Tops: New store manager Nowicki an Islander who advocates for consumers, community

Article and Photos by Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

Lisa James Nowicki wants the Tops shopping experience to be top-notch for her fellow Grand Islanders. She’s the new store manager for Tops Friendly Markets at 2140 Grand Island Blvd., and she has the community at heart.

Gas prices lowered

On the job less than a month, Nowicki already has lowered the price at the gas pump that once was $3.25 down to $3.19 per gallon. She learned gas prices were a prime concern when she posted an invitation for questions and comments on social media.

“Fuel is one of the most competitive markets ever,” she observed. She said the No. 1 question she received on social media was, “Why are gas prices so high?”

She talked with corporate about the disparity in gas prices around the region and was able to “massage it to where we can get it. But, with that being said, I am going to push the heck out of gas points. If you are not shopping the ad for gas points every week, you are nuts. The last two weeks, the promotions for fuel have been insane. Buy six products, you get an extra 100 points toward your gas.”

Nowicki said the products that mount up the gas points are grouped together toward the back of the store, and if you have trouble finding the items, she will be glad to lead you to them.

As to other feedback from her social media post, “It’s been more than positive,” Nowicki said. “It’s been a great homecoming and a great welcome from the community.”

Cold weather staples featured

Another of Nowicki’s priorities has been to make sure shoppers find the staples they’ve needed during the recent long stretch of cold, snowy weather.

She made sure the store was ready for what she terms “panic shopping” – the rush to buy necessities, comfort food and supplies to outlast the storm. Topping the list: bottled water, milk, eggs, soda, chips, snacks, firewood, rock salt and “blue juice,” as she calls it – windshield wiper fluid.

“Anytime there’s a snow warning, it’s actually exciting for those of us who work in retail because we know that it’s coming so we know it’s kind of ‘game on,’ and we love that,” Nowicki said. “We love when it’s busy. We love when can get everything out on the floor and get everybody in and out. It’s like our Super Bowl.”

A personal career path

Nowicki has been a store manager for Tops for 11 years, holding management positions in four different stores. The latest was the International Tops store in Niagara Falls.

“I’m super excited to be back, honestly,” Nowicki said of managing her hometown store. She meets a lot of people shopping at Tops whom she has known for a long time.

“I ran into a woman who was my Girl Scout leader when I was younger – you know, friends that I went to high school with. I lived on Grand Island my whole life,” Nowicki said.

She met her husband, Mark, while they were both high school students on Grand Island. He designs and runs warehouses for companies. Her son, Jason, goes to the high school. They fostered him since he was 5, then adopted him when he was 10.

Nowicki said Jason does a lot of fundraising.

“He always comes to stores to help me with fundraising. He has a lot of personal charities that are important to him,” she said. “He made us better people when he came into our lives.”

Hometown specialties

“As for the way you manage a store in a hometown, I think what it is, is you want to get as involved and you want to really talk about all of the good things that there are that Tops does for everyone,” Nowicki said.

She wants to explore even more positive connections for Tops in the community.

“You know it’s exciting to see some of these high school kids who are in here working and talking about their future and what they want to be,” Nowicki said. “And they’re going back to school and they’re talking about ‘Hey, we have a new manager and we’re playing associate bingo … and it’s a fun place to come and work.’ ’’

Nowicki said it’s her goal to tailor the Tops offerings to her hometown – and it’s a goal that the company promotes, too.

One of those offerings is clothing from By Abigail Lee of Lewiston. Nowicki said Lee previously developed Bills-themed clothing, and now has her own line. Another hometown specialty that you find at the Grand Island Tops is Pizza Amore pizza dough. “And we have a ton of people on the Island who do honey and baked goods and things. That’s one of the questions that came in my social media posts, is ‘How can we get into Tops as a homegrown business,’ ” Nowicki said.

She said Tops corporate office encourages connections such as that, and she can help in the process.

There’s also a positive social aspect to shopping at Tops and seeing friends, Nowicki said.

“I’d like to get out and meet people and address their questions and concerns through the community,” she said. “I shop here; my family lives here. My motto is, I wouldn’t sell to you what I wouldn’t buy for my family. That’s how I run this business. I want everybody to come in, get what they want when they want it, check out easily and then go home and spend time with their family.”

Tops is the No. 1 sponsor for the Buffalo Sabres and also sponsors the Bisons. “So, with that, it does free up some discount offers for associates and customers, and we get players out and about in the community coming to meet and greet and sign.”

