Acme Markets

IN THE REGION Three area Acme stores to close Acme supermarkets in Morrisville, Sharon Hill, and Glassboro are to be shut down by December as part of a broader cost-cutting move in which corporate parent Supervalu Inc. will close 60 stores across the nation, the Minnesota-based company said. A fourth Acme, in Stevensville, Md., is also among those being shuttered as an "underperforming or nonstrategic" store, as are 22 Save-A-Lot locations. The announcement comes as Supervalu tests the market for potential buyers of some or all of the retail- and wholesale-grocery corporation, which consists of Malvern-based Acme Markets, Chicago's Jewel-Osco supermarket chain, a food distribution segment, and other retail grocery chains.

Acme supermarkets in Morrisville, Sharon Hill, and Glassboro, N.J., are to be shut down by December as part of a broader cost-cutting move in which corporate parent Supervalu Inc. will close 60 stores across the nation, the Minnesota-based company said Wednesday. A fourth Acme in Stevensville, Md., is also among those being shuttered as an "underperforming or nonstrategic" store, as are 22 Save-A-Lot locations. The announcement comes as Supervalu tests the market for potential buyers of some or all of the retail- and wholesale-grocery corporation, which consists of Malvern-based Acme Markets, Chicago's Jewel-Osco supermarket chain, a food distribution segment, and other retail grocery chains.

The future of thousands of Acme Markets workers was on the minds of union leaders Thursday after corporate parent Supervalu Inc. shook up shareholders with plans to "explore strategic alternatives" — corporate parlance for measures that often include courting buyers for the company. The $36 billion corporation, which has been struggling beneath the weight of $6.3 billion in debt, also said it would suspend its quarterly dividend to shareholders and cut $250 million in costs over the next year and a half, beyond the $75 million it hopes to slash by the end of February.

Matthew Maratea jumped at the chance to transfer to the new Acme in Bryn Mawr. As a 25-year veteran of the iconic but stressed supermarket chain, the longtime produce manager hadn't seen a new store open in four years. A chance for a high-energy guy to grow professionally? Maratea couldn't resist. Since leaving the Exton store to orchestrate the fruit-and-vegetable lineup at this new $14 million Acme on the Main Line, Maratea has been crackling with creativity, and cracking produce puzzles each day. "This is my biggest challenge," the wiry aficionado of legumes and leeks said Wednesday, hopping toward a refrigerator case that had already been depleted of the day's supply of organic kale and organic navel oranges, and it was only lunchtime.

Acme Markets president Dan Sanders is leaving the Malvern, Pa.-based division of Supervalu Inc. as part of a series of corporate reassignments at three of the company's supermarket divisions. Sanders, who is becoming president of Albertsons Southern California, will be replaced by Keith Wyche of Supervalu's Cub Foods chain, the company announced Monday. In leading Cub Foods since 2010, Wyche has overseen a 67-store chain with locations in Minnesota and Illinois. Sanders is replacing Sue Klug, who is leaving Albertsons and the Minneapolis-based corporation this month.

Labor negotiations have begun between Acme Markets and its largest union in the Philadelphia region, and this round is shaping up to be even tougher than the last, when talk of steep concessions nearly led to a lockout that would have emptied dozens of supermarkets of their cashiers, clerks, and other workers. The three-year contract covering about 3,000 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 at 38 Acme locations in Southeastern Pennsylvania expired in February, bringing both sides to the bargaining table about the same time that competing supermarket chain A&P emerged from bankruptcy with $625 million in recently won concessions from its own UFCW members.

Acme Markets' corporate parent, Supervalu Inc., announced Tuesday it would cut 800 jobs across the country by the end of its fiscal year Feb. 25 as part of ongoing cost-reduction efforts. The Minneapolis-based supermarket retail operator and wholesaler said that, "in general," store-level associates such as cashiers, clerks, and department managers - employees in direct contact with customers - would not be affected by the move. A small number of positions targeted for elimination are within the Acme Markets division, whose regional administrative offices are in Malvern.

Acme Markets owner Supervalu Inc. of Minneapolis on Wednesday reported a net loss of $750 million on $8.3 billion in sales for the quarter that ended Dec.r 3, a decline from the $202 million loss on $8.7 billion recorded during the same period a year earlier. The $3.54-per-share loss for the third quarter compared with a loss of 95 cents per share a year earlier, the supermarket corporation said. The results included noncash goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges of $800 million after taxes.

Peter F. McGoldrick, 82, president and chief executive officer of Acme Markets from 1974 to 1980, died Saturday, Oct. 22, at Bryn Mawr Hospital after suffering a stroke at his Bryn Mawr home. Mr. McGoldrick's daughter, Beth, said in biographical notes that during his time at its Philadelphia headquarters, "Acme was one of the largest supermarket chains in the eastern United States, operating 362 stores and employing more than 20,000 people in seven states. " She wrote that her father, while at Acme, "was especially proud of his work on nutrition programs and youth employment in concert with his dear friend Alphonso Deal, a former city policeman who headed the NAACP's Philadelphia branch.