For Kati Lisansky, the closing of the Bryn Mawr ACME just over a year ago meant her frozen foods always melted before she got them home and forgetting an onion she needed for a dinner recipe required a 10- to 15-minute drive to the nearest store, Lisansky said.

So Lisansky, a resident of the Bryn Mawr section of Haverford Township, was eager to shop on Friday when ACME Markets held its ribbon-cutting ceremony and grand opening of its new Bryn Mawr store, which straddles Haverford
and Lower Merion Townships and is located at 601 West Lancaster Ave.  

“I actually put it on my Facebook page that it was opening. All my neighbors and I were joking we were going to come tailgate this morning… It’s nice to have a neighborhood store back,” Lisansky said as she shopped with her children.

Constructed by Northwood Construction Company of Warminster, PA, the new Bryn Mawr ACME is 37,000 square feet, 13,000 square feet larger than the 55-year-old store it replaced, said Steve Sylven, a spokesman for ACME. Sylven would not disclose what it cost to build the store.

The expansion created roughly 100 new jobs at the Bryn Mawr ACME which currently has 139 employees, said Nick Carides, store director for the Bryn Mawr ACME.

The store’s new features include an expansive produce department with local produce being delivered daily, gluten-free offerings at the deli (making it the third ACME store to offer this option), and expanded meat and seafood departments, Sylven said.

Also new are an expanded gluten-free frozen food section and a larger prepared food section which includes sushi, a hot bar, and ACME’s first full-service Tony Luke’s  sandwich shop which was made possible through a partnership with Tony Luke’s based in South Philadelphia, Carides said.

The store also held an invitation-only open house on Wednesday.

Prudence Harvey of West Chester, who was shopping in the produce section with her granddaughter on Friday, said the new store is “much better” than the old one.

“I like the layout better, and as you come in, you come in with the fruits and vegetables,” Harvey said. “I like that.”

Bill Young of Lower Gwynnedd, PA, also noted improvements of the new store.

“It’s a beautiful store,” Young said.  “I remember when they had the old store here. It’s so much larger and there’s so much greater variety.”

Outside the store, the parking lot, which is now 20 percent larger, was nearly full before the 9 a.m. ribbon cutting ceremony. 

The lot contains about 120 parking spaces, said Paul Freehart, director of project development for ACME. Traffic was being directed into the lot by the Haverford Township Police Department with assistance from ACME security, Freehart said.

The ACME project also added a dedicated right-turn lane on northbound Pennswood Road, and a dedicated left-turn signal on Lancaster Avenue at Pennswood Road, Freehart said.

Lower Merion Commissioner Scott Zelov said he wanted to thank ACME for dedicating the land to create the right-turn lane on Pennswood Road.

“There’s so many great things happening in the Bryn Mawr community and this is one of the best,” Zelov said of the new store.

During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, ACME made donations to local organizations, including $2,000 to ElderNet Ada Mutch Food Pantry; and $500 ACME gift cards per organization to the Haverford Township Police Department, Oakmont Fire Co., Our Mother of Good Counsel, St. Luke United Methodist Church and Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

ACME also donated a park bench—made entirely out of 3,900 recycled plastic shopping bags—to Polo Field.

The Bryn Mawr ACME is the first store which ACME Markets has built since 2008, ACME President Keith Wyche said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“This is a new beginning and I’m just glad to be a part of
it,” Wyche said.