Pat to farewell iconic Kelly’s corner store
FOR five decades, Pat Kelly’s corner shop at the AlderleyRamsay Street roundabout has been the friendly place where Toowoomba residents would pick up their bread, milk and eggs.
“I’ve known some (customers) since they were born, I’ve seen them grow up and get married,” she said.
Now the 86-year-old owner of Kelly’s Store in Centenary Heights is saying goodbye, with the site hitting
the market through Colliers International.
Mrs Kelly, who founded the store with her late husband John and worked it seven days a week, said recent injuries had forced her to consider retirement.
“I’ve broken my hip, I’ve broken my left twice and I’m 86, so I figured it was time to go,” she said.
“We have a lovely community here, and I’m really going to cry because it is a sad day but it’s time.”
While she’s taken on a
mostly administrative role with the shop in recent years, Mrs Kelly said never lost the drive to serve customers.
“I still work upstairs doing banking and all the background stuff, (but) I also come down to do an hour or two a day to fill in,” she said.
Mrs Kelly said she had likely employed thousands of people over that time, including many young people for whom it was their first job.
But she said the store itself also started a profitable business portfolio, giving the original
site a special name.
“I always called it the milking cow because it has been that constant flow,” Mrs Kelly said.
“I’ve got another business at West Street and I own a transport business called John Kelly and Sons — it all came from here.”
As for her future plans, Mrs Kelly isn’t sure what to do with herself.
“(The free time) is a problem, because I don’t like to be idle,” she said.
Selling agent Dan Dwan,
who remembers going to Kelly’s Store with his grandmother as a child, said he was expecting strong interest in the Toowoomba “icon”.
“There are a lot of people who will have some tie back to Kelly’s Store,” he said.
“The logical thing is it would continue (but) it’s not out of the equation for it to become something else.”
The expressions of interest campaign for the 3000 sqm site ends on October 14.
For more information, call Dan Dwan on 0418 799 792.