Buffalo Market Reopens After Shooting to Some Protests: ‘We’re Pretty Much Shopping on People’s Blood’
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Buffalo’s Tops Friendly Market reopened this week just two months after 10 people were killed in a shooting, and some felt the reopening was premature.
“We’re pretty much shopping on people’s blood,” Count Horne, a retired Buffalo police officer, told the Associated Press for a report by Aaron Morrison. “I think that this is more about putting people to work rather than letting them heal … Just two months ago, these people were running for their lives.”
The outlet reported some showed up to place flowers at a memorial for those who were lost in the shooting, which was motivated by race and carried out by a white gunman. Employees handed out carnations to shoppers as they entered the reopened store on Friday.
Tops President John Persons said community members were asking about the reopening only a day after the May shooting.
“I’ll be honest, those are the people that we really wanted to listen to, the people that were in the neighborhood, the people that were in the Jefferson Avenue neighborhood and the immediate community to find out what their thoughts were,” Persons said, adding later that the store has been completely redone from the walls to the paint in the weeks following the atrocity.
Some shoppers expressed joy at the market’s reopening while others, like Horne, were more wary.
Resident and activist David Louis said that the company did not make enough effort contacting the community and getting their thoughts on the reopening.
“No one’s come door to door to ask the people, who live within a mile, or four blocks, or even two blocks of Tops, ‘Are you comfortable with this? What do you want here?'” Louis said.
A Change.org petition has also been circulating, promoting the idea that the store should be closed and preserved as a memorial site.
One shopper named Alan Horn argued, however, that it was good to get “back to living.”
“We’re happy that it’s open. It looks good. It’s well stocked. Of course, there’s still that undercurrent of grief, which will never leave. But it’s good to be back,” Horn said.
