Tops looks to reopen Jefferson Avenue store by end of July

The store has been closed since the racially motivated mass shooting there May 14 that killed 10 people and injured three.

John Persons, president of Tops, said at a news conference Wednesday for the Taste of Buffalo that the store does not have a firm reopening date.

But Tops officials are hoping to have it open at some point next month, a spokesperson for the supermarket chain confirmed. That would likely be more than two months after the tragedy occurred.

Workers were at the Tops store on Wednesday, doing exterior work on the building.

Complete coverage: 10 killed, 3 wounded in mass shooting at Buffalo supermarket

Persons had committed to reopening the store in the aftermath of the shooting and since then but has remained reluctant to commit to an opening date. On Wednesday, he provided only a timeframe for the opening with further details remaining scarce.

“We want to make sure we’re going to handle everything we possibly can, the best we possibly can,” Persons previously said. “We’re not perfect and we’ll certainly make mistakes. But it’s not out of bad intention. We really want to handle things properly and right for the community and our people.”

Despite calls from some community activists and leaders for Tops to open in another location on the East Side, sparing people from going into the same place where so much carnage occurred, store officials have been steadfast in their vision to reopen the current store and refurbish it to make it a “first-rate location.”

Renovating the store also would be the faster – and less costly – way to bring a supermarket back to a neighborhood that lacks food shopping options.

Tops opened its Jefferson Avenue supermarket 19 years ago after residents for more than a decade had been calling for a full-service grocery store in their neighborhood, once considered a food desert. Tops has been working on assisting in transporting area residents to alternative locations while the Jefferson Avenue store is closed.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has said it remains critical for residents in the area to have the store reopen because they do not have many other options for fresh food and produce.

Persons had said Tops at first was prioritizing getting its employees from the store access to counseling and support they may need and its customers access to the food they require while the grocery store is closed. It also quickly started a GoFundMe initiative called the “Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund” and pledged $500,000 toward it.

Persons has said the grocer planned to have experts in construction and environmental issues assess the store’s condition, before repairing all the damage from the incident, as well as make improvements to the store.

“We want this store to be a positive element to the community,” Persons has said. “With everything that has happened, that’s difficult. So, we want to make sure that we upgrade and update the store. … All of those elements will take a little bit of time. We want to have the right store, right amenities and right feel for what the community needs.”

He added he feels obligated to balance being respectful of easing employees back into the work environment while trying to open as quickly as possible for the community. Eighty-six workers are employed at that location and their salaries are continuing to be paid while the store is closed.

Persons previously said Tops will lean on their input, as well as the advice of community members, before reopening.

“We want to do it properly and respectfully and we want to honor the victims and survivors of the event, and that will take a little bit of effort,” Persons previously said. “When we have a good feeling about that, we will in fact reopen.”

The reopening of the Tops store is in line with decisions made by other retailers after three similar mass shootings over the past three years.

Twenty-three people were killed and nearly two dozen others injured in an Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart. The store reopened three months after the incident.

Ten people were killed March 22, 2021, at the King Soopers in Boulder, Colo., after a man opened fire inside the store. It opened more than 10 months later but that timing was also affected by a workers’ strike.

On Sept. 23, 2021, one person was killed and 13 injured at a Kroger supermarket in Collierville, Tenn., and that store reopened about seven weeks after the mass shooting.

All three stores reopened at the same location but after massive overhauls were completed. While each reopening was greeted with positive reviews and feelings of healing, a level of unavoidable anxiety permeated over them as well, according to media reports.

Deacon Jerome Wright, vice chair of VOICE Buffalo, said recently there are people who will never go back into the Tops store at that location, noting it would be impossible to fix all that happened there. He believes there should be only a memorial at the site and a new Tops should be built at another location in the community.

“Sending people back into that place where people were massacred is the height of insensitivity,” he said.