STATE COLLEGE — Victor DeDonato was a Penn State student looking for a part-time job when he walked into a brand new UPS Store opening up near Wegmans in 2006. When owner Colleen Small heard he had prior experience working at a Pittsburgh UPS Store in high school, she hired him on the spot. Neither imagined that that young college kid would end up buying the store someday.
DeDonato officially took over sole ownership of The UPS Store 5642, 19 Colonnade Way, on Aug. 3, completing a purchase from Small and her husband, Jim, that had officially been in process for five years, but unofficially in the works for 17 years.
DeDonato worked at the store through college, staying on even after obtaining his degree in labor studies employment relations and working as a supervisor at UPS, in a job completely unrelated to The UPS Store.
“I was working at UPS from two or three in the morning until nine or ten in the morning. Then I would go home, shower, eat and head to the store to work for another six to eight hours,” he said.
It was this kind of work ethic that endeared DeDonato to the Smalls, who he says were great mentors. As the business grew, so did DeDonato’s role in it, and in 2013 he decided to leave UPS and make The UPS Store a full-time career. By 2018, the Smalls were thinking about their next stage of life, so they worked out a plan to pass the torch to DeDonato.
“It made my heart sing, because I knew somebody was going to get it that loved the business as much as I did and was going to continue to run it the way that we brought it up,” Small said.
The “way they brought it up” included a strong emphasis on customer service, something Small believes sets the store apart.
“Anytime I would train an employee, I would say, ‘When that customer walks into your door, they’re walking into your home, and you are going to entertain them until they go.’ We focus on building relationships with our customers. That’s what I feel our strength is,” she said.
DeDonato agreed.
“I love when customers give me feedback, like, ‘Hey, your staff is really amazing.’ That means a lot, because that’s how we built the business, and that’s what I expect from our employees,” he said.
Small said another point of difference is the fact that this store is individually owned, which is not true of all UPS Stores.
“It helps to have skin in the game,” she said.
She credits DeDonato with having the vision to expand the store’s offerings from merely packing and shipping to adding other kinds of business services, including an expansive printing operation, promotional products, mailbox services and notary and passport services.
“Just about every year we add a different service for the community,” she said. “It’s made us so much more profitable.”
As a successful business, The UPS Store 5642 has been able to give back to the community in many ways, DeDonato says. They have raised and donated over $11,000 to nonprofits like Junior Achievement, Toys for Tots and the American Heart Association. They frequently donate in-kind services to local organizations, have run clothing drives, donated books to local schools, collected greeting cards for service members and even donated a 3D printer to the Bellefonte School District. At the beginning of the pandemic, they used a 3D printer to make N95 mask covers for health care workers.
With a new owner comes a new look, as the store will undergo a remodel over the next nine months, DeDonato said. His plans for the future include continuing to grow the business and continuing to focus on great customer service.
As for the Smalls, Colleen will work part-time at the State College store, and the couple will continue to own a UPS Store in Altoona, which will remain Jim’s primary focus for the time being.
