Tops Friendly Markets

Tops is a subsidiary of Northeast Grocery, which also owns the Price Chopper and Market 32 supermarkets based in Schenectady, New York.

Tops Friendly Markets was co-founded by Armand Castellani, who was born in 1917 in a village outside of Rome, Italy, and Thomas Buscaglia.

Castellani's family came to the United States in 1920, and eventually settled in Niagara Falls, where his father, Ferrante, opened a small neighborhood grocery store.

Throughout the 1950s, Buscaglia, as CEO, and Castellani worked together, entering into a cooperative agreement with other small stores to build the foundation of what was to become the Tops Friendly Markets chain.

As the local economy boomed in the mid-to-late 1950s, the company's operations expanded to include building construction principally devoted to supermarkets.

By 1958, they had set up headquarters in Buffalo, and in 1962 opened their first modern supermarket: a 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m2) store on Portage Road in Niagara Falls.

Subsequently, the company began construction on a perishable warehouse and acquired general merchandise distributor G&G Sales and Service.

The 1970s saw Tops Friendly Markets, under the leadership of Castellani and Nanula, continue to grow in Western New York, and thrive where competitors struggled.

The next year, Tops Friendly Markets introduced Western New York shoppers to direct debit service, Instabank ATMs and the first CarryOut Café.

A new era began March 27, 1991 as Tops Friendly Markets, which had grown to 145 total stores and 11,000 associates, was acquired by Ahold, a major international food retailer based in the Netherlands.

At that time, the 112,000 sq ft (10,400 m2) store was the largest in Western New York, and boasted the biggest in-store bakery in the entire U.S.

In the next few years additional Tops Friendly Markets International stores opened in Niagara Falls, West Seneca, Greece, and Perinton, New York.

The International stores feature additional floor space and a product mix of many foods from different world cultures which up until then had not been widely available in the Buffalo area.

In 2001, Tops acquired 22 former Grand Union stores in the Adirondacks region and in Central New York, further east than its market had traditionally been.

The Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Markets businesses will retain main offices in Schenectady and Williamsville and will continue to be managed locally by their respective leaders.

As a result of the acquisition, all 585 employees were retained, and renovations totalling more than $8 million were announced for the Lockport, Depew, and Buffalo stores.

As of February 28, 2008, the remaining Martin's locations were all returned to the Tops Friendly Markets brand as part of the sale to Morgan Stanley Private Equity.

[23] On May 25, 2007, well-known grocery industry consultant Burt P. Flickinger III announced that he is part of a group of investors interested in purchasing the Tops Markets chain.

[25] On October 11, 2007, Ahold announced the sale of Tops Friendly Markets, LLC to Morgan Stanley Private Equity in a transaction valued at $310 million.

The owners of the Baytowne Plaza notified all of their tenants that they would not be allowed to renew their lease upon expiration, and Tops Markets closed the doors of their store to the public on October 27, 2007.

[32] Tops was confirmed as the high bidder of Penn Traffic and on January 25, 2010 a federal judge signed off on an agreement in US Bankruptcy Court for the sale of same.

In August 2010, Tops was ordered by the Federal Trade Commission to sell seven stores it had acquired from Penn Traffic due to anticompetitive concerns.

On July 11, 2012 Tops Markets announced plans to open its first new store in the City of Syracuse since acquiring the Penn Traffic chain.

The store opened in Valley Plaza on the cities south side on October 30, 2012 in a former P&C location although the new Tops was considerably smaller.

In December, 2013 Tops Markets announced that it would be taking back operations of its Lancaster distribution facility from C&S Wholesale Grocers.

Also in May 2014 Tops officials held a ground breaking ceremony for a brand new store slated to open in Walworth, New York early in 2015.

Tops Friendly Markets' first announced acquisition of 2016 continued its focus on Pennsylvania with the purchase of the Westfield Big M from owner Bion Warren.

In July 2016, it was announced that Tops had entered into a purchase agreement with Ahold and Delhaize Group for 4 Stop & Shop locations in Rhinebeck, New Paltz and Wappingers Falls, New York and Gardner, Massachusetts and 2 Hannaford Brothers locations in LaGrangeville and Carmel, New York, as part of the divestiture of stores to gain clearance from the Federal Trade Commission for the impending Ahold/Delhaize merger.

The Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Markets businesses will retain main offices in Schenectady and Williamsville and will continue to be managed locally by their respective leaders.

The buyout, which was expected to be completed by the end of 2013, involved Morgan Stanley Private Equity selling all remaining shares to Tops management, including CEO Frank Curci.

A Tops Friendly Markets store in Boston, New York in 2015, formerly a B-Kwik.
Store closing in Tallmadge, Ohio in 2006, which later became an Acme Fresh Market store