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Penn announces plan to replace the Fresh Grocer with Acme — which will include a Starbucks







The Fresh Grocer’s time at 40th and Walnut streets is officially coming to an end, the University and Acme announced Monday.

An Acme supermarket will be moving into the space at 40th and Walnut, the company and Penn said in a joint press release.

The supermarket doesn’t appear to be giving up its fight to remain in place anytime soon though. Throughout the month of April, the Fresh Grocer has continued taking out ads in The Daily Pennsylvanian, including one forthcoming in Wednesday’s paper where it uses the hashtag #SavePennFroGro.

The new Acme supermarket will, like Fresh Grocer, be open 24 hours a day and will feature a beer and wine shop. The store will also have both indoor and outdoor seating.

The new store area, which Acme calls a “first class urban grocery experience,” will feature a Starbucks, the third within a seven-block stretch of Walnut Street.

Ed Datz, the Executive Director of Real Estate at Penn Facilities and Real Estate Services, said the University is currently in litigation with Fresh Grocer, whose lease of the property expired March 31. According to FRES Communications Director Jennifer Rizzi, however, the Fresh Grocer “rejects Penn’s position” that the lease expired on that day.

Because of this ongoing litigation, the timetable of when Fresh Grocer will close — and when Acme will open — is not yet clear.

An Acme spokesperson, in an emailed statement to the DP, also did not give a timeline, saying only that the store hopes to open as soon as possible.

The Acme grocery store chain originated in South Philadelphia in 1891, and this new location will be the sixth Acme location in the city.

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