Tops (Thai supermarket)
supermarket chain in Thailand
Tops is a grocery chain in Thailand. Co-founded by the then-parent of U.S.-based Tops Markets LLC, the chain is operated under the name Tops Supermarket in Thailand by Central Food Retail, a subsidiary of Central Retail Corporation. In addition to Tops Supermarket, some branches are called Tops, Tops Daily, Tops Food Hall, and Tops Fine Food. It is the largest supermarket chain in Thailand and operates 235 stores nationwide.
History
The company was established as CRC Ahold Co., Ltd. in 1996 by integration of Robinson Department Store and Central Group supermarket business and formed a joint venture with Royal Ahold Co., Ltd., a Netherlands-based supermarket operator, owning a 49 percent stake. The stores were renamed Tops Supermarket, which Ahold borrowed from its U.S. supermarket holding, Tops Markets, but did not reuse its red diamond logo. Tops Supermarket's first branch is in Royal City Avenue. In December 1996 and 1998, Robinson sold all of its invested shares to Ahold. In 2004, Ahold sold its stake to Central as part of the Dutch company's withdrawal from Asia.
“Tops (Thai supermarket)” enters the record as supermarket chain in Thailand. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tops, Thai and supermarket can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7825140. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996, 1998 and 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tops (Thai supermarket)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.