Blog

Happy National Supermarket Employee Day! Here at RBS, we’re all in the business of supporting the local brands behind the scenes, but many of us got our start on the front lines of grocery. We collected some of these stories from our associates with roots in stores: from bagging groceries and stocking shelves to running registers. We hope you’ll be inspired by the work ethic and compassion our associates learned in the grocery aisle. 

Angela Passamonte 

I started as a Pharmacist with The GIANT Company back in 2014. I believe that working in the GIANT pharmacy is the best experience I could have while starting my role as Clinical Program Specialist with RBS Pharmacy Services. I can appreciate the end user of the programs and processes, and this helps shape programs designed to support all of our brand pharmacies. I’m lucky to be based in Carlisle and be able to still interact with The GIANT Company pharmacy team often, and credit them with preparing me for this part of my career! 

Heather Snead 

Almost my entire career has been with our company. When I was 18, I started at my local GIANT in 2009. I started as a cashier, but was quickly moved to self-checkout and then to Pharmacy Technician because I liked to stay busy. I loved the steady amount of busy work! In 2015, I joined the (then) Ahold USA Pharmacy team as a Coordinator of Quality and Outcomes. With the reorganization in 2018, I was able to rejoin The GIANT Company as a Coordinator of Communications and Process for Pharmacy. And in 2019 I joined RBS as a Pharmacy Pricing and Reporting Analyst. 

I think working in the stores is why I always try to stay busy and don’t mind a heavy workload. There were days in the pharmacy when there were 200 prescriptions to be filled and you were the only one available to do it, so you push through and do everything you can to get the work done, all while keeping a positive attitude for the customers. It taught me that even though the work is hard, there are people out there who are depending on us and appreciate the work we do. When I told my customers I was moving up to the corporate office, they were sad to see me go, but they were proud of me for moving up. 

Working at GIANT was also a family affair! My mom started working at the store a few months before me, and for a while we worked similar shifts until she moved up the ladder to hiring manager and now Beer Garden Lead. I also met my now husband at the store!  

Sheri Beane 

I started my career with Shop ‘n Save at age 16 in 1987 before it was rebranded as Hannaford. I started as a bagger and worked my way up to Assistant Produce Manger over the next 14 years. In 2001, I move to the corporate side of the business, working in the Equipment Purchasing department. My time at retail gave me knowledge with the equipment used in the store and gave me the opportunity to help my fellow retail associates with their equipment needs – I knew what they meant when they said “thingamabob” or “doohickey,” LOL!  

I left my role in 2013 to take some time off to raise my children. In 2018, I came back to RBS as a Consultant in Purchasing and then transitioned to City Building and Engineering Services, working as a Purchasing Administrator. Last October, I joined the RBS Purchasing team as a Specialist. I am so happy to be “home.” 

Gregory Crist 

Just a few months after I turned 16, I began working in April 2001 at a Stop & Shop store as a cashier. I was a junior in high school at the time, working 15 to 20 hours per week, but I never missed a day of work. My boss was so impressed with my passion and work ethic that within six months she promoted me to working behind the Customer Service Desk, as well as covering some night shifts as a Front End Supervisor. I was eventually moved primarily to a Front End Supervisor role, where I was working anywhere between 20 to 30 hours per week through my senior year of high school and into my freshman year of college. 

My “big break” came during the Stop & Shop/Giant Food merger in the summer of 2004. I was asked by my Store Manager to travel as part of a special project team with him and four other managers and department heads to various Giant Food stores throughout Maryland and Virginia. During this 12-week trip, we trained Giant employees on how to use Stop & Shop’s cash registers and computers, which were being implemented in their stores as part of a staggered rollout from June through August. When I returned home from that special project in September, I was rewarded with a promotion to full-time Assistant Customer Service Department Head (CSDH) as I was about to start my second year as a full-time college student. 

 After a little more than a year of working in this new role, I was again promoted to CSDH, and I worked in this role through May 2007, until I found out that I was accepted to New England School of Law. I continued to work part-time through law school, until December 2012. In 2013, my Store Manager alerted me to a job posting within Ahold USA for a Senior Real Estate Paralegal and encouraged me to apply for the job.After several rounds of interviews spread over the course of the next few months, I was offered the position, which culminated in the perfect marriage of all of my education and work experience.  

I have been working for Ahold USA and Retail Business Services in various roles since August 2013. Most recently, in January 2018, I was promoted from Senior Paralegal - Real Estate Law to Senior Counsel - Real Estate Law, and I'm approaching my 10-year anniversary of working with RBS Real Estate Law team. 

Tamara Mayo 

I began my journey in 2001 with the Giant Food store in Norristown, Pa., as a service desk associate. I quickly grew in my role and, over the 10 years I spent in store operations, I held several positions as Lead Checkout Coach, Relief Manager and ultimately Customer Operations Manager across the old District 12 stores (Phoenixville, Royersford, Chadds Ford, Broomall, Frazer, Exton and finally Lancaster). My experience in all the Giant stores I have essentially grown up in has led me to find my career leading people. Taking pieces from each management style I have encountered, I tailored my own style around my employees being the center of everything. I continue to mentor people who have a passion for growth and leadership, even while I know I am still learning and growing myself. The key thing I learned from my years in store operations: You can do anything you put your mind to.