By Emily Kim
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.‐‐Anne Gaillette, current owner of Leisure Tan in downtown
Plattsburgh, was able to turn a lifelong dream into reality.
After working as an employee for over 15 years and adjusting to three different
owners, Anne was finally able to buy Leisure Tan and call it her own. By the time she
became owner, she already knew everything about the place inside and out. When the
most previous owner had taken over the store, Jerry, he also had two other businesses that
he owned. He decided to make Anne the manager because of her previous experience
there, and she ended up managing it for four years. It was never the right time for her to
buy the store whenever a current owner wanted to sell it, until Jerry.
“I was at the point in my life where I could do it and I wanted to do it.” Gaillette said. It
was the fact that well okay, if I choose not to buy the business and someone else buys the
business, am I going to want to stay here and once again work for someone else when
really this business has always felt kind of like mine anyways?”
She had never owned a business before and she knew that it would be a tough
decision to make; but with the support of her husband and the amount of love that she
had for the place, she was finally ready to buy.
But it’s as if nothing has changed for her. She’s been the owner for a year and a
half now, but has made Leisure the place that it is with the business that it has for the past
15 years. She has an attitude that is uplifting and welcoming that make customers want to
come back.
“This is the only tanning salon I have been to, but after coming to Leisure Tan and
always being greeted by Anne, I want to come all of the time,” Sabrina Santos said, a
customer at Leisure.
Tanning is something that people enjoy not only for the bronzing color, but also
for the relaxation. So, Gaillette makes sure that her customers feel homey with a nice
atmosphere that will take a little stress off of their days.
“I always felt that going to any tanning salon was a “leisurely” (no pun intended) activity.
And through her bright attitude and décor, going to Leisure Tan salon was the epitome of
relaxation,” Charmaine Sawyer said, a former employee at Leisure Tan.
It’s the way that Anne puts in the greatest amount of effort for the tiniest amount
of detail in order to make the store the best that it could be for her customers. She goes
above and beyond decorating the store from top to bottom, and making cookies,
brownies, and rice crispy treats with the complementary juices and sodas for every
holiday. She even donates to groups and hangs signs up for upcoming events around
town.
“It’s great being able to do something that you love and also feel like your making a little
bit of a difference for someone who’s maybe having a bad and stressful day,” Gaillette
said.
Ask any customer who goes to Leisure Tan if they know whom Anne is and every
one of them will answer with a smiling yes. She wants to be there and she wants to know
that every person who walks into the store is treated with the best service and in the most
caring and positive way.
“Anne always makes me feel welcomed and always has a smile on her face and always
seems so happy to be there. I think that she really loves working there and that’s
amazing,” Haley Treco said, a customer at Leisure Tan.
Anne loves what she does and it reciprocates to the people who come to Leisure.
Her passion and dedication makes going to work something she looks forward to when
she goes to sleep at night.
But taking over a business, whether having done it before or not is a big
responsibility that many people can’t handle. Luckily for Anne, the biggest difference
from when she was an employee to now being the owner are the taxes and the paperwork
that she has to deal with. Besides that, her natural ability to sell and communicate with
people is what gives Leisure Tan the positive name that it has.
“I always was Leisure Tan,” Gaillette said. It’s like a second home to me and it has been
for a long time.”
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