Tops

Tops Friendly Markets traces its roots to the early 1920s, when Ferrante Castellani emigrated from a village outside Rome, Italy to Niagara Falls, New York, where he opened a small neighborhood grocery store. His son Armand left school to help manage the store after his mother's death in 1933, later served as an Army captain in World War II, and after returning, partnered with Thomas Buscaglia to build the foundation of what would become Tops. In 1962 the group opened its first true modern supermarket — a 25,000-square-foot store on Portage Road in Niagara Falls — and that same year, a franchisee named Alfonso DiMino suggested the name "Tops," chosen because they were determined to give customers the best shopping experience possible. The chain expanded steadily through Western New York and into Pennsylvania and Vermont over the following decades. In 2021, Tops merged with Price Chopper and Market 32 to form Northeast Grocery, Inc., creating a combined entity with nearly 300 stores across the Northeast. Today Tops operates approximately 152 full-service supermarkets, headquartered in Williamsville, New York.