Spencerport Tops Manager Bob Ryan“I feel privileged to work here,” Bob Ryan, the manager of the Tops Neighborhood grocery store in Spencerport says of his job.
Ryan is well known to area grocery shoppers as the owner of Ryan’s Big M in Brockport for 22 years. He has been the manager at the Spencerport Tops since November 2012.
Ryan says a Tops local district manager visited him in Brockport before his store there closed in November of 2010.
He says the district manager told him Tops is always looking for good help.
“I looked into other possibilities,” Ryan remembers, “but I always kept coming back to grocery.” He started training with Tops in January 2011 and has never looked back.
“I feel very good about it,” he says, “I haven’t regretted a day since.”
He notes it is different not to be the store owner anymore – much of the “thinking” is done for him now because of the Tops corporate structure, but, “I’m still doing what I love doing – taking good care of customers and keeping the grocery shelves full,” he says.
Ryan is well aware of the importance of Tops to Spencerport. He grew up in the community and went to school for eight years at St. John’s.
“I’m fortunate to be back here,” he says. “I have been welcomed by Tops with open arms.”
Taking care of local residents and helping out community groups is important to him, Ryan says and Tops is “fully supportive” of that philosophy.
Ryan has spent his whole life in the grocery business. Before opening his store in Brockport, he worked at the former Big M in Hilton, starting at age 16. “I met my wife there and worked there for 15 years,” he says.
After coming to Tops two years ago, Ryan says he trained and worked at some of the larger local Tops stores including the one in Hamlin before being assigned to Spencerport.
Not surprisingly, the Spencerport store reminds him of his years in Brockport. Four of his former employees now work at the Spencerport Tops.
“I love it here,” he says.
