Buffalo Rising Online

my metal friend that moves my stuff around the bounty that heavy trash day thus bear. i sleeps deep in the shelter of my rug foam roof cozy to the trash bag menagerie that swings as i saunter and sometimes fall down go boom.

my metal friend that moves my stuff around the bounty that heavy trash day thus bear. i sleeps deep in the shelter of my rug foam roof cozy to the trash bag menagerie that swings as i saunter and sometimes fall down go boom.

The Riverside Review has addressed this issue with Tops on many occassions to no avail. It should be also noted that when the parking lot was constructed Tops "appropriated" and filled part of the bike path to expand the lot. Wegmans does not have the cart problem and in general is a much better neighbor in our community.

Stewie- Its because nobody walks in Amherst, the kids prefer to burn cars.

To quote Yogi Berra, Queenseyes, "You can observe a lot just by looking." And then ... ?

Sorry, a very old computer (and old man).

My college roommate worked at this Tops and was told that it was against UFCW regulations for Tops to ask any employee to retrieve carts outside of the parking lot. This was expressly stated in the labor agreement, and he should let his union representative know if someone asked them to retrieve carts on the sidewalks, bike paths, or any area outside of the Tops parking area.

Aloha- Its probably kids doing this. (not making excuses for them)

Sorry for the omission, UFCW is the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

That Tops plaza is horrid.

And so is the ugly, overly wide road out front with it's unsychronized traffic signals....

If it is against union rules then management should get off their butts and do it.

Wegmans on Amherst St. has a done a good job of keeping their carts on site. They also maintain a clean store with plenty of cashiers resulting in fast service. Contrast this store with Tops- carts all over the neighborhood, long lines with few cashiers, and an attitude of we don't give a shit. These stores are a few blocks apart. Why so different?

You mean them same Germans who destroyed their own forest?

Carts have been shown in study after study to cause cancer so why do people use them?

Screw mesh bags I want to see more mesh wear

All good diatribes aside, with carts at Tops, garbage on Main......etc. etc. it boils down to personal pride and ethics. It cannot be legislated, it must be instilled.

silo- I half agree, we need both to make it work

I agree with GraphicRage on this.. also when in Germany I had to plunk down more than a couple euro to use a cart. I always got my money back so it was ok. It did force me to return the cart back to the exact spot it is support to be 100% of the time... It would put a lot of cart boys out of business but also solve the problem with wayward carts..

An added bonus is that these carts would now have a value to them. Just like strewn pop bottles someone would collect and return them all for the cash saving anyone else from doing it. One of the reasons we should instill a deposit on ALL bottles.. it would immediately eliminate any bottles from our streets as someone would pick them all up.

sbrof- good idea for the carts, NYPIRG has tried to get a bottle bill to encompass all containers for years but industry lobbyists have so far defeated this effort.

When Tops was locally owned (and union) thier reputation was comparable to Wegmans.

True, the Union once again obstucts any progress, even something as little as cleaning up an area around the business that employs all the union members...damn shame. Unions have killed our city and now they contribute to its blight as well.

All Tops are GHETTO! Wegmans might as well be Whole Foods compared to this Ghetto ass market

most Tops in the city are pretty bad but this place is disgusting. How about the thousands of pieces of spat out chewing gum engrained in their parking lot?.....the Wegmans down the street doesn't seem to have this problem....either they are more concerned with appearances or the people that shop there are better educated and have more class....probably a lot of both.

It's all about the union. At Wegmans if a rude surly emjployee did not clean up his act, he would be fired. At Topps, you would have to go through a multii-level grievance procedure and a possible expensive arbitrarion. So why bother.

Tell me, if the wages were comparable, where would you rather work, at the non-union Wegmans or the unionized Tops?

And only a union could come up with a provision prohibiting employees from retrieivng carts off the property.

For the record, I would rather work at Wegmans if I had to work anywhere in that industry. They have the best benefits, they are continually ranked among the best companies to work in America, and they take care of their employees and the employees take care of the company.

