Tops Promotes Mike Patti to SVP, Operations

Tops Markets LLC has promoted Mike Patti to the role of SVP, operations for Tops. A 50-year veteran of the organization, Patti was most recently regional VP for Tops’ West region stores. During his 50 years at Tops, Patti has held such roles as store manager from 1980 to 1993 and district manager from 1993 to 2010. After that, he was promoted to regional VP of operations first for the company’s East region stores, a role he held from 2010 to 2014, and then moved over to the West region.

In that role, Patti oversaw  68 stores in five districts across New York and Pennsylvania. Also during his career he coordinated the conversion of Penn Traffic and Grand Union stores in Syracuse, N.Y.; the Catskills; and the North Country when the locations were acquired by Tops in 2010. He was also responsible for opening a flagship store, Tops International, in 1991, when the grocery store chain was under the Ahold umbrella.

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Among many awards and recognitions, Patti was named store manager of the year in 1986, and received the Armond Castellani award in 2006. He also played a key role in coordinating the emergency response and support efforts for the Buffalo, N.Y., Jefferson Avenue store, which was the target of a May 2022 racially motivated shooting that left 10 dead and three wounded. His leadership enabled the store to reopen just two months later. 

Patti and his family live in West Seneca, N.Y.

Williamsville, N.Y.-based Tops Markets LLC has approximately 150 supermarkets, including five franchise stores, and employs more than 14,000 associates in New York, northern Pennsylvania and Vermont. The banner’s parent company, Northeast Grocery Inc., is No. 45 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.