Last year, Scott Harrington mapped a 25-mile radius from his Verona home. Then he and his father, Ed Harrington, scoured the area, looking for the perfect location for the business they planned to open, a PostNet franchise. The two, both coming off careers in business sales, wanted the right combination of demographics, demand–and parking. They found it, seven-tenths of a mile from the younger Harrington’s home, in the same shopping plaza as Verona’s 7-Eleven.
“It’s a homecoming of sorts,” says Scott Harrington. “My grandmother worked at Annin Flag.”
Today, the Harringtons will formally open the doors of their PostNet, which can design and print all sorts of personal and business documents, from logos to wedding invitations and fourth-grade yearbooks. It can ship items in any number of ways, from UPS and FedEx to DHL, finding you the best price to your item’s destination. Oh and that quaint little concept called a post office box? The Harrington’s PostNet can give you a mailbox that FedEx and DHL can ship to, and they will send you a text or e-mail message when your package arrives. (It’s got a lot of other things you used to only be able to get at the Verona Post Office, including stamps.)
“The business has evolved,” says Ed Harrington, the gregarious Mr. Outside to his son’s technology-focused Mr. Inside. “It used to be just shipping, but shipping is a commodity. Now PostNet can do anything and everything in the printing industry.” The Harringtons can do it too, thanks to a dynamic corporate resource network. “I’ve seen message boards for years,” says the younger Harrington, “but I have never seen one this active.”
It was through a message board post that the Harringtons found a solution for Brookdale Avenue School‘s fourth-grade yearbook this past June. There are pages for each year the class was in elementary school and pages on each member of the graduating class. But what really makes the yearbook stand out is that, rather than being punctured by a coil of wire at the edges, it has a spine that is glued flat, just like a high-end magazine. For the kids, that means that it will hold up to years of memories. For the school, it means that the yearbook can be produced at a price that is reasonable and still has a little bit left over for fund raising.
And since PostNet’s motto is “Neighborhood Business Center”, that’s not the only thing that the Harrington’s are doing for their neighbors in Verona. They’ve already signed on to print the tickets for Our Lady of the Lake’s Oktoberfest. (You did remember that table reservations are due today, right?)
The Harrington’s PostNet is located at 281 Bloomfield Avenue, in the same plaza as two other franchises: 7-Eleven and Lapels Dry Cleaning. It will be open Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, see the store’s Web site.