My niece has worked at Wegmans for 7 or 8 years. They gave her a scholarship to school, they offered her a part-time job at the Wegmans near her school in Virginia, with a decent salary and matching 401k plan. They are paying for college and investing in her future and her eventual retirement. One of the things that she talks about the most is that she is on track for an assistant management position as soon as she returns to work full time, so she has a definite job already secured when she graduates from school next spring. Wegmans treats hard working employees very well, and they work to terminate underperformers as soon as possible to avoid future issues. Three of her friends have been fired from Wegmans due to poor performance, two of them were quickly hired by Tops and one still works at Tops.

It is my understanding that Tops has a very difficult time of attracting and retaining good employees, but there is a waiting list at some local Wegmans stores. I believe that it all comes down to culture, environment, and opportunities for employees. Hands down, Wegmans is a better place to work and shop.

becker- you are correct, Tops has never been on par with Wegmans but they did have a good reputation once.

There are many differences between Tops and Wegmans that go beyond any collective bargaining for employees. The two stores are distinctly different in culture, mission, target demographic, and quality of goods sold. This is similar to the differences between Target and Kmart, or Macy's and Sears. They are in the same sales verticals but have very different shopping experiences. The culture and mission of the stores reflects on the employees, and the reverse becomes true over time.

If unions are to blame for all our problems then why was the middle class at its peak when unions members made up a larger percentage of the population. Those crazy unions asking for health care, vacations, safe working conditions, where does it stop? Do they think they deserve to share the results of their labor? For the record I am in management and have never belonged to a union.

Maybe its because I am from Rochester where Wegmans originated and I have been brain washed but since at least the early 90's Tops has been in a slow decline this I can remember. Many people who have written on here are right on many ideas. Those who talked about the overall mission or business model that wegmans tries to uphold, and the care they have for their employees and neighborhoods. From elementary school on I can recall wegmans coming to my school to teach kids about the "strive for 5" veggies and how if you were a teacher or employee at a school near a wegmans they gave you a discount on your shopping. At the same time either store wegmans or tops cannot be blamed for the complete ridiculousness of those who find pleasure in spray painting signs and dumping carts in the creek. My problem with tops is their standards for their employees in the city stores. Looking at the Grant st store and the Niagara st store, theres more dirt on the floor than tiles. If tops wants to turn around all they have to do is demand work ethic or fire employees. Also, as bad as it might sound I believe the people that shop at wegmans also contributes to its well doing. Alright i'll stop talking about wegmans as the next coming but clearly people who put carts in the creek should be tossed in as well and forced to stay for awhile to see how not funny tossing things into the creek is.

TOPS cheap???? Since when? The only time something it cheap is when they have a buy-one-get-one. Otherwise the product is about 1.5->1.75 times as much as Wegmans or else where. And I refuse to have to wait to buy something and they buy 5x what I need to hold out till th n ext itme it was on sale.

Within the past decade TOPS and Wegman's used to be the same, higher prices with but-one-get-ones every week etc. When Wegman's went to the "Fair Consistant Prices" There were doubters but I loved it and still do. I'm paying a fair price in a cleaner higher class environment with employees that seem to be overly nice all while not having to wait for something to go on sale.

Even if TOPS can not get employees to go get carts, they could bay an outside service/company to do so every month or so. Or come up with a system to keep them on premises. If a factory had equipment disappearing and ending up in the creek I'm sure they would be held accountable.

Yes unions did an immense amount ofgood, but some of the overly restrictive "rules" make it frustrating to try to run, or work within that type environment. Like most things the power got out of control and there was a reverse backlash.

"Looking at the Grant st store and the Niagara st store, theres more dirt on the floor than tiles"

of course.. that is because there is only ONE wegmans inside ANY city proper or neighborhood that could be considered poor.. that is on Amherst St. Somehow I don't think we should give credit to Wegman's cleanliness and worker attitudes because they (on more than average) don't put themselves in anything close to the same situations as Tops. It is like people in wheatfield saying they don't have poor people because they setup their zoning to exclude them.

they each are cheaper... depending on what you are buying. Tops is typically cheaper on average but their meats are the big thing. Meats are wegmans are ridiculously priced. Usually look at price \ bag (since I use my own bags and usually pack them myself it if rather standard)... I can on average get 20 dollars \ bag at tops. and something close to 26 - 30 per bag at wegmans.

