The Big Squeeze

The Big Squeeze (also referred to as The Lemon or The Squeeze) is a lemonade stand in the Galleria Mall food court. It is designed to look like a giant lemon, with a top half that pops open for when the store is open and shuts when the store is closed. Occasionally, when closed, the store will have a bendy straw sticking out of it; however, said straw never appears consistently throughout the series, which suggests it has to be specifically set up.

The store is owned and run by Big Steve. The Big Squeeze seems to be a fairly consistent source of revenue for him, as he rarely complains about overhead costs; however, despite this, he is eager to move the store in "A Lime to Party" when the Party Lime opens in the store, as he cites that there's not enough room in the mall for two giant fruits. This statement implies that the Big Squeeze is mostly successful due to having a monopoly on citrus-themed drinks at the Galleria Mall and would run into trouble if this monopoly was taken away. (It is also possible that Big Steve recognized that revenues had been falling at the store due to Caitlin's inability to make good drinks but blamed this on the new competition rather than on Caitlin's culinary skills.)

When the store is seen in the show, it is mainly staffed by Caitlin. The store is a one-person operation, where a single employee does all of the drink preparation, mixing, serving, and cleanup. There are two shifts at the store, with an unspecified break between the two shifts where the store is shut down completely; why the store shuts down in order to switch is unknown. Caitlin is in charge of one of the shifts, which she took over in "Take This Job and Squeeze It" after Jen (who formerly held the shift) quit her job at the Big Squeeze to work at the Penalty Box. Caitlin has held this shift ever since, with the only break coming in "Losing Your Lemon" when she left her job at the Big Squeeze and gave her shift to a girl named Katie; however, Caitlin ended up retaking her job at the end of the episode.

The Big Squeeze is the main hangout for the group, as they often meet around the table closest to the store. Usually, they sit in the same order around the table, with Caitlin taking the leftmost seat if not working, Jen the one next to hers, Jude and Wyatt in the middle seats, Nikki in the seat to Wyatt's right, and Jonesy in the far right seat. The table is an important place for the group, and presumably has been so since Jen took the job at the Big Squeeze (before the series started). The group has only been evicted from the table once, in "Losing Your Lemon" when Tricia sent a group of Doppelgängers to steal the table away.

Trivia

 * The store name is a pun on the term "big cheese", which describes the most important person in a workplace.
 * Kevin is the employee who currently works the other shift.
 * The Big Squeeze has a portable juice cart called the Little Squeeze that is reserved for use at private parties or catered events.
 * Jen and Caitlin are the only members of the main six to have worked at the Lemon, while Nikki's the only female member of the main six to have never worked there.
 * According to Jen in the pilot episode, the Lemon is one of the few establishments in the Galleria Mall that hires people under the age of sixteen.
 * Due to the fact that it is the gang's primary hangout, and the fact that Caitlin works there since the pilot episode, the Big Squeeze is the most frequently seen store of the Galleria Mall and in the show.
 * In addition, the Big Squeeze being the main hangout is a reference to the sitcom Friends, where the show's protagonists always gather at Central Perk for some coffee.