By Denise Louise Gregorka
Little Falls – Friday, January 31st was a fun day for the Little Falls Stewart’s Shops customers as the newly renovated store at 32 N Ann St. celebrated with a grand re-opening they titled “T.G.I. Finished” offering specials on several food items and, of course, their famous ice cream.
The Stewart’s Shops stores range from New York State to Vermont to New Hampshire. They now have 405 stores in the northeast, with 7 being in Herkimer County alone. There are 5,500 total employees for the company. Stewart’s Shops came to Little Falls in 1981.
Dave Shepardson has been the General Manager of the Little Falls Stewart’s Shops since 2006.
With all of the excitement around the grand reopening, we thought it would be a perfect time to have a sit-down with him.
Dave was born and raised in Little Falls and resides here with his wife, Judy, and his daughter, Mary, who has just turned 21 years old.
He has been serving Little Falls for several decades in various capacities, stating, “I have always been in the people game.”
In his younger years, he took a management position with the Little Falls McDonalds where he worked for several years until transferring with the company to New Jersey in 1988.
In approximately 2006, Dave and Judy decided it was time to make their way back to their Little Falls roots.
At that point, he decided to take a managerial position at the local Stewart’s Shops. The original building was just a short distance from where it is now. In 2012, Stewarts realized the need for a bigger store and built a new one at its present location, which, at the time, was one of the biggest stores to date.
Twelve years later, the need for even more space prompted the present-day $675,000 remodel.
Dave stated, “Today’s Stewart’s Shops are much bigger; The need for food is really the key to it. A lot of stores are doing a lot of food. Food, coffee, and ice cream are our three big staples. Dairy is a big product. We own our own dairy plant. We take pride in making milk the old-fashioned way; We don’t ultra-pasteurize it. We have won ‘best milk’ in the state a bunch of times and have many awards for our ice cream.”
Dave has been very impressed with the company’s generosity to communities over the years. Last year, when hearing that the Little Falls Youth Family Center (formerly YMCA) fell short of their fundraising goal to modernize three program facilities, Dave made a call to Stewarts to ask for $75,000 for the project. He stated, “A couple of weeks later, Susan Dake, the President of Stewart’s Foundation, called and said, ‘Dave, we’re going to do $100,000. Is that okay with you?’ I said yeah, they would be really happy with that.”
Years before that, Dave was able to secure a $40,000 donation from Stewarts toward a new scoreboard at the Veterans Memorial Park here in Little Falls.
In his youth, Dave was involved in sports, playing baseball for Ted Schoff and basketball for Dick Andrews, and has continued to be an avid sports fan throughout his adult life. He admits he has a soft spot for our local sports teams and has gotten Stewart’s donations for many of them over the years.
Dave remarked, “Stewarts really is people-minded, and they love to help out. I can’t remember a time when they have said ‘no’ to me.” They make yearly donations to the communities in which they serve and have donated $69,000 to Herkimer County organizations just last year.
Dave also expressed his appreciation for his devoted employees, stating, “My employees in this town are the best. They are top-notch. Over the years, it’s been incredible. I have a lot of long-term people, which is kind of rare.”
He has also employed several young adults over the years. He stated, “I remember one girl who came to work for me. She had just graduated high school and needed a job. I said to her, ‘What are you going to do in college?’ She said, ‘I want to be a school teacher, and that’s why I need a job at Stewarts, so I can learn how to talk to people.”
He added, “Very interesting, isn’t it? It brings you out of your shell. You deal with 1600 people a day coming into this store, and you’re gonna have to learn how to talk to people.”
I asked Dave if he plans on retiring anytime soon. He stated, “I’ve kind of had some conversations where it might be time to bring somebody else on board. I told them I would get them through the remodel, and we’ll get them up to speed next spring, and then maybe I’ll step backward a little bit. Not totally retired but maybe take on a different role. I am the type of person who has a need to get up in the morning and have something to do, so that’s why I don’t want to totally retire. This is a company that I really like to work for, and they have always treated me very fair. I would like to stay in a little bit of a role for this company.”
If you haven’t stopped in to see the newly renovated Stewart’s Shop in Little Falls, you will be pleased with the new layout and abundance of choices.
Our community has been enriched by this company in many ways over the years and there is more to come!
Denise Gregorka is a longtime Little Falls resident who has a love for the city’s people & history.
She is married to Craig, who is a Little Falls native, retired photographer & former business owner.
Denise has done costume collaboration for Broadway and off-Broadway theatre for 18+ years and has also been an antique/collectibles dealer for over 25 years.
She is not a professional writer but is compelled to hear and share the “background story” from engaging Little Falls residents.
If you’d like to reach out to Denise about a story idea, you can email her at gork4444@gmail.com.