Maio named Island Tops store manager

by Robin M. Woolson
Grand Island Dispatch, April 23, 2004

Tops Friendly Markets has announced that Mike Maio has been appointed as the new store manager of the Tops on Grand Island.

Maio recently held the assignment of store manager at Tops on Maple and Transit in Amherst for the past seven years.

Prior to that, he held the store manager position at seven other locations throughout Western New York and is a two-time District Store Manager of the Year award winner.

"This is an opportunity for anyone who I haven't met yet to come and talk to me to see how I can help better serve them with this store," he said. "I am meeting more and more of the people every day because I am on the floor quite a lot. I am a hands on type of person."

Maio, a Tops associate since 1987, has been in the supermarket industry all of his life beginning in Niagara Falls with Slipko Bros Food Mart in 1975 where he began his career pushing carts at age 16.

"When I was in high school, my parents said I needed to get a job when I was 16," he said. "I did and stayed with it. It has opened a lot of doors for me."

He continued his employment at Slipko for 10 years while graduating from Niagara Catholic High School and completing his bachelor's degree at Buffalo State College in 1983 before coming to Tops.

A native of Niagara Falls, Maio currently resides in Lewiston with his wife Marie, and his four children, Michael, Matthew, Max and Marc.

Maio said the store on Grand Island is similar to the one on Maple and Transit and the clientele is very similar with people coming from Clarence and Williamsville to th Maple and Transit store.

"I like this job because of my ability to interact with customers in an always changing business," Maio said. "This (Grand Island) is a great customer base to serve."