Dressed for success: Loons’ employee brings passion to merchandise side of Minor League Baseball

by Jason Wolverton

Point to any piece of merchandise inside Dow Diamond’s Loon Loft and Ann Craig can tell you its story.

The Scooby Doo Mystery Machine-like “Groovin” shirt – her favorite, something she thought her goddaughter would like. Anything with the Loons’ batting practice logo – people love it, flying off the shelves. The camouflage Loons hat – figured it would be good for the many hunters in the area. Lance Parrish has one.

The tales come in bursts of excitement like someone reminiscing about glory days of old. And in a way, that’s what they are to Craig. Each shirt, each hat, each pennant is her creation, her baby, and she wears every ounce of passion she has for them on her sleeve. But such is life for the woman in charge of every item stamped with a Great Lakes Loons’ logo, and the bottom line is, Ann Craig wouldn’t have it any other way.

Customer Service

It’s a few days after the Fourth of July and Craig is an hour away from a meeting about Christmas. She has been the Great Lakes Loons director of Retail Operations for a little more than a year and is fully aware she has to stay ahead of the game in the game that is Minor League Baseball merchandise. After all, last Christmas was a big hit for the Loons as far as sales, and Craig isn’t one to rest on her laurels.

“I won’t settle, I always want to achieve more,” she says. “Not necessarily just in sales, but satisfying the patron as well.”

So Craig and Loons President and General Manager Paul Barbeau will meet to discuss strategy for the holiday season. But if you spend a few quick moments talking with Craig, you get the impression that 25 years of retail experience has already dictated what the next step is. Come Christmas, people will want December merchandise, not July, and so she already has big plans for jackets and sweatshirts. In that same way Craig always keeps the patron in mind, thinking about what they would want, not what she would. To her, it’s an art.

“Someone who just looks at something on a rack probably doesn’t realize how much time I spend trying to figure out what they want,” she says. “I spend a lot of time figuring out who my patron is and what they’re looking for.”

Craig spends the majority of her day ordering merchandise and designing all the products Loons’ fans see throughout the store. She takes everything into consideration from what age group the product is geared towards to where it will be worn. It’s because of this that it took her five hours to design something as straightforward as a Loons’ tote bag.

“It just sounds so simple, but it’s a very in-depth process,” she says. “I don’t want to make a mistake and buy the wrong merchandise. I try to appeal to everybody so I do spend an enormous amount of time trying to figure out who would carry it. I just want to please everybody.”

And it seems to be working. Both Craig and Barbeau say sales are great, with items flying off the shelves inside the store and orders coming from all over the country online.

“Retail sales have exceeded my expectations,” Barbeau says. “It is great to see the Mid-Michigan area embracing the team in every way, including by proudly wearing their Loons’ gear.”

In fact, sales have gone so well that Craig has her sights set on a lofty goal. Prior to the season, officials forecasted the Loons to be in the top 10 in all of Minor League Baseball in terms of merchandise sales. The way things have gone thus far, Craig hopes they can crack the top five.

“Sales have been beyond my wildest expectations,” she says. “The community has embraced it.”

Dream Job

Craig has her baseball-crazed family to thank for her position. On Easter Sunday some 15 months ago, her aunt mentioned that the ground had been broken on Dow Diamond and that she should apply for a position with the team. On May 1, Craig’s resume went out in the mail. The Loons called her May 3.

“I longed for this opportunity,” she says. “It’s so weird how sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time. I was just very lucky to get this position.”

And Craig has made the most of it. Last Christmas the team created the inaugural Loons MVP award to be given annually to an employee who has made outstanding contributions to the team. Barbeau says Craig was the obvious pick.

“Ann was an easy choice last year,” he says. “In such a short time, she launched the Loons’ retail operation and gave our fans such a great first impression of the Loons when they visited her stores.”

During those visits, running into Craig would be inevitable. She’s no stranger to weekends and 15 hour days and can be found in the store during home games. She says the Loon Loft is at its busiest just before games start and right after they end, though business is still steady during games. This, however, is not the case when a certain someone is on the mound for the Loons.

“If Clayton Kershaw is pitching, we’re slow,” she says. “Nobody gets out of their seat when Clayton is pitching.”

But you won’t find Craig stuck to a seat no matter who has the ball for the Loons, unless maybe she’s testing out her newest seat cushion or foam finger.

“I can tell you the coolest thing for me is when I see people pouring in and I see my merchandise,” she says. “It is the most gratifying feeling.”