The ACME supermarket which has been a staple at the Lawrence Shopping Center in Lawrence Township since 1979 will close its doors next month.
ACME Markets announced last week that it plans to close the store by Aug. 24, said ACME Markets spokesman Dana Ward.
The store’s lease at the shopping center is expiring and the decision was made not to renew the lease “in part because this store has not met our goals for a number of years,” Ward said.
“Like all retailers, ACME is constantly evaluating our store portfolio and has to look at every angle of the business. This includes our real estate,” Ward said.
Closing a store is always a difficult decision, Ward said, but the company is “focused on growing our business and reinvesting those resources into our existing stores, along with aggressively exploring new sites.”
Ward said ACME’s 16 full-time and 64 part-time employees in Lawrence Township who are interested in remaining with the company will have the opportunity to transfer to open positions at nearby stores.
ACME’s closing means there will not be a grocery store in the southern part of Lawrence Township, a development Mayor Christopher Bobbitt acknowledged.
“It is a shame the store is closing because it provides a valuable resource to south Lawrence, as well as the surrounding community,” Bobbitt said.
Without ACME, consumers will have to travel to ShopRite at the Mercer Mall on Route 1 South and Quakerbridge Road, or Wegmans on Nassau Park Boulevard at the Nassau Park Pavilion, which is across Quakerbridge Road from the Mercer Mall.
Other food stores in the area include McCaffrey’s Supermarkets at the Princeton Shopping Center on North Harrison Street in Princeton, and the Pennington Quality Market on Route 31 in Pennington.
