Tops grocery store in Buffalo reopens to mixed reactions after mass shooting
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Two months after the racist mass shooting that killed 10 people and injured three others at a Buffalo supermarket, the store has reopened to a community still in mourning.
The Tops grocery store "quietly" opened its doors Friday morning, according to a Tops news release, with a prayer and a brief cheer from employees, customers and community members who showed up to support the reopening.
LeCandice Durham and her family showed up with sparkly homemade signs reading "WELCOME BACK TOPS" and "WE ♥ U!"
"I'm just happy to be here, [to] welcome in the employees, the customers, as they come in to shop for the first time in two months," Durham said, as her young daughter proudly held up a bag of chips purchased inside. Her family had gone in already, but as for herself, Durham said, "I think for now, outside is the best place for me, just because I don't want to cry. I want to be strong today for the brave, courageous people who came back to work."
During a small reopening ceremony on Thursday, Tops Friendly Markets President John Persons said a quarter of the employees who used to work at this location chose not to return. He said that the company has found places for those employees at other locations and that he stands by his decision to renovate this store, rather than build a new one from the ground up.
"We think being able to reopen to the community respectfully and honorably, to be able to do that in two months versus 2 1/2 to three years, we think is the right decision," Persons said.
Not everyone agrees.
"We're saying that it's too soon to go back into a store where we're literally walking on the blood of our elders and those that have died to get things that we need," said activist Jalonda Hill. "It's also retraumatizing to go back into a space where people have been murdered."
On opening day, Hill and a small group of demonstrators gathered on the sidewalk in front of the store. "I don't want to see business as usual, because my life has not been the same since [the attack]," protested Jerome Wright, who has circulated a petition to get the store to close again.
But many people were going right back inside to shop, though some expressed apprehension about walking through the same automatic doors that let in a gunman just a couple of months ago.
"It was emotional, it was emotional," said Kenny Gaston, who went inside to pick up some fruit for his father.
"We now, on the one hand, look at it as sacred ground," he said, when asked about the reluctance that some people have about shopping there again.
"People wouldn't tread over graveyards or cemeteries. This has some of the same perspective for some of our people. On the other hand, we've been traumatized for centuries ... but our ancestors always rose above it and kept moving forward. That's why I'm here today," explained Gaston. And, he said, the renovations inside the store were nice, especially those in the produce department, which Tops says it expanded as part of the changes.
Inside, there's brighter lighting, new paint and flooring — and a memorial wall featuring a poem about the healing power of water, by Buffalo poet laureate Jillian Hanesworth. The store also now features an increased security presence, an updated camera and alarm system, and more emergency exits than required in the building code, according to a news release.
Even so, activists and members of the community are quick to point out that this Tops, despite being the only supermarket for this community, was run-down compared with other Tops stores in Buffalo and that the systemic problems that led to the massacre still exist. This Tops is the only supermarket for Buffalo's majority-Black East Side, which made it an easy target for a racist gunman looking to kill Black people.
"Let's start looking at this area and seeing what we can develop, because it's well needed," said Lenny Lane, whose group, Buffalo F.A.T.H.E.R.S., has been holding cookouts near the Tops since the shooting.
"We need so much that I don't even know where to start," Lane said. "But we start here. We needed a good supermarket, and we got it. But my God, look at what had to happen before we got it."
WBFO's Tom Dinki contributed to this report.
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Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Two months ago, a gunman opened fire at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y. Ten people were killed and three others injured in the racist attack, which left residents of Buffalo's majority-Black east side in mourning. They were also left without a grocery store. And today, that top supermarket has reopened to the community. Here's Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown at an unveiling ceremony yesterday, two months to the day after the shooting.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BYRON BROWN: We will take this place of tragedy and in the days, the weeks, the months, the years to come, it will be a national and worldwide example of a place of triumph.
CHANG: But as NPR's Liz Baker reports, community reactions to this moment are mixed.
(SOUNDBITE OF WIND CHIMES TWINKLING)
LIZ BAKER, BYLINE: Tops called it a quiet reopening, a prayer, a brief rallying cheer and then open for business, as customers drove into the parking lot past a memorial display of flowers, wind chimes and candles on the sidewalk outside.
LE'CANDICE DURHAM: Welcome back, Tops, Jefferson 10 forever.
BAKER: Le'Candice Durham and her family showed up with sparkly, homemade signs.
DURHAM: You know, I'm just happy to be here, you know, welcoming the employees, the customers, as they come in to shop for the first time in two months.
BAKER: But as to whether she will go inside today...
DURHAM: I think right now, outside is the best place for me.
BAKER: Eventually, she says, but not today. She doesn't want to cry.
KENNY GASTON: It was emotional. It was emotional.
BAKER: Kenny Gaston popped in to buy fruit for his dad.
GASTON: But, you know, nobody can shop for one item in a store, right? So I came to get the watermelon and I ended up with, you know, lettuce, tomatoes, greens and a big jar of olive oil.
BAKER: Gaston says he's impressed with the changes inside.
GASTON: The way they redesigned the place is an honor to the people that passed.
BAKER: There's fresh paint and a shiny new floor, bright lights, an expanded produce department and some updates that aren't so visible - more security guards, cameras, an alarm system and extra emergency exits. Right inside the doors next to a customer service desk is a water wall engraved with a poem in honor of those who lost their lives in the attack. At the preview event on Thursday, Tops President John Persons said that renovating and reopening the existing store rather than building a new one was the best way for the company to serve the grieving community.
JOHN PERSONS: We think being able to reopen to the community respectfully and honorably, to be able to do that in two months versus 2 1/2 or three years, we think, is the right decision.
BAKER: But not everyone agrees.
SARAH JACOBS: It just hurts me so much.
BAKER: Sarah Jacobs came out to the reopening in protest.
JACOBS: This is - don't need to be open. It's too much memories on it. So I don't understand how anyone can be, you know, walking back in there.
BAKER: She says this store should have been torn down and the site turned into a memorial park with a new store built from scratch elsewhere in the neighborhood. And she's not alone. There were a handful of others out protesting with her.
JEROME WRIGHT: I don't want to see business as usual because there's not business - my life has not been the same since 5/14.
BAKER: Jerome Wright is a faith and community leader in East Buffalo. Wright says the idea that it's this Tops or nothing is a false choice. Without the Tops, East Buffalo is a food desert. But he says other stores could and should open here.
WRIGHT: The only concern is that if they don't have this, they don't have anything. That means Tops got us hostage.
BAKER: Right after the shooting, community groups rallied to fill the gap and provide food to people who didn't have access to vehicles to get across town to other stores. One of those was Lenny Lane with Buffalo Fathers. He started coming out with a grill to offer hot dogs and hamburgers, and he says he'll keep it up even now. But he hopes the increased attention on East Buffalo leads to more permanent resources here.
LENNY LANE: We need a good supermarket, and we got it. But my God, look what has to happen before we got it.
BAKER: Lane says it shouldn't take a massacre to get a nice place for the Black community to shop. Liz Baker, NPR News, Buffalo, N.Y. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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