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| Photos courtesy of Salvatore J. Alessi, long-time A&P employee |
What a solemn start to 2020.
In August of last year, ACME Markets of Malvern announced their latest set of store closures-- which included the bustling Weehawken store, high-end Woodcliff Lake location, Elmwood Park Pathmark, and the location that barely anybody knew about: Eastchester. ACME Markets acquired several A&P stores in the greater White Plains area back in 2015 in Project Azalea, but more than a dozen acquired stores have closed since then.
The Eastchester location, which is in by far one of the worst shopping centers I've seen in quite awhile (the A&P space is around the back of the center, up a hill. Signs on the road? None). Despite the bad location, the A&P (originally a Shopwell and later a Food Emporium) lasted more than thirty years here, and it's a real shocker! I guess the thirty-year streak was broken when A&P was broke.
Currently, these are some of the few photos available of the Eastchester location. Photos on Google Maps and Flickr only show shoddy exterior photos and blurry, unappealing interior photos. Our photo set today comes from a 30-year A&P veteran, Salvatore J. Alessi.
These photos were taken roughly three days before the store locked its doors for good, and DeCicco Family Markets, a Westchester grocer, started prepping the space for their next store. A wise choice, but will the shopping center affect their success as well?
I don't think this photo can be any more A&P-ish. The coolers, wood-slat aisle toppers, weird wavy wall patterns, and blank back-splashes. Everything. It's quite an ideal store for the Fresh decor; however, the store likely used the 90's Foodmarket decor before the store was converted to an A&P in the "geographical mitigating" during the recession.
The store, being in a rather upscale neighborhood, of course received the finest vinyl flooring that money can buy. It's crazy to think that A&P had this idea all the way back in 2004, when other supermarkets are just hopping on this trend now!
Sadly, this ends our tour. As I said previously, photos of this store are extremely limited due to its location and customer base.
The question at hand here is: was it ACME's format that lead them to failure, the location, or the pricing? The world may never know. However, we'll see whether or not DeCicco is a success or not in coming months. Maybe it'll be time for an update by then...
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