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What isn't mentioned in the original post is that this article is in regards to a store in Owego, NY I'm familiar with Owego from years of traveling south to Myrtle Beach and The Outer Banks, it's a small village on the NY/PA state line between Binghamton and Elmira (3-4 hours from Buffalo). The worst-case scenario is that Tops will close stores like this on the far fringes of their market (which is devastating to a small community) (I remember when my hometown lost our small grocery store) The stores at Union and George Urban or Transit and Maple aren't going anywhere. As for Bon Ton, I remember when they bought up all the AM&A's stores around 1994. Back then, remember there were no Targets or Kohls, and Wal-Mart was just starting to grow their footprint in the region with traditional stores, not super centers. The internet then was also just budding, and online shopping didn't have the footprint it has now. Consumers don't shop in malls and department stores like they once did. There was a time in the 70s and 80s when you couldn't find a parking spot on any Saturday during the year at Eastern Hills, Boulevard, Eastview, Seneca, or Penn-Can. Eastview and Walden Galleria still thrive as the two major malls of the region, but still are losing major market share to both online shopping and big box retailers that were absent from the region during the golden age of the shopping mall.
Thank you for summing up something that people may not consider with these bankruptcies and closings. It is really industry and shopper preference based regardless of location.
Thank you for summing up something that people may not consider with these bankruptcies and closings. It is really industry and shopper preference based regardless of location.
Their was a article in Buffalo News, Prospects 2018, a couple of weeks ago, that said new stores or new resturants will not come to Buffalo because their's no growth and their's already too many stores & resturants for the shrinking market. Speaking of Wegmans, their sales in the Buffalo market have been going down every year too and they are cuting the number of employees & employees hours and said they are not closing stores yet. The word YET says it all. Tops & Wegmans haven't built a new store in the Buffalo Market in over a decade and more then 50% of the sales in the Buffalo Market comes from food stamps
The biggest problem with Topps was the insanely high prices. The only reason they had any business was because they had stores everywhere, there are only a handful of Wegmans, Aldi, Walmart, Save-a-lot and Target. The biggest difference between Topps and the competition is that Topps is unionized and the others aren't, which means higher salaries and benefits. I never understood how they managed to stay in business as long as they did. They fought Walmart tooth and nail to try and keep them out of the market and when that failed the handwriting was on the wall.
From Buffalo News Feb 17, 2018
The owner of Tops Markets is one of two U.S. supermarket chains preparing bankruptcy filings in the coming weeks, Bloomberg News reported Saturday.
The report, which cited people familiar with the situation who were not identified, said the Amherst-based supermarket chain's debt load and intense industry competition are behind the potential filing.
Tops officials declined comment for the Bloomberg article, and a spokeswoman contacted by The Buffalo News on Saturday also said the company would have no comment. Tops chairman and CEO Frank Curci didn't respond to requests for comment.
However, Burt P. Flickinger III, a top retail industry consultant, said it was unlikely Tops would file for bankruptcy immediately, because the chain is in the middle of a strong sales season and it has assets that it could leverage instead of seeking bankruptcy protection. But anything is possible, said Flickinger, managing director of New York retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group.
"It could happen. It shouldn't happen. Do not expect it to happen, because Tops has a number of valuable assets that it could sell," said Flickinger.
While bankruptcy can help protect a company while it reorganizes and deals with debt, it doesn't mean a company will go out of business.
Flickinger pointed to Tops' network of gas stations located on store property, as well as the 21 Grand Union stores the company acquired in 2012 in the Albany area, the Adirondacks and Vermont.
Tops Holdings, the owner of the supermarket chain, has come under scrutiny in recent years for its high level of debt. In November it was added to a list of companies whose debt has been labeled a “concern” by one of the nation’s three main credit rating agencies.
At the time, the company's debt topped $627 million, built up through a series of leveraged buyouts since Tops was sold by Ahold to Morgan Stanley Private Equity in 2007. It grew again after management bought the supermarket chain from Morgan Stanley in a highly leveraged buyout four years ago.
Tops made it onto the list of at-risk retailers last fall because of a distressed debt exchange it completed in August, something Fitch Ratings considers a default. Tops responded that the transaction in question was a technicality and that the company is confident it has a strong enough cash flow to cover its bills.
Standard & Poor’s rates Tops CCC+, which means a company is “not likely to meet its financial commitments” on debt in the event of adverse business, financial or economic conditions, according to the agency. Moody’s gives Tops a rating of Caa1, which deems it in “poor standing” and “subject to very high credit risk,” according to that agency.
"They're not in trouble, but to your present point, the debt levels are among the highest in North American retailing," Flickinger said.
The supermarket industry is highly competitive. In the Buffalo Niagara region, Tops battles for the loyalty of shoppers with Wegmans, Dash's Markets, Walmart, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market, among other stores.
