Acme Markets

Infobox_Company
company_name = Acme Markets
company_
company_type = Wholly owned subsidiary of Supervalu Inc.
company_slogan = Crazy about food
key_people = Judy Spires, President
Jeff Noddle, Chairman and CEO
Mike Jackson, COO
John Hooley, Executive Vice President; President, Retail East
foundation = 1891 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
location = Malvern, Pennsylvania
industry = Retail
products = Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor
homepage = http://www.acmemarkets.com/

:"This article is about Acme Markets, the Philadelphia-area division of Supervalu. For the Akron, Ohio based chain, see Acme Fresh Market."Acme Markets is a Philadelphia-based supermarket chain owned by Supervalu, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.Acme was founded in 1891 by Samuel Robinson and Robert Crawford in South Philadelphia and now operates about 130 supermarkets [cite web |url= http://www.supervalu.com/sv-webapp/retail/banners/acme.jsp |title= Acme |accessdate= 2008-01-30 |publisher= SUPERVALU INC.] in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania under the Acme name.

History

In 1917, Robinson and Crawford merged Acme Markets with four other Philadelphia-area grocery chains, and the combined company was named American Stores. The company acquired California's Alpha Beta stores in 1961. In 1969, it introduced its Acme Super Saver stores. These were built until 1973 and were often located in the same shopping centers as Woolco and in some cases, Kmart. American Stores was acquired in 1979 by Skaggs Drug Centers which took the American Stores name, and relocated the headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah. That same year, the company announced that it would be closing most of its store locations in New York state.

In 1984 American Stores acquired Jewel Companies, Inc., which included several large chains: Jewel and Jewel-Osco in the Chicago area; Eisner Foods in downstate Illinois and Indiana (later merged into Jewel-Osco); Buttrey Food & Drug in Montana and other Western states; Star Market in New England; Osco Drug in the Midwest, Northwest, and New England, and Sav-On Drugs in California, Nevada, and Texas. In 1988 it acquired Lucky Stores, also in California, and then divested Alpha Beta to the Yucaipa Cos., Buttrey Food & Drug was spun off to its management, which subsequently sold the chain to Albertsons (prior to American Stores merger with Albertsons); and Star Market was sold to Investcorp, which subsequently sold the chain to J Sainsbury plc, who merged it with their Shaw's Supermarkets chain, which was itself sold to Albertsons in 2004.

Acme was acquired by Albertsons in 2000. Albertsons was acquired by Supervalu in 2006.

Current operations

The company is the largest food and drug retailer in the competitive market, [cite web |url= http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/109/109724.html |title= Acme Markets, Inc. Company Profile |accessdate= 2008-01-30 |publisher= Yahoo! Inc.] where it competes with multiple chains, including Ahold's Giant, and Stop & Shop, A&P's Pathmark, Super Fresh, and Food Basics, Safeway and its subsidiary Genuardi's, Wakefern Food Corporation's Shop Rite, Wal-Mart Supercenter, NC based Food Lion as well as other smaller chains in various markets.

Acme offers online grocery shopping [cite web |url= http://www.acmemarkets.com/eCommerceWeb/ShopAction.do?action=getShopContents |title= Shop |accessdate= 2008-01-30 |publisher= AcmeMarkets.com] for orders that can be picked up at the store or delivered to the customer. In 2004, Acme Markets was among the firstFact|date=January 2008 to introduce self-checkout stands, where shoppers could scan and bag their own groceries. In 2008, many Acme locations began adding hot foods bars to the deli section.

In addition to its stores in 5 Pennsylvania counties (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia) the company also operates stores in 2 counties in the state of Delaware (Kent and New Castle), 5 counties in the state of Maryland (Cecil, Harford, Kent, Queen Anne's, and Talbot), and 16 counties in the state of New Jersey (Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Sussex, and Union).

Loyalty Card

Acme's loyalty card, called the Acme SuperCard, or simply "Acme Card," is used by customers to gain savings not available to those without a loyalty card. Acme runs many specials and savings that one can only gain by using their card. Also, for Thanksgiving and Easter, Acme gives away a free turkey, ham, or party sized lasagna to those customers who have spent $300 in an allotted amount of time using their SuperCard. In June of 2008, Acme launched a program, called "More Ways to Save at Acme." This program features a variety of items which the supermarket claims it has lowered prices on. As part of this program, the company has also started accepting double coupons (with values up to $0.99.)

References

External links

* [http://www.acmemarkets.com Acme Markets]