Occasionally wegmens will have cheaper produce than tops which i think was because they have a larger network of local farmers than Tops does right now (something they are changing now that they are back in local ownership)

Either way and which one you look at Budways is still cheaper than both! ;-)

Doc- Saying the shoplifting, slackers, and low renters is an excuse for the appearance of the store doesn't make sense. Wegmans serves the same neighborhood and has no problem. Their any many residents of Black Rock volunteering their time to clean up litter, plant trees, flowers, and maintaing city parkland that the county neglects and even rounding up Tops shopping carts. The biggest problem we have is suburban and out of town landlords who are unaccountable and many times unreachable. Their tenants tend to be troublesome and disruptive to the stable residents of the community. These "investors" buy these properties, suck as much income as they can out of them and then abandon them to eventual demolition at CITY TAXPAYER EXPENSE.

Amen Blackrocklifer, Amen! I would like to expand on your comment and say that the problem is not only the suburban absentee landlords who charge high rents to the neediest among us. the problem is also the less fortunate who are forced to live in rentals instead of receiving their fair right to home ownership. We need to equalize wealth one way or the other. My thought is that the city could charge these landlords an additional fee for charging rent that exceeds a predetermined charge per square foot. The other thought is that all duplexes should be owner occupied, giving a less fortunate resident the opportunity to participate in the joys of home ownership while receiving help with expenses from a resident who isn't quite ready for ownership of their own property.

Out of town landlords who default on taxes or leave houses vacant, even once, should be charged a nuisance fee by the city. A landlord who does not keep a house in good condition, and rented, for six months will lose rights to that house and the house will be sold to less fortunate resident who is ready for ownership.

We must advocate for home ownership in our neighborhoods. Greedy suburbanites are the scourge of Buffalo and they must be stopped. I agree what the suburban landlords hardly ever visit their properties, unless there is a problem with their management company or the rent is overdue. Let's get them out of the city and back to the cookie cutter mcmansion suburbs where they belong. Give the city back to the residents of the city.

We need to think progressively in these matters. It is our moral duty to look out for the underdogs and to ensure that all of our brothers and sisters receive their fair share and can exist in equality with everyone else. We should expect everyone to contribute based on ability and should offer based on need. Those who have more should share with those who have less, this is the requirement in every religion that hasn't been perverted by the greed of our capitalist society.

Quijibo- You may be even farther left than I am, prepare to be attacked when you say things white bread America doesn't like to hear.

Blackrocklifer - I do not see myself as "right wing or left wing" and I do not see myself as "liberal or conservative", I see myself as a rational thinker. I am talking about common sense that prevailed for centuries before the societies of greed took over. Look back at all past civilizations and you will see a common factor for their aggression and their ultimate failure. That common factor is greed.

Our country is built on a foundation of greed. It is greed that causes most conflict. Greed causes brothers to fight brothers. Most importantly, greed breeds insecurity in people. The thought that someone else is getting more than their share creates contempt and suspicion. Contempt and suspicion creates anger and animosity. Anger and animosity breed conflict. Conflict leads to demise.

I am not concerned with the petty thoughts of the greediest Americans. These are people who fear their brothers and sisters.

I read a comment the other day about "the injustices of affirmative action", as though by giving a job to a person who has greater needs is an injustice. It is just the opposite, it is our moral duty to provide for that person. The commenter should be glad to have done such a service as to provide means for a fellow human.

Let them attack, for I know the grounds that they attack from. I hold know thoughts of enlightening them, for they have been brainwashed with materialism. They have been trained by our government to be good consumers and even better debtors. Their debt derives from greed, and that greed will ultimately lead to their demise.

Look at the root of the problems in the mortgage industry and you will find greed as the cause.

Look at the root of our oil crisis and you will find that greed is at the root.

The same can be said for economic crises of the past and you will find greed at the root.

I appreciate your perspectives Blackrocklifer, and I appreciate the cause that you have championed. It is good to see comments from a fellow rational human being.