There are two grocery store chains named .
, 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.
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 ,
Buttrey's and
Star Market .
Acme Markets is now the Northeast Region of
Albertsons , which acquired the grocery chain in
1998 .
There is also a separate Acme supermarket chain called with 16 locations in Northeast
Ohio serving
Portage ,
Stark , &
Summit Counties.
{Link without Title} It has been locally owned for over 100 years.
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.