Merchandise for those teams is lower at Tops than it would be at the stadiums or arenas, Nowicki said.

Tops scholarship, recruitment programs

There are scholarships available for Tops employees, once they’ve been on the job for a year. This includes students who work at Tops, or parents or grandparents who can have their kids or grandkids apply to receive scholarships.

Two student employees from the Grand Island store are already applying for college scholarships through Tops.

Tops and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union that represents the employees work together on the scholarship program.

Tops also is proactive in recruiting people to pursue a career path with the company, Nowicki said.

“I can’t wait to get into the high school to talk to the seniors about the career path. I started with Tops in 1992 when I was in (Grand Island) High School,” she explained. “I went to UB after high school, and my mind was set on one direction. Opportunities for Tops kept coming to me, and that was not my chosen field. So, this was a complete redirect when I was younger. And you know what? It worked out really well for me.”

“John Persons is the chief operating officer for Northeast Grocery Inc. (NGI), the parent company of Tops – but he started as a cashier when he was in high school. The president of Tops, Ron Ferri, the same thing.”

The NGI website notes “Ferri, who began his career at Tops as a produce clerk in 1989, has served in store-level and executive management positions during his 34 years with Tops.”

Nowicki said both of Ferri’s kids also work for Tops.

“It’s a family organization,” she said. “At one point, all my cousins work for Tops – and my sister. Everybody’s moved up and moved through. And I would love to get the opportunity to speak to high schoolers about, ‘Trade school might not be your jam, and college may not be your jam, but there are other ways to proceed and become something with your life, I think. Women in retail is a huge market right now.

“ ‘Teach, train, develop’ is one of the very big mantras that my boss and my boss’s boss are teaching us now. I love to promote from within. So come in, and give me a chance, tell me what you want to be when you grow up, and I will help you get to that goal.”

“You can make a great living through Tops, and they pay for your education as you move through if you choose to pursue education in business.”

Tops in Education program

Nowicki said there’s another program that Tops uses to help young people on Grand Island.

“Things that you buy at Tops will be put toward the schools in the community,” she said. “We’re leaving thousands of dollars on the table. And it’s really easy. When you shop here and you use your Bonus Card, as long as you’re signed up for Tops in Education, you pick one of the schools on the Island. When you buy specific products, Tops puts money to an account that will go to that school.”

Tops store manager Lisa James Nowicki wants customers to know about the savings they can achieve by downloading the Flashfood app, ordering items and picking them up at the store.

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Cost-saving, healthy choices

Nowicki said it’s important to educate consumers about how to get the most out of their hometown supermarket. She said Tops has programs to help shoppers save money and find healthy and affordable foods

One of these is the Flashfood program, which Nowicki said few shoppers are even aware of.

“I think that if I could meet with everybody on this island and download the Flashfood app … that’s a huge thing that nobody understands or is aware of right now – and that’s a huge money saver,” she said.

Nowicki explained it’s a program that was set up to help reduce the amount of unused food that needlessly goes into landfills every year. Tops finds ways to make good use of those foods, she said.

“In Flashfood, every day, we post at least $100 worth of product,” that can be purchased at great savings by shoppers or donated to food pantries,” Nowicki said. “It’s product that may be dented or dinged that’s still good, but we don’t put it on the shelf. It’s product that could be going out of date soon – it’s some of the bakery product that goes out a little bit sooner than others; but they’re marked down to a ridiculously low cost.”

The Flashfood website says people can save from 50% to 60% on items purchased within the program.

“I know a lot of people who purchase the cereal (from Flashfood), then donate it to the Grand Island Neighbors Foundation,” Nowicki said.

To participate, Nowicki said go on the app, buy the products on the app, then come into the store and pick them up.

The Flashfood app is available for iOS or Android. Find out more at https://flashfood.com/.

Helping the community

“We work one-on-one in this store with the Neighbors Foundation in Grand Island. They come and pick up multiple times a week,” Nowicki said. The food goes to them at no cost, and they donate it out to those in need.

Tops Grand Island also works in a similar way with FeedMore WNY, which receives Tops perishable foods for free if those items don’t sell through Flashfood. The perishable food goes in the freezer until transferred to FeedMore.

Tops also sell “produce boxes” every day at the reduced price of $5. For example, If someone is going to make an apple pie, they don’t need each apple to be picture perfect. It’s the taste that counts, and shoppers can buy them for much less, she explained.

“The mission for Tops is we’re a homegrown business and we want to be your local neighborhood business. We want to help with all the community’s things you guys would like us to help with,” Nowicki said.