By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – Eleven area Tops supermarkets will undergo major renovations.
Tops will invest $20 million into 11 stores in the Buffalo Niagara region. One of the stores to be totally refurbished is the Tops on Elmwood Avenue in North Buffalo. That is where company officials appeared Thursday to announce the remodeling plans. Max Henderson, executive vice president and general manager of Tops, says each of the 11 stores will undergo a major transformation.
Despite financial difficulties with its parent company Ahold USA, Henderson says Ahold gave the green light for this project based on Tops' success in this region.
Ahold's fourth quarter report indicated that Tops lost almost three percent of its market share. But Henderson says in Western New York, it is different. He says Tops has 50 percent of the market. The newly renovated stores are expected to make Tops more competitive. Henderson says it will also set them apart from Wegmans and the low-discount stores like Aldi's and Save-A-Lot.
Henderson also announced that as of April 16th the Martin's store on Maple Road in Amherst will be switch back to the Tops name.