“Our culture has been changed significantly by the automobile, allowing people to live far from their communities; and to a lesser extent by zoning laws and building codes that have emptied our downtowns of residents.

“There are no strangers here, just friends who haven’t met,”

We are unpretentious and warm, playful and upbeat. We know our customers and care about them.

Annie’s signs are community bulletin board, political soapbox, Zen center, pun-of-the-week poster, and awards banquet rolled into one.

As the figureheads and persons in charge, we set the emotional tone and interactive parameters.

It feels as though they have a memory of me.”

That commitment to community impressed me, and made me more committed.”

Once people come into Annie’s, they quickly find that they are our first priority. We want to know our customers. We lean across the counter and ask about vacations and school activities, illness and recoveries, births and deaths.

Richard adopted a policy of “killing ‘em with kindness,” and was determined to win over anyone who would “come in off the street bound and determined to spread their misery in my shop.”