Flickinger acknowledged Tops' difficulties, but he said the company has strengths Its stores have some of the best real-estate locations in North America, giving it a "huge consumer and competitive advantage."
He also said Tops had strong sales through the fall and winter holiday season, amplified by the Buffalo Bills' run to the playoffs and a colder-than-average winter that steers more shoppers into grocery stores.
Flickinger said Tops' cash position is as strong as it has been in 12 months. If there is a filing, he said, it most likely would come later this spring, in late April or early May, which is a weak period for supermarket sales.
Tops really caters to the rural and inner city areas. If Tops were to vacate the city markets, for tens of thousands there wouldn't be an actual supermarket. By the same token, once you get past Springville, which has a Tops, Walmart, and Aldi, there are nothing but Tops in rural communities in the Southern tier (except around larger towns). If Tops were to close, people would have to drive over 30min for groceries! Wegmans is great, but they exclusively build in inner ring suburbs to attract both inner ring and outer ring residents.
Their was a article in Buffalo News, Prospects 2018, a couple of weeks ago, that said new stores or new resturants will not come to Buffalo because their's no growth and their's already too many stores & resturants for the shrinking market. Speaking of Wegmans, their sales in the Buffalo market have been going down every year too and they are cuting the number of employees & employees hours and said they are not closing stores yet. The word YET says it all. Tops & Wegmans haven't built a new store in the Buffalo Market in over a decade and more then 50% of the sales in the Buffalo Market comes from food stamps
Can you post the article or source of this information?
Wasn’t the Amherst Street Wegmans remodeled not that long ago?
As for Tops, their prices are generally higher than other markets and I think they have stretched themselves out too thin. They took over some former P&C locations around the state and even a shuttered Wegmans on Syracuse’s North Side. So, those things may also play a part in this.
Tops really caters to the rural and inner city areas. If Tops were to vacate the city markets, for tens of thousands there wouldn't be an actual supermarket. By the same token, once you get past Springville, which has a Tops, Walmart, and Aldi, there are nothing but Tops in rural communities in the Southern tier (except around larger towns). If Tops were to close, people would have to drive over 30min for groceries! Wegmans is great, but they exclusively build in inner ring suburbs to attract both inner ring and outer ring residents.
So what you are saying is, Topps survives by gouging inner city and rural customers who have nowhere else to go.
I'm not surprised about Tops. I rarely go there, but when I do, there are almost no customers (at least in the Rochester stores) and will only have 1 or 2 checkouts open. If you go to a Wegmans across the street they will be packed and have 20 checkouts open. Wegmans also employ 2-3 times as many employees per store.
In Buffalo there are, I believe 9 or 10 Wegmans and about 30 Tops, but their market share is almost equal.
As far as Bon Ton is concerned, they left the Rochester market years ago which was fine as they never seemed to match the quality of Macy's, for instance.
Bon Ton is just a sign of the ups and downs of big box shopping.
By ups and downs, I assume you mean downs...with no end in sight. Jeff Bezos will have a monopoly on the universe itself in 20 years (I assume he will have bought out Elon Musk by then, heh).
My Aunt in West Seneca said they just raised the property taxes and also raised electric & national gas rates and that she & her friends & neighbors are buying most of their food at Aldi's and they can't afford to go Tops or Wegmans anymore.
I'm from West Seneca...thought there was going to be a revolt over the small hike in property taxes. Sheila Meegan, the town supervisor, literally got death threats over it. Oh, humanity....
Between the 60s and the mid 90s, Tops was pretty much the lone major grocery chain west of the Genesee River. Competitors came and couldn't compete (Super Duper, Bells, Jubilee, Big M). Bells was probably lasted the longest of these four, but still had fallen by about 1992. Big M had their niche with prepared foods (including their famous gut buster subs) Then Wegmans moved west from Rochester and Aldi spread east from Chicago, I live less than a half-mile from a Tops, but do most of my shopping at Wegmans because I find Wegmans prices are usually lower. The benefit of Tops is that they have a better variety in many of the products I buy (oatmeal, tortilla shells, etc). I hope Tops is around for many years to come and they most likely will emerge from this bankruptcy as a better company both in terms of financial status and for their customers.
I was born in '86, so this is a little before my time, but I recall Bells and Super Duper from my early childhood. One of them evolved into Jubilee and the other into Quality Markets, if I recall correctly.
Unrelated tidbit that I guess I'll edit to post here, because three posts in this thread is probably already two too many: back in 2005 or so, a former friend and I walked into either a Tops or Wegmans to grab some needed item. It was then that I heard the greatest analogy for the two grocery store chains that's likely ever been stated: Wegmans is the drug house; Tops is the rehab center. Purely in terms of color scheme and by extension ambience...the Wegman family might not approve, but I love(d) it.
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