Chuck Ellis Says Goodbye to Goin’ Postal — But Business Stays

After nine and a half hours a day, six days a week, for 15 years, Chuck Ellis is ready for a change. And it should be no surprise that the quiet and conscientious man who turned a simple pack-and-ship location into an essential service for Key Peninsula residents is committed to ensuring a smooth transition.

Ellis’ family moved several times before settling in North Dakota when he was still in grade school. His memories are of harsh winters that seemed to follow his journey until he left Minnesota following the economic recession that eliminated his job there in 2008. Along the way, he earned an MBA in marketing and acquired a background that includes customer service, retail, e-commerce, and graphic design.

Family drew Ellis to the Key Peninsula. Two sisters and his parents were already settled here when he arrived in 2009. The Goin’ Postal franchise in Key Center had been dormant for a year when he purchased the business. The venture not only utilized the skills and knowledge he’d mastered but, more importantly, it allowed him to work alongside his dad for the first four years and to be present for the last years of his parents’ lives. He likes the climate here and has enjoyed the flow of people, as well as evolving the business to meet the needs of KP’s geographically isolated community.

Ellis took advantage of all the options offered by Goin’ Postal locations across the country. He built up the business to be more than just a drop spot for UPS, FedEx, and DHL. The small storefront in the Key Center Coral also offers packaging supplies, greeting cards, stamps, private mailboxes, international shipping, and package drop-off. If someone needs to mail something oddly sized or shaped, Ellis can create a custom box. It’s also a place where home movies, photos, and slides can be transferred to digital formats.

His services also include notarization, passport photos, and robust support for small businesses and individuals. Securing office supplies, faxing, scanning and emailing documents, copying, and laminating can be done while customers wait. On average, Ellis reported 20 to 30 customer transactions per day, with intermittent swings of crazy busy and too quiet.

Seemingly unflappable, Ellis navigated the unstructured and fractured workflow always with a warm and gentle smile, filling many voids in the community with his attention to rapid turnaround on brochures, photo manipulation, and special projects when time is short and budgets are tight.

Ellis said continuing that level of service to the community was forefront in his mind as he prepares to turn the business over to new owners. The decision to move on has been a goal for several years, and he recently accepted an offer. He and the new owners are still working through details, but Ellis said he would remain through the transition at least until the end of August.

It is the customers he will miss most, but he’s ready for a change. He’s planning to stay on Key Peninsula, at least for a while, as he searches for the next good fit for his skills and talents. He is comfortable with change and the current uncertainty, he said, a bit sad to leave the daily interactions, but also looking forward to having time for discovering new hobbies and for reading the classics he missed out on earlier in life.