Archive: Around Town

The Lansing Tops market is celebrating a major makeover with free grocery items and six weeks of savings starting Sunday.  The whole look of the store has been updated to give the store a warmer, welcoming tone with a local theme.  Adorned with photographs from Lansing's history, the new Tops also features expanded Natural-Organic and Beer sections, and has added exotic meats.  The official launch of the new look will be a ribbon cutting ceremony this Wednesday.

"We started this project the day after the Super Bowl," says Store Manager Rich Szachta.  "It's been a long five months! Before we had a more industrial, international look with more steel and lots of white and red.  Now it's gone to earth tones with an almost 'Barnes and Noble' feel when you walk in the store.  I think it came out really nicely.  There are different colors for each different department.  It really stands out.  The floor over in Produce has the biggest impact.  It used to be like cement tile, but now it's a nice, smooth brown tile that's more inviting for the customers.  Tops is looking at creating a more inviting environment for customers."

The Lansing Tops has been in operation for 15 years, and Szachta says this is the first major remodel since the store first opened.  he says that Tops, based in Buffalo, uses similar designs for any stores it remodels, but with local touches.  For the Lansing store Tops officials contacted Town Historian Louise Bement.

"In the early part of March I was contacted to see if I had any historic pictures I could send to them for the refreshin" of the Tops Supermarket in Lansing," Bement says.   "I gave them Bill Hecht's name who is well known for posting historic pictures on the internet.  I knew he would do a good job of scanning the pictures.  Bill got in touch with me and we started scanning. March 12th we met with the representative from CIP and learned we had an April 1st deadline. We scanned furiously at least two days a week from then till April and Bill sent what we had done off to Ohio."

Soda and history to go. The history of salt mines in Lansing is featured along the soft drinks aisle.

The pictures were blown up and printed in large poster-sizes for display along the soft-drinks aisle, the wall near the customer service desk.  They are all printed in sepia tones, which sets the tone for a taste of history, as well as matching the earth-tone color scheme of the new store fixtures and design.  A large mural spans the front vestibule above the storefront windows, showing multiple views of Lansing history and sporting the Tops logo.

"They go all along the inside of the vestibule out front," Szachta says.  "I'm not sure if people have noticed them, but there are all sorts of pictures of town history.  There are some down Aisle 1, mostly of the salt mines.  And there are three or four near the customer service desk.  I think that was a brilliant idea."


At one end of the store a bigger selection of natural and organic foods takes up nearly half the depth of the building, plus an expanded beer section has been installed where the old pharmacy -- replaced by a bigger pharmacy more conveniently located near the front foyer -- was located.  It features a bigger selection of craft beers, and the chips have been moved there as well.  While snack foods are not the only products that have been relocated, Szachta says finding them is of most concern to Tops customers.

"Potato chips are the biggest thing that people are asking where they went to," he says.  "They're finding everything else.  The chips used to be in Aisle 1.  They moved far away to where the pharmacy used to be.  That was the biggest move, and it's the biggest question we have been getting.  We should have some store directories by the end of this week that customers can take to make things easier to find."

The grand reopening starts Sunday and will run for six weeks.  The first 100 customers from Sunday until the next Saturday will get a free grocery item.  Each day the item will be different.  The store will also offer grand opening specials with special low prices over the six week period.  The downtown Tops store will also offer the same specials, which will be listed in the store's weekly ad starting this Sunday.



To spotlight the new look, the Lansing Tops is holding a ribbon cutting next Wednesday at 11am.  Tops officials including CEO Frank Curci will come from the main office in Buffalo, and they will be joined by local Lansing officials for a ribbon cutting at 11am.  For customers in the store at that time there will also be a cake in addition to the special offers.

Kangaroo steaks anyone? Exotic meats include Kangaroo, elk, bison, and rattle snake.More organics and craft beers are not the only new products.  Just to the left of the chicken counter a new cooler houses an exotic meats section.  You can get bison, elk, kangaroo, and rattle snake meat.  "It's a different niche," Szachta notes.  "The kangaroo paddies are selling really well."

Early this week workmen were working on the final touches before Wednesday's ribbon cutting, including installing energy-efficient lighting, including LED lights.

The Lansing store employs 149 people, about 30% of those full time. 

"We're a good employer for the Town of Lansing," Szachta says.  "We're happy to be here.  And we always support the local vendors.  We're starting to get Reeve's Farms produce.  We try to support that as much as possible.  The local community has always been good to us, and we like to support them by offering their products to our customers.  We just got sweet corn in today.  Everybody will be wanting that for sure.  I know I will."

You'll find it in the remodeled Produce section, across from the deli counter.

"We're happy to offer the new look to our customers," Szachta says.  "We've had nothing but positive feedback so far.  It's been 15 years.  I think people wanted to see a change."

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