‘Part of Our Family’: Ann Cheney Retires from Walter Stewart’s After 20 Years

Ann Cheney remembers her first day at work at Walter Stewart’s Market, an August morning 20 years ago.

An art history major out of Fairfield University who had worked briefly in that field prior to having children, she heard about the job in New Canaan from a recruiter after leaving a part-time job with a food service provider. 

“The store was slow, but I was getting to know the team—Alex, Doug and of course, Bailey—and I’ll never forget the first thing that Alex said to me was, ‘Look around at our customers—this is a place to connect,’ ” Cheney recalled. “And it absolutely has been. It is a local gathering place.”

For two decades, Cheney, longtime store manager at Stewart’s, has greeted customers and co-workers with a smile, overseeing multiple departments in a business that staffs nearly 70 people.

Friday will be her last day at work.

“I’m feeling very—I’m not sure I have the words to describe it—joyous yet sorrowful, all wrapped up in one,” she said.

Upbeat, smart, funny, energetic and a food expert with an artist’s eye for presentation, Cheney is described by the Stewart’s family of workers as a critical piece of what makes the store both special and successful.

“Ann has really elevated everything,” Vice President and Owner Doug Stewart told NewCanaanite.com from the beverages aisle on Wednesday afternoon. “She’s been a great leader to our team, like a teacher. She’s taken a great interest in all the trends in our business and we really just don’t know what we would’ve done without her. She led us through our renovation, which was a challenging time where everything was in flux. Right after that, she led us through COVID. She’s just been part of our family.”

And part of the New Canaan community, where Cheney moved in 2022. She’s been a member of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors as well as the Rotary Club of New Canaan, where she served as president.

Cheney is “a thoughtful person, very intelligent and has a great sense of humor,” Doug Stewart said. “But she’s also a very caring person.”

That care shows in how she treats others as well as her day-to-day responsibilities, according to Maria Karukas, the human resources manager at Stewart’s.

“Ann is one of the most wonderful, professional people I’ve ever worked with, and she is a joy every day to work with,” Karukas said. “What she has done for Walter Stewart’s Market, bringing it to the level of what New Canaan people expect, has been remarkable.”

Cheney “definitely has an eye for the artistic and putting things together,” Karukas added.

“She’ll be working on the flowers and making them look beautiful or doing a display to make it look more enticing, it’s part of who she is,” she said.

The Stewart’s team threw a surprise retirement party last week, at Lombardi’s on Elm Street.

Asked what advice she might have for her successor in the store manager position, Mike Gomez, Cheney said, “I don’t need to give a lot of advice to Mike because he’s such a professional, and I know he is going to do a phenomenal job here at Walter Stewart’s. He brings a lot of great experience already to the team and the organization.”

Cheney’s retirement plans include moving to South Carolina, where her husband Burke is already relocated. Their daughter Nina, son-in-law Jeremy and grandchildren June and Weston are already there, too.

“We’ll be a lot closer, which is a very nice thing,” Cheney said.

She’ll miss the job, the store and the community.

Asked what surprised her about working at Stewart’s, Cheney said: “The rapport that we develop with our customers is very special. And while I had previously worked in the specialty food industry—and always had good customer service skills and appreciated my interactions with all the customers—I would say New Canaan is a little more special. Our customers here, they’re more inclined to strike up a conversation and learn more about you and what you’re about and likewise share their lives with us, as well.”

Asked what she would say to those customers, Cheney said, “It’s just been an absolute privilege. I hope that I’ve been able to provide them with a great customer service experience.”

She added, “I’d like to thank Alex and Doug. Thank you for your leadership and for the way that you run your business. It’s a very honorable, fair business, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.”