Tops Bottoms Out

By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 3/13/2000

Not only a chain -- but an era in electronics/appliance retailing -- ended a couple of weeks ago with the closing of Tops Appliance City, one of the leading electronics/appliance chains in the New York metropolitan area since 1970. All that's left are the liquidation sales being held at its five remaining locations. and the memories of how the chain and the New York market changed over the years.

After several years of rumors and innuendo, Tops finally shut its doors. For the last five years, the retailer only had one when it posted a profit, $1.36 million, during 1997.

Founder Les Turchin, who left the chain in 1995, labeled Tops a "destination" store, an electronics/appliance superstore that provided selection, service and price. At its height Tops Appliance City was an operation just like Turchin: brash and flashy, with an edgy, in-your-face New York attitude. A former Sears executive, Turchin saw that chain's model and aggressively morphed it at Tops, emphasizing customer service. He personally trained his store's staff, and he pushed them to bend over backward to solve customer problems.

Things were fine when Tops had one or two stores, but Turchin said at the time that the real challenge was when the chain began to expand across the river into New York.

All of the new employees had to be trained the same way, but there wasn't enough time to recruit and properly prepare them. As Tops expanded, suppliers and competitors continued to feel the wrath of the chain. Unfortunately, too many times Tops' approach was turned on consumers who were dissatisfied with a product, service or advertised price.

This attitude was exemplified in its famous, or some said infamous, "Topsy" ad campaign in the early '90s. The ads irritated many who never shopped at Tops and reminded those who had problems with the chain why they stopped shopping there in the first place.

When chairman Robert Gross came in and replaced Turchin in '95 he dropped the Topsy campaign. But the chain he inherited had more problems than its advertising.

By the time the end came Tops had dropped electronics to become "Tops Home Appliance," specializing in major and small appliances, and the kitchen remodeling business. That move, announced last fall, was accompanied by the sale of three New Jersey stores to Best Buy, which will be entering the market this year.

Some would say that Best Buy, and the re-entry of Circuit City into the area in the fall of '97, caused the demise of Tops and many of the memorable local New York chains. That's only part of the story, however. Prior to all of this, Tandy's Incredible Universe came and went, and local specialists including Brick Church Appliance, Crazy Eddie, 47th Street Photo, Trader Horn, SaveMart and Newmark & Lewis were gone.

At their best, many of these departed chains -- like Tops -- provided plenty of excitement. There was plenty of hype, and consumers ran to these stores to see what all the talk was about. But for many of these retailers their closings were due to self-inflicted wounds, such as hyper-competition, over-expansion and mismanagement.

Credit Gross and his management team for keeping Tops in the game as long as they did. They fought the good fight, reorganized the chain's operations, and tried to change its perception in the marketplace. But their attempts proved to be too little and too late.

Consumers in the New York area will be better served with the local and national chains that remain here, such as P.C. Richard & Son, The Wiz, J&R Music World, 6th Avenue Electronics, Circuit City, Sears, and later on, Best Buy. Yet these retailers, and others that I haven't mentioned, will have to fill the promotional void left behind by the departed chains. --Steve Smith