Market will fill a gap

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After a couple years of negotiations and several proposals about what would be built at 19th Street and Oregon Avenue, neighbors have gotten their wish.

Acme Markets, the largest food and drug retailer in the tri-state area, broke ground two weeks ago on the site where it will construct its newest supermarket. The store will be the company’s second in South Philly and 12th citywide.

The new store will encompass 50,000 square feet — about 4,000 more square feet than the three-year-old Acme market at 11th and Reed streets, said Walter Rubel, the chain’s director of government relations and community affairs. It will have many of the same features as the existing store, such as a pharmacy, butcher and one-hour photo processing. There also will be parking for 200 vehicles.

John Furey, president of Broad Street West Civic Association, said people in his neighborhood are already anxious for the store to open.

"[Acme] is a well-known and respected corporation," Furey said. "People talk very positively about it."

Broad Street West and Girard Estate Area Residents led the charge against Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp.’s original proposal to construct a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant, Walgreens drugstore and some smaller retail stores on the old Quartermaster parking lot.

With a Checkers fast-food restaurant already at 20th and Oregon and a CVS drugstore across Oregon Avenue, residents in both neighborhoods told PIDC they would fight the zoning changes necessary for the developer to begin construction. The property previously had been zoned residential and has since been changed to commercial.

"We said, ‘Oh no, please, no more drugstores,’" Furey recalled, "and we don’t want [another] fast-food place. They generate too much trash and activity that wouldn’t be conducive to the neighborhood."

Before Acme expressed interest, neighbors also nixed a proposal to build a public-storage facility on the site.


South Philadelphia has typically been underserved by supermarkets, and the new store will fill the hole left when the Acme chain closed its market at Third Street and Oregon Avenue two years ago.

Rubel calls the location a "wonderful growth area," despite the existing Shop Rite supermarket at 24th and Oregon and a plan to build a shopping center at the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia — just a couple of blocks away — that will probably include a large warehouse grocer like BJ’s Wholesale Club or Costco.

Rubel downplayed the potential competition from Shop Rite, stating the two stores are "not exactly right around the corner" from each other. Acme believes its store will draw customers from different communities, he said.

"With the population density and demographics," Rubel said, "it is just the ideal location for a supermarket."

Furey also predicted the store would thrive at that location.

"It is close to the residential area," he said, "and a lot of people can walk there instead of waiting for someone to get a ride to 24th Street."

Acme Markets’ roots trace to South Philly. Friends Samuel Robinson and Robert Crawford opened their first store here in 1891. It was a small neighborhood grocery store by the name The House the Quality Built. Later, the name changed to Robinson and Crawford and the store grew into a small chain. After mergers with other local chains, the markets became known as American Stores. In the late 1930s, they took on the name Acme Markets.

In June 1999, Acme finalized a merger with Albertson’s, Inc. — a Boise, Idaho, company that at the time was the second-largest food and drug retailer in the United States.

Three years ago, the company closed its 30-year-old distribution center at Seventh Street and Pattison Avenue. The move affected 450 employees, including many local residents, who were responsible for preparing orders for local Acme stores.

The company moved its distribution center and warehouse to a 150-acre plot in East Cocalico Township, Lancaster County. Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs have more Acme Markets stores than any other chain. At the time of the move, there were no Acmes in Lancaster.

When construction began on the Phillies’ new stadium, Jetro Wholesale Grocers Warehouse had to find a new location and settled in the former Acme warehouse.