To John Persons, re-opening the Jefferson Avenue store was a symbol of the grocery chain’s commitment to Buffalo’s East Side. Not re-opening it or relocating the store was just not an option.
It became a very personal mission for Persons.
“Three years ago, we made the commitment to the families of the victims, to the friends of the victims and to the community,” Persons said. “We made a commitment that not only would we be here as a store serving the neighborhood of Jefferson Avenue, but also we made a commitment to those families that we would honor and remember the victims of May 14, 2022, so it is critical that we live up to our commitment.”
Without that store, East Side residents who already have limited options for fresh, supermarket-quality foods would have had a major retailing hole in their neighborhood.
And, building a new store would have taken far too long, Persons said.
“If we were to close and if we were to try to reopen on another site, it would be multiple years before we would be able to do that. It's very complicated to be able to piece together enough land and plan with the respective permitting process and the construction process, so the only way to be able to serve this community with food would be to reopen on site,” Persons said.
It took two months for the Jefferson Avenue Tops to reopen for customers.
After law enforcement handed the building back to the company, Persons had a harsh image when he walked into the supermarket where signs of the carnage remained. That image still sticks with him, three years later.
“Three years later, there are so many things that stick with me. One of them in particular, at the registers, there was the shopping cart that had a birthday cake in it and melted ice cream. That was the birthday cake and ice cream that Andre Mackniel was buying for his son, his son's birthday. I will never forget seeing that cart still at the registers, sitting there that birthday cake that would never, would never, get to his son,” Persons said.
But, that also deepened Persons resolve that the store had to re-open but only after a complete remodel that was done in just seven weeks. With consensus among company leadership renovations of three other Tops supermarkets were pushed back to make way for the Jefferson Avenue rebuild.
“We stopped all those remodels, and we dedicated all the trades here, we dedicated all the material here so we could remodel this in a record time of under two months,” Persons said. “It was actually in seven weeks that we remodeled it, from top to bottom, end to end.”
Persons said it wasn’t just a personal drive for him, but a drive to serve Buffalo’s East Side community. To this day, Tops remains the sole major grocery retailer in the area, although the independent Apon Supermarket opened last year.
