In Seattle’s Central District, The Postman is more than just a shipping center – it’s a community hub built on resilience and a commitment to connection. Owned by KeAnna Rose Pickett, this authorized shipping partner for USPS, FedEx, DHL, and UPS has become a lifeline for the neighborhood, offering vital services and a sense of belonging.
In this interview, KeAnna shares The Postman’s journey, from responding to community need to expanding its impact. She discusses the complex process of authorization, the overwhelming community response, and her dreams for growth. Through its mission-driven approach, The Postman has created a space where everyone feels seen and supported.
Get ready to be inspired by KeAnna’s story of building a business that truly makes a difference.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Please introduce yourself!
My name is KeAnna Rose Pickett, and I’m the owner of The Postman. We’re a third party authorized shipping center, so we’re authorized to ship through the United States Postal Service, FedEx, DHL, UPS. We have private mailboxes, and we do business services like copy, scan, fax, and lamination, shredding, little things like that.
What do you want people to know about The Postman?
We want people to know that we’re here, that we’re open. We have moved locations, we’ve had different disruptions going on, but we’re still working hard. We’re supplying jobs to the community, and we’re invested in the community.
There’s really no project that we turn away. We try to figure out, create solutions, and we just enjoy the customer base that we built.
We have private mailboxes with real street addresses, so we recommend and invite different organizations, businesses, individuals to come get a mailbox with us, be part of the community that we have here in The Postman. We now have two locations – one in the Central District, and one in South Seattle – we hope to see everybody soon.
How does one become an authorized provider for all of these different providers?
Running a third-party authorized shipping center is pretty complex. There’s a lot of mail regulations that we have to follow between the United States Postal Service, FedEx, UPS, DHL, and they’re constantly changing.
It’s keeping up with what’s new, what regulations have changed, if the price of postage has gone up. It’s usually once a year, but lately it’s been twice a year. As an authorized shipping center, our prices are a tad bit different than when you just go to a singular location, but the benefit is that we offer multiple options, so folks can compare and choose what works best for them – whether it’s time, or money.
There’s an array of reasons for how a customer needs to get a package where it needs to go, and that’s our mission – keeping communities connected.
You started The Postman because it was what the community needed. Can you describe what the response from the community has been?
I would say a good word is “overjoyed”. They feel relieved. They feel confident that we provide a service that they needed that left the community and kind of left them high and dry trying to figure it out or having to travel super far.
It’s built trust with our community, for us to have come in when they needed us. It built confidence in the community.
What is something that you are proud of as a small business owner?
I’m super proud that as a small business owner, I get to exemplify what it is to be resilient when things get hard. I feel really proud to be able to be a face that kids can see, and that adults can see.
I am living my ancestors’ wildest dreams day to day. And it brings me so much pride for my children just to be able to show them that we run a business. They come into our business and they’re very like, “This is my store. I’m going to run this one day.” That is the cherry on top – we feel like we matter and that we’re important.
We help a lot of people out and it feels really good to know that we’re needed.
What should a first-time customer expect when they get here?
A first-time customer should feel like we’re here to support you. We’ve coined it as feeling like a big hug.
What do you need to have done? We just want our community and our customers to feel comfortable, to feel like they’re essentially, part of the family. And that we care about their packages, as if it was our own package or whatever service that they’re doing.
Customer service is our number one priority here. Whether folks come in already feeling great, we’ll work of that energy. Or if they’re feeling bad, we can leave them with an uplifting transaction. When you come into the Postman, it’s about feeling good, feeling confident.
Your needs are met. And you just feel like you just got a big old hug. We give hugs, too.
You’ve been operating for six years. Now fast forward six years ahead – are there more locations in store? If you had to dream big, what does that look like?
We’re a small business, but we’re big business minded. The dreams are huge – it’s literally like The Postman across the world. We have two now in Seattle, maybe Tacoma’s next? Maybe we move down to Portland? We’ve already been asked to be in Chicago. We’ve been asked to be in Arizona. And eventually maybe we open a bunch of stores across the world. What we do here is so unique, and this business model is what they want in every neighborhood – and across the world, really.
What do you love most about providing shipping and mailbox services?
What I love most about The Postman and the shipping services we provide, is that when folks come in here, they see that it can be done. They see that we are solution-based.
I like that I get to provide really good customer service. I think about myself when I go into businesses, and how I want to feel. That’s the biggest thing – that people feel really good when they come in here.
What are some local small businesses that you like to support that you’d like to give a shout out to?
So right here in the Central District, there’s a ton of small businesses that I love to support on the daily, like Avole that’s right up the street. For a good dinner, I would say Communion or Woodshop Barbecue, the teriyaki shop (Shodai) right here on Martin Luther King.
I’d also like to shout out organizations like Wa Na Wari who provide food and art to the community. There are also many organizations that might not have a storefront, but they’re doing the work in the community. We have Central Area Collaborative, Byrd Barr and Community Passageways. We like to connect to them and to show up to meetings.