store has a ShopRite next door that was a Two Guys grocery section. Kind of ironic Kohl's owned their grocery stores in Wisconsin that looked like Penn Fruit clones, and a few Penn Fruits became Acme.
Rob Ascough
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Re: Possible former Acme

Post by Rob Ascough »

The closest one I see is a location west on Marlton, I believe it's a Cousins Supermarket these days. There are plenty of other former Acme locations in the area. If you want to know more, check your private messages for my contact info.
Ephrata1966
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Re: Possible former Acme

Post by Ephrata1966 »

UPDATE: I just found out there was a Shop N Bag in this center at one time, which closed around the same time the Hoyts opened. It seems doubtful Shop N Bag was the original tenant though. There was originally a Loehmann's on the Hoyts site, and considering the other early Loehmann's in Greater Philly (in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby, PA) was next to a Food Fair/Pantry Pride, perhaps the Shop N Bag was one of them originally? I'm still not sure if the Loehmann's in Moorestown officially replaced this Pennsauken store or not, but it's possible. Unfortunately I'm not 100% sure if the Dollar General site was the former Shop N Bag or not, which could have been directly next to the Loehmann's and would have been demolished along with it for the Hoyts.

Another question I have: could the current Shop N Bag at the former Kmart site in Pennsauken be a "replacement" for this prior Shop N Bag? There definitely would have been a few years between when the first closed and the second opened, but I wonder if the same franchisee that owned the old store now owns the new store. Apparently the manager of the old store as of 1987 according to The Philadelphia Inquirer was named Jim Burke.

Making things more complicated, however, is that a third Shop N Bag in Pennsauken further north (which was given a major remodel in recent years) coexists with the larger one where Kmart was, and must have coexisted with the one next to Loehmann's and Hoyts for at least part of its existence. The smaller Shop N Bag is very close to former Acme, A&P, and Penn Fruit stores all with Pennsauken addresses, so this implies maybe this Shop N Bag would also have been a Food Fair/Pantry Pride along with the Shop N Bag that was ostensibly where Dollar General now is. I also wonder if maybe a Kresge store was next to Loehmann's and would have been directly replaced by the Kmart long ago.
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