TOPS Friendly Markets

Going there for years. Good for most types of grocery. Ethnic foods too. Not crazy busy like wegmans down the street– but that’s what you want most times. Helpful staff. Bakery made super cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday. I give them a thumbs up!

Large Tops with easy parking. Surprisingly large Asian and other ethnic foods areas. Tons of different types of rice too. Bulk foods, which I was here for, are in the front left part of the store. Slightly unusual location compared to other Tops.
Not too busy, this is an easy store to visit.
3 stars for the chain.

Tops is not Wegmans but their small Maple — Transit Rd location is my shopping choice. I love that the store is not massive. I love their meat selection and how their meat employees lower the price on meats regularly. I like that they have a manager’s discount food area where various items r greatly discounted. I like the self check out. In produce they have unique melons that are put in a 4 slice pkg which is good for an individual.

TOPS prefer bottoms, trust me, I know this from experience.
This particular Tops is clean and fairly spacious and seems to have a lot going for it… but like the one in Williamsville, it is
(a) overpriced
(b) has quite a few unfriendly employees who look at me like I’m trying to rob the store when I come in late at night, and
© seems to be out of everything I need, every time I go in there.
For these reasons, I give it a 2, and prefer Dash’s and Wegmans.

In the past I wouldn’t really have had any reason to review Tops but, a recent trip there after going to the gym inspired me to inform the general public of something awesome. This awesomeness pertains to their fried chicken in their prepared foods department. Now I know there are skeptics out there that will say ‘you must be out your god damn mind.’ But, this is some freakin really good chicken. It has a good flakey/​crispy crust, it’s not too salty or greasy and it’s usually pretty moist considering it’s served in a buffet pan. And sometimes if your lucky, you’ll show up right as it’s coming out of the fryer. Please be warned though, be patient or you will burn the ever living crap out of your mouth.
On a side note, I noticed that their prepared foods like the salad bar and sandwich shop were actually cheaper than Wegmans. Kind of surprised me. Haven’t tried anything other than the chicken but figured I’d give the heads up.

Tops confuses me and here’s why. There are highly competitive supermarkets in Buffalo. You need to set yourself apart from the others in order to maintain a successful business and flowing clientele. Tops products are more expensive than Wegmans, Target and with Trader Joes coming to the area in a few days, well they are in trouble. If you aren’t going to have significant price differences then the employees here should at least have an outgoing friendly demeanor like the employees at Wegmans. It’s just a drastic difference coming into the two places (helpfulness, happiness of employees and cleanliness.) The people who were at Tops act like they hate their jobs and act far from professional from what I have seen.
Another aspect about TOPS that bothers me was that when I tried using my TOPS card, I had been told it was registered. I explained to the cashier that I had just moved here and signed up about three weeks ago. Her response was, «Okay well you’re not in the system sooo…» She wasn’t going to allow me to use the discount even though I had registered! I was shocked and thankfully a sweet woman in line behind me let me use her shoppers card. I couldn’t believe it…