Jackie and Jim Kelly moved into the bird business with Wild Birds Unlimited in May ’93 on Harbison Boulevard. They bought the franchise rights for both Richland and Lexington Counties. Jackie was a realtor and Jim was a financier, and the two studied the bird business in Indianapolis under the tutelage of the headquarters people at Wild Birds Unlimited.

Having started four bird seed and supply stores in the Columbia area, all with Wild Birds Unlimited, and having kept two, the Kellys commute between one store at Richland Mall on Forest Drive and another in the Village at Sandhill. The Forest Drive store, across from Zesto’s, sells three or four tons of bird seed a week, which is maybe one–third of the store’s revenues.

Jim and Jackie Kelly in Wild Birds Unlimited The regionally blended bird seed is delivered by Wild Birds Unlimited from Kentucky, and every bag is pure seed. Unlike some of the lower–priced products offered elsewhere – the blends of sometimes 50% cereal filler – Wild Birds Unlimited seed mix leaves out the cereal fillers and delivers only the seed. The birds, in turn, eat all in the feeders because the feeders are filled with their preferred food, pure seed.

After the seed and the suet, bird feeders must make up a large share of store sales, judging from the impressive floor display of every imaginable feeder – feeders for every bird dining environment.

Wild Birds Unlimited counts about 315 stores in the US, and the Kellys’ Forest Drive operation is ranked near the top 30. In total sales the top ranked store this year is in the San Francisco area, and #2 is in Paramus, NJ. San Francisco has 7,500 sq. ft. of sales floor area, and Paramus has 4,500 sq. ft., while the Forest Drive store has only 2500 sq. ft. On a floor area per foot basis, then, the Kellys are doing about as well as anybody.

Jackie is originally from West Palm Beach. She moved to the Carolinas when her father owned hotel properties in Blowing Rock and in Anderson, where she lived. She moved to Columbia 46 years ago. She took residential real estate as her career, selling 10 homes in December ’75 during the depth of the recession.

Jim was born in Columbia, the sixth generation of his family to do so. He grew up in Olympia, and he graduated University High School ’52. Following four–and–a–half years at USC, Jim went into business while starting a family of three children.

From a previous marriage Jackie has four children, and together she and Jim have 10 grandchildren.

With the younger generation in tow, the Kellys’ future prospects look good. The bird seed demand is on an upswing, but the market never weakens, only flattens occasionally before the next opportunities. Presently the semi–annual sale on seed and suet is under way.

Their Swarovski binoculars, not on sale, are about the best in the business, and it’s worth the time to at least ask to see them. When tested for visibility, the binoculars show in detail the individual pine needles hovering over the back of Morganelli’s behind the Zesto across Forest Drive, about a football field away.

Jim and Jackie Kelly