Nicholas Eckhart
nicholas@deadanddyingretail.com
Well, I noticed recently that there are very posts on Tops Friendly Markets online. This is a post on the Pat Catan's craft store (a former Tops store) in North Ridgeville, Ohio at 33799 Center Ridge Road, North Ridgeville, Ohio. The store is 49,000 square feet.
This store opened as a Tops Friendly Markets prototype store on September 25th, 2002. Some of the features this Tops had that others at the time did not are a Pharmacy with a consultation room and a Carry-out Cafe. Tops was a brand that was only in Ohio for a pretty short time.
Finast (chain later re-branded Tops) was owned by Ahold (also then parent of Tops) since 1988. All of the Pick-N-Pay stores in Ohio were re-branded to the Finast name by 1994. Since Tops and Finast were owned by the same company their stores looked remarkably similar to each other. The notable differences were the in-store brands and the signage. Ahold then decided for multiple reasons to re-brand all their Finast stores to Tops (completed by 1998). This store in particular was originally opened under the Tops name; one of the only stores in Northeastern Ohio to originally be opened as Tops. Tops closed all Northeastern Ohio stores in late 2006. After the pull-out Morgan Stanley bought the Tops chain from Ahold.
In May 2009 this store opened as one of the larger Pat Catan's craft stores (a regional chain of 22 stores). This Pat Catan's store creatively uses the space left over from the Tops Pull-out of Northeastern Ohio. The old specialty sections, such as the voids left by the Deli and Bakery, had the grocery equipment removed and aisles re-aligned to fill the space. Some of the old Tops fixtures remain intact (such as checkouts and shelves), but most Tops signage was removed. It is also clear in the back of the store that some walls were moved around to further expand the size of the sale-floor area.
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| The storefront of this Pat Catan's. the exterior makes it very evident this was once a Tops grocery store. |
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| The Center Ridge Road sign for this store. |
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| The front lobby of this store, where carts and specials are located. |
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| A view of the checkout area; looking towards the former Bakery. |
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| The Customer Service area and the space I think was previously occupied by the Tops Pharmacy. |
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| This floral section was once the former Produce and Floral area for Tops. |
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| The former wine sale area; looking towards the old Deli and carry-out Cafe. |
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| The former Bakery is to the right. The checkouts are also along the right. |
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| The former Bakery |
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| The aisle along the side wall; looking towards the old Bakery |
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| The old Deli and carry-out cafe |
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| More of the old Deli and carry-out cafe |
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| A view of the old food preparation space, the equipment was removed. |
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| Some of the still intact signage from Tops. The Catan's was added after the conversion of this store from a grocery store to a craft store. |
- Here are some photos I took of the shopping center this store is in.
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| A former Donato's Pizza restaurant (has since been converted to Senor Coyotes mexican restaurant) |
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| More of the Donato's Pizza restaurant |
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| A Blockbuster store that has since closed |
You dont find many people blogging about Tops. Nice stuff!
ReplyDeleteMost of the Ohio Tops stores are sitting around collecting dust, or were leveled. Brook Park's brand-new store was closed shortly after it opened and is sitting there empty. Avon Lake's Tops was a Halloween City ONCE and has been empty prior to that and ever since. Sheffield Township's is a nice-looking Apples store, but still uses every last inch of Tops's old signage, right down to the aisle markers. North Olmsted's is split between a Sears Outlet and an Ollie's. Parmatown Mall was leveled and is now a new Giant Eagle.
DeleteI took photos of many former Northeastern Ohio Tops stores. I have a whole gallery of Tops on the Dead and Dying retail Facebook page! All of the Tops you mentioned are in that gallery. The Parmatown Mall was not demolished; I believe you mean that part of the Southland shopping center was leveled for Giant Eagle.
ReplyDeleteThe old Parmatown Circuity City and Tops were torn down in 2007 or 2008. A new Giant Eagle was built there to replace the old Giant Eagle next door that occupied the building that was originally built as a Forest City. The "20 November 2007" at http://planning.co.cuyahoga.oh.us/blog/municipalities/parma/ alludes to this, although I can't get the cleveland.com link to show the story. Also, there are some flickr photos of the demolition, one at http://www.flickr.com/photos/imaginaryfriendboy/2279297441/ (you can see the Steak and Shake in the background.
DeleteNo, the part of Southland that was leveled for Giant Eagle was part of the strip center that used to house a TJ Maxx, the old (still around?) business arcade, and - once upon a time - Family Toy Warehouse. I'm not sure what all else used to be there, but I distinctly remember that TJ Maxx and Marc's were opposing 'anchors' of that strip. The old strip center behind that - where BJ's currently resides - used to house Petries/Petries Plus, some other small things, and the Marc's Funtime Pizza Palace.
DeleteFinast/Tops at Southland is located on Pearl Road behind the Burger King. It shared a small plaza with the United Skates Of America Roller Rink, until both closed down. The land was bought and a planned office compound was developed, but abandoned upon the owner losing his financing, and has since been vacant. The demolished bits go all the way to the strip that is/was anchored by an old Sun Television & Appliance store (the blue/white facade one). I think the Sun building was torn down, but I'm not sure.