Penny Auntie's New Owner Continues Tradition
The parents and children of Chappaqua know Penny Auntie 5&10 as a place where they can find fun and quirky toys and gifts.
For the women who have owned the store during its nearly 30-year history, it’s a place where they could find a life that balances family and work.
Cross River resident Karen Lustig, who bought the King Street shop in May, is following in the footsteps of two previous sets of owners who were moms and businesswomen.
Lustig, a mother of four children, was fed up with her corporate job at a market research firm when her baby sitter’s mom mentioned in passing in March that Penny Auntie was for sale.
“I know the store because my 16-year-old and 18-year-old used to come here with me when they were really little. It was like some light bulb went off in my head,” Lustig said. “I had never thought about buying a retail store or starting a retail business.”
Lustig visited Penny Auntie the next day.
“I walked in and just knew this was where I wanted to be. It was like a warm blanket wrapped around me,” she said.
Lustig hasn’t missed her old life, which involved supervising 80 people at TNS Media Intelligence in Stamford, Conn. Despite an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a 20-plus year career in marketing, Lustig said life on a high rung of the corporate ladder didn’t suit her.
“It was just too much, and it was not something I ever really wanted,” she said. “It was like one day I woke up and I was in this big job, and I honestly don’t know how it happened.”
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