TOPS Friendly Markets — Local services in Town of Amherst

I don't normally take the time to write reviews, but if I could give this place ZERO stars, I would!!!

I've grown up in Williamsville and this is my go-to place for grocery shopping since before it was even converted to a tops markets. Never had an issue before, but over the past year, it's gone downhill, and whatever happened around September- this place is JUST AWFUL!!

BAKERY/DELI- seriously, you know there's an issue with lack of assistance, there has been a sign on the front doors pretty much throughout the entire year saying they're hiring in these departments. My mother, on one occasion watched as only one person was in the deli, and there was a line of 4 people, and she just continued to slice meat, until someone asked if they would be assisted, and it looked like an inconvenience to her. When this happened to me, I was in line and it was about 10 people, and one girl was helping everyone and clearly was new, while the other lady was in the back chatting on her phone loudly!! You mean you can't come out and help when it's THIS busy?! This happened again, so I went to customer service and they said they were sorry and gave me a 10 dollar gift card. That was last spring. There has been no improvement and half the time there is no one in the department to even assist me! At this point, I don't want any more gift cards, I want SERVICE!!

NON PERISHABLES- absolutely ridiculous!! This past month of October, if you go around the store I'm sure everyone has noticed the lack of food- I had waited 3 weeks, no joke, 3 WEEKS for them to re-stock peanut butter crackers. Many other aisles have big empty spaces. I asked an employee another time why they are lacking on food shipments, and he said that they aren't, and if I still didn't see the crackers to go to the other store- WEGMANS! Seriously?! I have also had a neighbor mention the same thing, that one time an employee recommended she go to WEGMANS for food that wasn't regularly stocked!

CASHIERS- let me tell you- I used to work for tops as a teenager, and I did cashing, worked in the bakery and have a small amount of experience stocking items. But check out is BY FAR the worst!! These kids aren't well trained, not only that, they lack common sense when bagging!! Such typical mistakes like stacking food on top of my eggs, they have broken on occasion, and most lack actually filling the bags with enough food, etc I could go on forever!! Does no one train them how to bag?!

The holidays- this thanksgiving they didn't hire ANY extra cashiers, and had to pull people from customer service, and deli to come help, THEN those people were getting called back and forth to customer service and bakery and weren't able to focus on cashing people out! Most were just chatting and happy to see their friends up front from other departments! The lines were INSANE!! The self check out line was curved and extended past all the registers over to the freezer section!!! The self checkout! They had zero care, and the manager looked shocked and one elderly lady complained and the manager didn't even respond, as he was helping bag and didn't look too thrilled. They literally prepare for NOTHING!! Self checkout is the way to go now, if you bother going here, because most cashiers don't know how to bag. And then most of the time they're talking to friends while operating the self checkout and to get their attention for this or that issue takes awhile waiting for a break in their talking!

The store itself is a mess!! The shelves are filthy, and there was a RAT that ran by out front of the store by the can dispensers!

This is Williamsville, a Williamsville store!! I have since stopped going here, but my grandmother is still going as it's very close for her and she's not able to get around as easily at WEGMANS as its so busy. This place is a mess!! Going to wevmans I was so so impressed, they exceed in EVERY department! Although they're busier I get out quicker as they're a better run store! Who knew how BAD tops...

Rather than show me what was wrong with the motorized cart I was trying to use, I was ‘corrected’ on how to use it by a shop worker saying I needed to unplug it (when indeed I had unplugged it but it still wouldn’t work.) He got on it and it worked, causing a man at the lottery vending machine and a female shopper to laugh. The guy continued to drive it around in a mocking way. Then the rolls I put in the cart were out of date. The cart stopped moving properly, the worker by the registers did go to get a chicken for me but returned saying they only had cold ones. I hesitated because it was tiny and cold, but did say, “all right” because that was my main reason for going in the store. My shoppers card phone number didn’t work probably because I mis entered it since the keypad was so worn and dirty I couldn’t see the numbers. Upon checking my bag on the way I put I discovered the chicken wasn’t in the bag. I flagged the same worker over to ask why the chicken wasn’t in the bag and she told me I said I didn’t want it! So first I’m mocked, then I’m inconvenienced by a cart not fully charged, then I discover I’ve got rolls that expired two days ago, and then I’m told what I said when I didn’t. My first visit in about 5 years was a PR nightmare and very upsetting. To add to that the prices were beyond the pale. I’d...

While this grocery store tries, it falls short in multiple ways; The produce section is severely lacking (especially in contrast to the nearby competitor Wegmans), and not always the freshest product either. The bakery items are understocked, and the way rolls are contained seems to trend towards condensation and thus soggy rolls. The rest of store has a somewhat limited selection, and I can't seem to always find quite exactly what I need on every visit. This location used to have a pharmacy that has since been closed and converted to awkward indoor seating for its tiny prepared foods department. Of course if all this was not enough, the staff at this particular location are excessively grumpy. No one I have ever interacted with here seems to enjoy it, barely smiling, barely acknowledging that you, the customer, exists - especially at speed check out if you ask to out in your phone number to utilize their discount rewards program thing (I don't think I should have to feel bad interrupting the casual conversation between employees to ask this simple request, but every time they passively shrug you off or grunt at you. Customer service has never been so lackluster and...