Two months after racist attack, Buffalo supermarket to reopen Friday | Local News | Auburn, NY | Auburnpub.com

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The Tops Markets store on Jefferson Avenue will reopen Friday, two months and one day after a racist mass shooting there killed 10 people, injured three and stunned the efficiently Black community.

The day prior, Tops officials and local dignitaries and guests will gather at the location for a memorial ceremony to mark the two-month anniversary of the tragic events of May 14.

They also will offer a moment of silence and prayer at 2:30 pm to honor all victims and affected Tops associates and community members, Tops said in a statement. A preview of the store will be held for guests and members of the media that day.

The reopening of the store at 1275 Jefferson Ave. on Friday will be done quietly and respectfully, Tops officials said.

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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, which has long been considered a food desert.

“He was always joking, always funny, always had a smile on his face. … That big, cheesy smile. I remember that most about him.”

We desperately need a supermarket open to ensure that we are addressing food insecurity and because of the fact that this area of ​​East Buffalo is a food desert, said Ulysees O. Wingo Sr., who represents the Masten District, where the Tops is located.

Based on the conversations Ive had, Tops is being as intentional as I believe they can possibly be in reopening to ensure theyre not disrespecting anyone and trying to ensure they are showing compassion and sensitivity to what transpired, he said.

Tops officials had said last month they were hoping to have the Jefferson Avenue store reconfigured and reopened by the end of July. Work on the interior and exterior has been ongoing since then.

Despite calls from some community members and local 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 and refurbish the current store .

John Persons, president of Tops, has said if the highest priority for Buffalos East Side is to provide the community with fresh food options as soon as possible, the best way to approach that is to remodel the Jefferson Avenue store.

We sort of internally coalesced around that thought early on, because the process for us or anybody to open a new store in that area would be years, Persons said in an interview last month.

Frank DeRiso, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local One, representing Tops workers, said the employees at the store are excited about returning and most of them will be back. But that excitement doesnt come without some apprehension, he added.

DeRiso recalled that some of the employees who were in the store during the shooting got upset while on site for the renovations when hearing jack hammering going on, but since theyve been able to come back and settle in.

Its going to be a completely different store, DeRiso said. Im sure theres going to be some apprehension but all in all, the way I understand it, the company has committed to everyone coming back to work.

Wingo said he is also spoken with several of the employees of the Tops on Jefferson Avenue, including someone who attends the same church he does, and believes they are ready to get back and see all the familiar faces that frequent that store considered by many in the community as a gathering place.

The staff is looking forward to regaining the fellowship they have with residents, Wingo said. Its going to be difficult, but at the same time, theyre looking forward to getting back to a sense of normalcy.”

“This has never happened to our community before so because this is unchartered territory,” he said, “I dont believe anyone could possibly have a fair assessment to whats too soon or too long.

DeRiso said that the company and union have made sure employees have been offered sufficient counselling. Tops has also paid employees during the two months the store has been closed. He also complimented Tops on contacting other grocery stores where this has happened, like in Boulder, Colo., and Collierville, Tenn., to have discussions about what it takes to reopen.

Ten people were killed March 22, 2021, at the King Soopers in Boulder, 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. Then on Sept. 23, 2021, one person was killed and 13 injured at a Kroger supermarket in Collierville, and that store reopened about seven weeks after the mass shooting.

I think we’ve done everything we could, and I can only say that I hope contract negotiations go as well between me and the company as they did when it came to handling this issue, DeRiso said. Tops stepped up to the plate.

VOICE Buffalo has been one of the local organizations outspoken in saying that there are residents who will never go back into the Tops store at that location after all that happened there. Some say 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, Deacon Jerome Wright, vice chair of the organizations board, said during a press conference in May.

Persons has said he understands the concern but building a new store would have taken years and been much more costly all the while leaving the neighborhood without a grocery store.

In practical terms, thats just a very complicated endeavor if we want to service the community quickly, he said.

The best Tops could have done in opening a new store would have been getting it completed in two to three years, and that would be doing it pretty quick, Persons said.

For us, it was an easy decision, he said.

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