Acme Markets

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Image:AcmeLogo 4C PC.gif There are two grocery store chains named Acme.

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Acme Markets

Image:Acme.jpg Acme Markets, founded in 1891 by Samuel Robinson and Robert Crawford in South Philadelphia, now operates nearly 140 supermarkets in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania under the Acme banner.

The company is the largest food and drug retailer in the competitive Philadelphia market, where it competes with local chains, including Safeway-owned Genuardi's, as well as Wal-Mart supercenters. In addition to its bricks-and-mortar stores, Acme offers online grocery shopping in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs and in four New Jersey counties. Shoppers are charged $4.95 for orders picked up at the store and $9.95 for delivery.

In 2004, Acme Markets were among the first to introduce "self-checkout lines," where shoppers could easily scan and bag their own (limited number of) groceries.

Ownership

In 1917, Robinson and Crawford merged Acme Markets with four other Philadelphia area grocery chains, and the combined company was named American Stores Company. The company acquired California's Alpha-Beta stores. American Stores was acquired in 1979 by Skaggs Drug Centers which took the American Stores Company name, and relocated the headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1988 it acquired Lucky Stores, also in California, and then divested Alpha-Beta and Buttrey's and Star Market.

Acme Markets is now the Northeast Region of Albertsons, which acquired the grocery chain in 1999.

Management

Data

Acme Fresh Market

Image:Acmefresh.jpg There is also a separate Acme supermarket chain called Acme Fresh Market with 16 locations in Northeast Ohio serving Portage, Stark, & Summit Counties.[1] It has been locally owned for over 100 years.

Subsidiaries

Acme Fresh Market Inc. was responsible for two subsidiary stores: Click, a department story, and Y-Mart, a chain of pharmacy/convenience stores similar to Walgreens. In the mid-90's, many of the Click stores were converted into Acme Superstores, sacrificing part of the capacity of the department store in order to include a grocery section, and many of the Y-Mart stores were shut down. This en devour did not go over well with the public and saw many of the superstores shut down or converted into Acme Fresh Markets within a few years.de:Acme Markets