Acme

A 19-year-old Naval Academy midshipman was cited for underage drinking at downtown Annapolis bar during an enforcement sweep last week, police said Tuesday. Sara James Markwith, a Washington state resident attending the military college, left her seat at the Acme Bar & Grill when police and other city inspectors entered the bar in the 100 block of Main St., police said. Maj. Scott Baker said officers "had to coax her out of the bathroom. " She gave police an incorrect birthdate, and she became argumentative with officers, but later told police she slipped in through a back door when someone else was returning inside.

LANDOVER -- Giant Food Inc., which grabs 39 cents of every supermarket dollar spent in Baltimore and Washington, clearly indicated yesterday that it will try to grow profits by invading the Philadelphia region in the next few years.Giant's interest in the Delaware Valley area wasn't a secret. The company already has one store in the Wilmington area, plans to open another next year and recently signed a deal to open in Cherry Hill, N.J.But executives at Giant's annual shareholders meeting yesterday signaled that their ambitions for the region go far beyond a few scattered locations and probably entail price and advertising wars against established operators Acme and Super Fresh.

Rosemont residents have long lobbied the city to inject new life into a West Baltimore warehouse that's stood mostly vacant since a supermarket company pulled out years ago. Now that hoped-for revitalization appears to be on the way. The Baltimore Development Corp. said yesterday that it has found a company to redevelop the site. Himmelrich Associates Inc., a city real estate company best known for transforming the old Montgomery Ward catalog house and department store in Southwest Baltimore into upscale offices, is proposing a $22 million "community hub" with senior housing, offices, light manufacturing space and retail.

Predictions about record-breaking heating costs this winter have sent customers running to retail stores with requests for wood stoves and inserts. "It's almost like panic mode," said Rona Kelley, co-owner of Tri-County Hearth and Patio Center in Waldorf. Some customers at Kelley's store have insisted on buying wood stoves despite her advice that the size of their fireplaces made them ill-equipped to handle the additions. She suggested gas logs, but the customers said no, they wanted wood.

The tanks in Maryland's oldest aquarium shop have held everything from electric eels to Prohibition bathtub gin.Drop into Acme Tropical Gardens at 21st and St. Paul streets in the southern tier of Charles Village. The shop is a self-contained world of chugging pumps, bubbling air hoses and choirs of angel fish. The place looks like something out of a 1930s Hollywood studio. Even its windows appear to be coated with green algae.Presiding over the operation is Bernard Dappie, 39, a rather shy man with long red hair who first remembers pressing his nose to the glass of an aquarium at this shop when he was 14 years old."

PHILADELPHIA -- Giant Food boss Israel Cohen didn't say "read my lips," but his message two years ago was clear: The company wasn't going to open any supermarkets in the Philadelphia area.He was wrong.A few weeks ago Giant agreed to buy a 10-acre plot in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, N.J. A spacious, shiny "Super G" grocery store will open there next year.And Giant officials are intently scouring the Main Line, Chester and Bucks counties and other Philadelphia suburbs for more sites.

New positionsMcCormick names Newman compensation managerMcCormick & Co., the Hunt Valley-based international spice and flavorings maker, has appointed Joanne S. Newman compensation manager for corporate human resources. She will design and manage the company's salary, bonus, stock option and other incentives programs. The Lutherville resident is an MBA candidate at Loyola College and is active in several professional organizations, including the American Compensation Association.Frank Williams Jr. joins Acme Paper & SupplyAcme Paper & Supply Co. has hired Frank E. Williams Jr. as a sales representative in the janitorial maintenance division.

On December 11, 2003, JOHN ANTHONY WAGNER, son of the late Emma Sullivan and Frank Wagner, died in Sarasota, Florida, age 95. Born in Baltimore in 1909, he was married in 1930 to the late Marian Rosemond Richards for 73 years. After attending Loyola High School, his interest in playing the saxophone was realized by joining St. Elizabeth's Marching Band. During the BIG BAND era, he played professionally on radio and in dance bands for 22 years. Mr. Wagner joined the American Stores Company (Acme Markets)

The Harford County Sheriff's Office cited three Fallston establishments for selling cigarettes to a 16-year-old volunteer during unannounced tobacco compliance checks at eight county businesses. The Tobacco Enforcement Manager at the Harford County Health Department conducted the tobacco compliance checks to determine whether merchants were complying with the Maryland Youth Access Law. The law states that it is illegal for anyone, including merchants, friends or parents to sell or distribute tobacco products to customers younger than 18. The Sheriff's Office said the three merchants who did not comply with the Maryland Youth Access Law and sold cigarettes to the underage volunteer were Acme Markets, 2315 Belair Road; a 7-Eleven at 2400 Pleasantville Road; and Bel Air Sunoco, 1515 Belair Road.