Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is a supermarket chain based in Philadelphia that has a long history. Lots of its older, smaller stores have closed but are still easily identifiable as former Acmes by their architecture, no matter what new establishments have taken their place. I have been able to determine that Acme withdrew from West Virginia sometime between 1988 and 1996 but I am unable to pin it down more than that. Could Grand Union have bought the Acmes in this state? Grand Union was a primarily Northeastern supermarket chain, but had stores in several Southern states, among them Virginia, Georgia, and Texas. They went out of business in 2000. I know what was built as a 60s Acme in Martinsburg was abandoned as of a few years back, but could it have been something else after Acme that also closed? Also, could an Acme have been next to the Nichols big-box store (now a Big Lots) in Martinsburg? And could the Great Valu supermarket in Franklin have been either an Acme, Grand Union, or both in the past? I suspect either the Food Lion in Shepherdstown or the Rite Aid in the parking lot could have been one or both of these too. Acme also used the name Super Saver during the 70s at many stores.
When I lived in Beckley in the 1980's I remember there was an ACME store there I always shopped at, close to where Hill's and K-mart were. If I'm not mistaken they closed sometime before 1987.
Thanks... I meant to mention that Texas and West Virginia both still have Drug Emporium stores owned by franchisees, even though the corporately-owned drugstores in this chain went bankrupt exactly 10 years ago right around this time of year, to go out of business that fall. A lot of their stores in and around Philadelphia were former A&P supermarkets. I imagine a number of their WV stores are in old Acme/GU store shells as well. Ben Franklin Crafts stores also stay open due to a similar arrangement where franchisees own a number of them, but a number of corporately owned ones closed due to a bankruptcy over 15 years ago. Most were almost new at the time, and many were in old Walmart or Kmart buildings.
I am 33 and I don't recall ever having an Acme store in the Huntington area. I do remember Big Bear but I think that they went out of business in the late 90's or early 2000s.
When I lived in Beckley in the 1980's I remember there was an ACME store there I always shopped at, close to where Hill's and K-mart were. If I'm not mistaken they closed sometime before 1987.
I remember going into that Acme, and I think it closed sometime in the mid 90s, I'm wanting to say 1995-1996, but it might have been a bit earlier
Hills (a long gone competitor of Walmart), mentioned earlier in this thread, was sold to Ames in 1998. This gave Ames the more modern stores it needed in order to survive with all the more modern, flashier Walmart (and at the time Super Kmart) stores, but the debt from the Hills purchase led to Ames going bankrupt and out of business in 2002. The end of Ames was the end of an era. Ames was all over the South and New England for most of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. It was the very last of many chains like it to disappear. A few other chains Ames bought included Kings (sold to Ames in 1984), Murphys Mart (sold to Ames in 1985), and Zayre (sold to Ames in 1988). I grew up with the Hills store in Reading PA, which had been a Kmart for a long time, then was briefly Hills and briefly Ames, now a Big Lots. Sort of ironically, Kmart left this site when they moved to the former Nichols Discount City store nearby, yet the Nichols in Martinsburg (mentioned by the original poster here) closed and was filled by Big Lots while the original Kmart in Reading was still open.
Bradlees, Caldor, Jamesway, Woolco, Grant City, JM Fields, Two Guys, Jefferson Ward, and Clover were all other rivals of Ames that all were sunken by bankruptcy over the years. The death of Ames was predictable due to the rural and old-fashioned stores they ran. It was a huge shock though also in 2002 when Kmart declared bankruptcy. Seemed like Walmart would really be our only choice of big box store at that point.
Hills (a long gone competitor of Walmart), mentioned earlier in this thread, was sold to Ames in 1998. This gave Ames the more modern stores it needed in order to survive with all the more modern, flashier Walmart (and at the time Super Kmart) stores, but the debt from the Hills purchase led to Ames going bankrupt and out of business in 2002. The end of Ames was the end of an era. Ames was all over the South and New England for most of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. It was the very last of many chains like it to disappear. A few other chains Ames bought included Kings (sold to Ames in 1984), Murphys Mart (sold to Ames in 1985), and Zayre (sold to Ames in 1988). I grew up with the Hills store in Reading PA, which had been a Kmart for a long time, then was briefly Hills and briefly Ames, now a Big Lots. Sort of ironically, Kmart left this site when they moved to the former Nichols Discount City store nearby, yet the Nichols in Martinsburg (mentioned by the original poster here) closed and was filled by Big Lots while the original Kmart in Reading was still open.
Bradlees, Caldor, Jamesway, Woolco, Grant City, JM Fields, Two Guys, Jefferson Ward, and Clover were all other rivals of Ames that all were sunken by bankruptcy over the years. The death of Ames was predictable due to the rural and old-fashioned stores they ran. It was a huge shock though also in 2002 when Kmart declared bankruptcy. Seemed like Walmart would really be our only choice of big box store at that point.
Hopefully all these big box stores go out of business.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
