About Ann

Being involved with people has always provided the spark in Ann’s life. Enthusiasm, passion and curiosity have always taken her down new paths—usually the right one, occasionally not.

The spark in her eye led her father to say, before his death in 2001, “Honey, you never were as bad as we thought you were gong to be!” Little did he know what lay ahead. He would be very proud of his eldest daughter.

Ann is a graduate of Lasell College in Auburndale, MA and Mount Union College in Alliance, OH. Post graduation took her and her husband to Lexington, KY where she lived until 2000. Widowed at 36, and with two young children, Ann sought guidance by taking a class at the University of Kentucky, designed to tell her what to do with her life. All the test results pointed to many more years in school, and there just wasn’t the time, or the interest.

Remarried at 38, a long-time friend approached her, and simply asked if she wanted to open a store? “Absolutely,” was the reply, and the odyssey of retail, long a dream, became a reality.

Animal Crackers of Lexington, Inc. a children’s clothing store began as a dream, and became one of the leading women owned businesses in Lexington KY. The experiences of Ann and her partner “The Other Ann” stretched from ownership, to management, buying and selling, to staffing and training, budgeting and inventory to merchandizing and promotion. Even when they were negotiating the purchase of their building, or fitting their “Open to buy” dollars into many different categories of sales, retailing never ceased to be exciting.

Customer service is something that is vital in this profit driven world, and it doesn’t make any difference what your business is. It could be a Medical office, a legal firm, a large corporation, a grocery store, or even a big box store. Whatever your profession, never lose site of the person on the other side of the counter or desk, and they will return your “Attitude with Gratitude.” The statement that drives Ann is, “The customer really does care what you sell, as well as how you sell it!”