Winner’s Circle businesses. The local schools are another major account. “Each year, we do back-to-school packs,” Whitney explains. “We get the list of supplies from each teacher by grade. In the summer, we rent a space—sometimes a room, an old house, even a church—and we put the packs together. The parents can go online and order the packs. When the kids return to school, they find their packs with their names on them on their desks. It’s personalized and the kids, parents and schools love it.” While Whitney seems like a natural both at small-town living and at being a local business owner, neither was planned. After working in New York City in mergers and acquisitions for 30 years, Whitney realized she needed to live closer full time to her teenage kids, who had been born and raised in Ridgefield. So, in 2015, she moved back to the town for good. However, she soon found herself with extra time on her hands. On a trip to Squash’s to pick up a folder for her son, she saw a “Help Wanted” sign in the store’s window and applied. “The manager said it was a cashier job and didn’t pay that much, but I explained I didn’t care about the money,” Whitney says. “It was more that I was looking for a way to socialize. A few months later, Gary Peterson, who had owned the company for about 10 years, approached me. Knowing I had a business background, he said, ‘You love this town; you raised your children here. Would you like to buy the business?’ Of course, I had no idea if I wanted to buy it or what the financials were. But we got down to the nuts and bolts and negotiated. Less than a year later, I was the owner.” Although her children are now in or finished with college, most of them worked at Squash’s during high school. Her husband works with her at the FEBRUARY 2023
The Squash’s team (l-r) Dominic Jesuthasan, Riley Morrison, Wendy Gagnon and Whitney Williams (owner)
store, and one daughter still does the seasonal holiday windows. “It’s an honor to have children that love us and are here by choice,” she says. “We all love it here.” When asked what has kept Squash’s thriving for 70 years, Whitney doesn’t hesitate: “Customer service is the number 1 reason. We pride ourselves on great service and being super helpful. If we don’t have a product or service, we will refer the person to a local business that carries it. We are a small town with small businesses and we support each other.” Squash’s alums also help. “We’ve been here so long that a lot of people in the town worked here in the 1950s and 1960s,” she says. “Some are nostalgic; INDEPENDENT DEALER
some have kids in school here now and they like to tell them how they worked here. They like to support us.” According to Whitney, another reason for Squash’s longevity is its copy and print shop: “We have a print shop, so we do many restaurant menus, company business cards and Christmas cards. We get a lot of click and print, but we also have a full-time designer who will work with our customers one on one. For example, we get artists who want to print cards with their artwork. Our designer will help them with the size, paper and envelopes. We do custom work and are cheaper than Staples!” In fact, the company prides itself on its reasonable pricing—although PAGE 4
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