Ann Cooke
Title: Inventory Manager
Location you work at: Grandview Office & Warehouse

  • How long have you been working for Winco? I started working at Winco right out of college in 1985. I got married and moved away in 1990. When we moved back to the Kansas City area, I started working at the warehouse again in November of 2002. Altogether that is about 23 years. That doesn’t include the summers during high school that I worked at the original warehouse in Stanley, Kansas and lived with the Winco co-founder Rick & Priscilla Winders or helped at numerous fireworks tents.
  • How did you get started with Winco? Well that one is easy. David and John are my brothers. For as long as I can remember I have been involved with fireworks including the time when a Jupiter Missile misfired when I was five and hit my wrist. I still have a scar from that incident.
  • What is your favorite firework? I would have to say my favorite type of firework are the zipper cakes. With that being said, I think my favorite is Black Cat Hyper Tension. Mainly because it is a red, white, and blue zipper cake.
  • Share a “Classic” fireworks story from your time with Winco. There are many crazy stories in the fireworks business. In fact, a friend of mine recently told me he thinks the fireworks industry would make a great reality show on television. But the one that I think is the most unique is from working at our retail store, Pyro City, in Lone Jack, MO. Customers bring dogs into the store all the time. In the summer, when we are most busy, the customer usually asks if it is alright to bring in their dog since it is so hot outside. We always say sure. A few years ago, one afternoon in late July, we had a customer come in asking if they could bring in their pet. We figured it was their dog so again said, “sure.” He was in a military uniform because he worked at the Air Force Base in Knob Noster. When he came back inside, he had a baby kangaroo! I have to say this was a first for us at Pyro City. He was only about 3’ tall, wearing a diaper and adorable. The young man that brought him in said he was helping to transport it to an animal sanctuary somewhere in Kansas.
  • What do you like to do in your spare time? In my spare time, I enjoy cooking and baking. I enjoy traveling and traveled out of the country for the first time in 2016. My husband and oldest daughter traveled to Ireland to watch my youngest daughter march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin with the University of Missouri band. Since that time, we have all recently traveled to Italy as well. I volunteer quite a bit at my church where I have met many good friends. I like hanging out with friends on the weekends enjoying wine tastings and other adult cocktails. It is always a treat when I get to spend time with my two daughters as well.
  • Provide your favorite inspirational quote. “A person who never makes a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
  • If you could meet anyone in history, dead or alive who would it be? John F. Kennedy