Kelley family opens UPS Store to strengthen a growing Chelsea

Looking around Chelsea, it’s obvious that the town has grown in the past 10 years. And with that growth has come an increase in family-owned small businesses.

One business that’s been thrown into the mix is a new UPS Store, which opened on Jan. 21.

Owner Scott Kelley and his wife Carly have lived in Chelsea for eight years with their kids Kennedy, 3, and Connor, 7, and said the demand for the store was high because of schools and all the small businesses nearby.

“We want to be another family-type business to help grow Chelsea,” Scott Kelley said.

The store, which focuses more on printing services, benefits other small businesses by giving them a place to print menus, banners, business cards, signs, books and really anything else they need — all at a better price than other, bigger businesses, Scott Kelley said. 

The UPS Store also gives teachers a discount, Carly Kelley said, to help them with any classroom needs they might have.

Because there are more than 5,000 stores in the nationwide chain and several others in the area, Scott Kelley said their reach is far, and if there is a service they can not provide at the Chelsea location, they have plenty of contacts to reach out to in order to get the job done.

“We want [to offer] something a little more personal,” Carly Kelley said.

Aside from printing, the store also has traditional packing and shipping, and promises a Pack & Ship Guarantee, stating they are responsible if your package is damaged.

With his background in management and her experiences as a server and waitress, the Kelleys feel confident they have the customer service skills to provide a personal, enjoyable experience for everyone who walks through their door. 

While Scott and Carly Kelley found opening the store to be necessary for community members, they also saw it as a way to spend more time together as a family. For the past two years, Scott Kelley has managed Billy’s Sports Grill in Liberty Park and English Village, and he said it was time to move out of the restaurant businesses because of the time commitment. 

“One of the biggest reasons I wanted [this change] was the hours,” Scott Kelley said. “Not the number of hours, but when I was gone. I never saw the kids or anybody. So this gives me just a day job.”

“We wanted more time as a family,” Carly Kelley said.

And with the store’s location — 16700 U.S. 280 in Chelsea — being less than a mile from the Kelleys’ house, Carly Kelley said they have the potential to spend more time together and also get the whole family involved in what they’re doing with the store. 

“In ’01, there was a McDonald’s and a Winn-Dixie and that was it,” Scott Kelley said. “Now [Chelsea] gets so much traffic coming from Harpersville and Sylacauga, we could be a quick stop for all of those people commuting towards Birmingham.”

Editor's note: this story was updated on Feb. 1 to include the opening date of Jan. 21.