New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

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MikeRa
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New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

Post by MikeRa »

A new Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened 10/1/2015 in Philadelphia, at 180 West Girard Avenue. It was the first of the 70 A&P owned stores that Acme's parent company Albertsons LLC acquired. This location was the last superfresh store to open.
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

Post by BillyGr »

MikeRa wrote:A new Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened 10/1/2015 in Philadelphia, at 180 West Girard Avenue. It was the first of the 70 A&P owned stores that Acme's parent company Albertsons LLC acquired. This location was the last superfresh store to open.
They have also opened a couple in NJ (according to Acme Style, anyhow) and it looks like they will be doing so periodically over the next month plus until all 70 have been converted.
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

Post by MikeRa »

There is now 175 Acme Markets opened. The ones converted from A&P, superfresh, and Pathmark that have pharmacies uses "Acme Pharmacy" on the buildings, and the legacy Acme that have pharmacies uses "Acme Sav-on Pharmacy" on their buildngs. All Acme ad uses "Acme Pharmacy".

It looks like Acme is the only Albertsons division (pre-merger with Safeway) that is dropping the Sav-on name. Cold we see Albertsons, Shaw's and Star dropping the Osco and Sav-on names as well?

Jewel Osco will never drop the Osco name since it has been use since the 1960's.
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

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MikeRa wrote:There is now 175 Acme Markets opened. The ones converted from A&P, superfresh, and Pathmark that have pharmacies uses "Acme Pharmacy" on the buildings, and the legacy Acme that have pharmacies uses "Acme Sav-on Pharmacy" on their buildngs. All Acme ad uses "Acme Pharmacy".

It looks like Acme is the only Albertsons division (pre-merger with Safeway) that is dropping the Sav-on name. Cold we see Albertsons, Shaw's and Star dropping the Osco and Sav-on names as well?

Jewel Osco will never drop the Osco name since it has been use since the 1960's.
I think I mentioned this elsewhere, but didn't many of the converted stores simply keep the Pharmacy signs from A&P?
That could explain the lack of the Sav-on signage, particularly since it seems they've had trouble simply getting the Acme signs for some of the store fronts and roadway signs - maybe just trying to cut the number of signs they needed to get at this point, with plans to add them later on?
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

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I think that the Sav-On name will be/has been de-emphasized. Old Albertsons really pushed the Sav-On pharmacy name (or Osco) name for its remaining stores prior to selling out. It must have cost a ton of money without much payout. But at least one of the renovated ACME stores as shown by Acme Style show the Sav-On name alive and well in one of its pharmacies, and I did read about the modern Albertsons opening a stand-alone Sav-On drug store in a hospital (probably the only stand-alone Sav-On in existence now). Albertsons LLC didn't bother at all with Sav-On signage on the few stores it acquired (Albertsons LLC, to my knowledge, never built any ground-up stores...I believe the Alamogordo one would've been the first, but it was built by United instead).

A lot of the Pharmacy signs weren't kept, if you look at some of the first "conversion" posts done by Acme Style and then compare it to the "Future Acme Markets" post, you'll see the West New York store and the nearby Pathmark both swapped out Pharmacy signs (for cheap and ugly ones, in my opinion, basically a backlit white box with red lettering).
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

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pseudo3d wrote:I think that the Sav-On name will be/has been de-emphasized. Old Albertsons really pushed the Sav-On pharmacy name (or Osco) name for its remaining stores prior to selling out. It must have cost a ton of money without much payout. But at least one of the renovated ACME stores as shown by Acme Style show the Sav-On name alive and well in one of its pharmacies, and I did read about the modern Albertsons opening a stand-alone Sav-On drug store in a hospital (probably the only stand-alone Sav-On in existence now). Albertsons LLC didn't bother at all with Sav-On signage on the few stores it acquired (Albertsons LLC, to my knowledge, never built any ground-up stores...I believe the Alamogordo one would've been the first, but it was built by United instead).

A lot of the Pharmacy signs weren't kept, if you look at some of the first "conversion" posts done by Acme Style and then compare it to the "Future Acme Markets" post, you'll see the West New York store and the nearby Pathmark both swapped out Pharmacy signs (for cheap and ugly ones, in my opinion, basically a backlit white box with red lettering).
The "Sav-on" name has been de-emphasized in the Acme ads. It is listed in the ads as "Acme Pharmacy".

The Acme on Roosevelt Boulevard and Solly Avenue, in Philadelphia, never had the "Sav-on Pharmacy" on the exterior of the store, but has it on the interior. This location was a re-build of the former Acme Markets (itself a former Penn Fruit by Pantry Pride location)
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

Post by klkla »

The Sav-On name made sense in areas where Sav-On standalone pharmacies once operated because they were a well known and trusted name (especially in Southern California and Nevada). It never really made sense using it in markets where people didn't have any awareness to the brand.

It's been so many years now since the standalone pharmacies were taken over by CVS and there is no value in using it anymore except perhaps in CA/NV.
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

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klkla wrote:The Sav-On name made sense in areas where Sav-On standalone pharmacies once operated because they were a well known and trusted name (especially in Southern California and Nevada). It never really made sense using it in markets where people didn't have any awareness to the brand.

It's been so many years now since the standalone pharmacies were taken over by CVS and there is no value in using it anymore except perhaps in CA/NV.
Does anyone remember when they started adding the Sav-On name to places like Acme? I remember ordering stuff via the internet which had to be 1999 or early 2000's from Sav-On online (they were offering deals to get people to try the site, as was just about every website at that time). Wondering if that was around the same time, maybe to get people more familiar with the name so if they saw it as a website they would check it out?

Also to note - Shaw's used Osco as there were free standing Osco drug stores in New England (or at least New Hampshire) at one point - in fact at least one spot we were we went there for a few things as the area seemed to lack a supermarket of any sort.
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

Post by pseudo3d »

It was fairly late in the game, references seem to point at 2005. Since they had to change lots of signage, I would argue that the move hastened the demise of Old Albertsons, which was gone by the end of 2006.
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

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Osco and Star was a function of Jewel's prior ownership of Star. Standalone Oscos usually were old Jewels in places where land couldn't be assembled for a combo store--there usually was Jewel nearby, bigger than its predecessor but not big enough to have a pharmacy. Star stores probably were similar. At one time--probably in the 60s, Jewel did have a small format combo store--the Jewel on Broadway near Addison in Chicago is a surviving example--it also has rooftop parking. There may still be a similar one in Evanston near Northwestern. Later on, they went for having a regular sized market with a regular sized Osco nearby--I think the standalone Oscos are all gone now. There was a long running one on Milwaukee Avenue in the old Polish neighborhood.

There was a brief attempt at making everything Osco, including the long running SavOn chain in southern California back in the 90s. It didn't last long--probably less than a year. After that Sav-On became the default.
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

Post by pseudo3d »

Acme Sav-on Pharmacies still has its own website, even if many pharmacies aren't even branded as Sav-on anymore.

As for Jewel, there is a stand-alone Jewel (no Osco) at Lawrence and Central, and a CVS across the street, which was very likely a stand-alone Osco prior to 2006.
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Re: New Acme/Acme Pharmacy opened in Philadelphia

Post by MikeRa »

A lot of the Acme locations that has pharmacies, not counting the former A&P stores, have either been having the "Sav-on" name dropped or kept, depending on the location. All of these remodeled stores has the "Quality Build" interior decor
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