Post
by jimbobga » 01 Nov 2007 11:17
Southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia had a lot more population in 1940 and 1950 due to coal mining. There were also a variety of grocery chains in the area at that time. While Acme may have been a big name in the northeast, the VA/WV stores were a small chain headquartered in North Tazewell, Virginia. By the mid-fifties Acme stores were located in "downtown" North Tazewell between the river and the railroad; the Bluefield store was located west of downtown at the intersection of US 19/460 and US 52 where the Bluefield Daily Telegraph offices are located today. The Princeton store opened in the very early sixties, and was located about a block off Courthouse Square, and this building, which still stands, seems to have branded Acme, BigA, Allen's, and then Acme again. In the mid-sixties, Acme built Westgate Shopping Center in South Bluefield. The shopping center almost straddled the VA/WV state line, and contained Acme, their 'new' AMart discount store, and an S&H Green Stamps store. I remember ads listing a store in Beckley, and at one time there was a store in Welch, WV, but a family member tells me it burned in the mid-fifties. In the late sixties, Acme joined Hills and GC Murphy in the wierdly-named BluePrince Plaza located midway between Bluefield and Princeton in the Green Valley community.
The Acme name seemed to disappear in the early seventies, and many of these stores were renamed Allen's or Grant's. The newspaper advertisements of the day co-branded these stores. The Wytheville store may have been a part of this group. In the mid-eighties, the Allen's/Grant's stores were rebranded Acme. The stores were in downtown Princeton, east of Princeton at the Athens cut-off, and on highway 20 in the Glenwood community. While the 50's version had some sort of appeal, the eighties version didn't, as it seemed to rely heavily on Red & White and some other off-brand merchandise.
In addition to Acme, the coalfields were also home to other local chains, including Deskins, with stores in Bluefield, Green Valley, Bluewell, Welch, and English, WV, and North Tazewell, Richlands, and Grundy, VA; and Jones and Spry, with stores in Kimball, War, Squire, and Jolo, WV. These stores competed with Kroger and A&P throughout the coalfields, as well as with the remnants of the "company stores," which morphed into quasi-grocery chains such as Island Creek Stores and Union Supply [Poca Fuel] Stores.
Originally from Keystone, WV, I'm in the Bluefield area a couple of times of year. If you want to take a road trip to see the former locations of these stores, we could easily have a day-long "used-to-be" tour.