CINDY HAGEN, THE CORNER STORE: Working

By Carissa Katz

Cindy Hagen was a customer at the Corner Store on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton long before she began working there. She would come in for stamps, stationery, a toy, or maybe a tube of toothpaste, and end up "chitchatting" with the store's previous owner, Paul Johnson.

"It's like East Hampton was in the '50s when you knew everybody. Even in kindergarten I would cross the street by myself. That's what this little spot is like," Mrs. Hagen said of the store, which sells everything from school supplies to envelopes to sewing machine needles.

"I came into the shop one day and Paul asked me if I wanted a job. I almost said no," she said. He was going back to school to get his teaching degree and needed someone to tend the shop. "I wasn't looking to work. I hadn't worked out of my house in 15 years," Mrs. Hagen said.

Although she was hesitant at first, Mr. Johnson's offer came at just the right time. After being a full-time mom for more than a decade, she had just worked for the Census, and realized she liked reporting to a job. Working at the Corner Store seemed a perfect fit. "I was always shopping in here anyway."

When Mr. Johnson decided to sell the shop two years ago to become a teacher, Mrs. Hagen and her husband, Rich, agreed to buy it. In addition to selling just about everything to stock a school locker, a sewing kit, or your basic first-aid kit, the Corner Store is also a sort of satellite post office. As a "contract station" for the United States Postal Service, it provides many of the same services. There are mailboxes at the back of the store that are attended to by Postal Service workers. "We do everything but mail packages overseas," Mrs. Hagen said.

The Corner Store, a few steps away from the busy One Stop Market, offers film developing. Customers drop their film off there, then Reed's Photo Shop of East Hampton picks it up, processes it, and returns it by the end of the day. Reed's and the East Hampton Post Office may be only be a few miles away, but in the height of summer, people find it easier to avoid the village, Mrs. Hagen said. Long lines and demanding customers are not the norm at the Corner Store.

"You don't get that here," Mrs. Hagen said. "We probably know 90 percent of the people that come in. The summer people, the local people, they're all wonderful."

But "if you want to see insanity, come down here on Wednesday night," said her daughter, Jessica Hagen. In fact, the back to school season is the Corner Store's busiest time of year. Parents show up after the first day of school with a long list of supplies their children need. Ms. Hagen helps her mother in the store one day a week or more when needed.

"It's a family thing," Mrs. Hagen said. "If we need help, they're all here."

"All" means her husband, her other daughter, