In Budapest, Hungary, after the fall of communism in the late 1980s, Ell and her husband saw an opportunity. “We marketed American health and beauty products because they were very limited there at the time and European products were very expensive.’’
They wound up in New Mexico by chance. “We went to New Mexico on a whim. We said, “Let’s go someplace different.’’ We had just returned from Vienna. We hadn’t been to the southwest. We were driving on US 10 and when we got to the juncture of 10 and I 25, we wondered, “Should we go to Albuquerque or Phoenix? We turned right. I felt like Bugs Bunny!’’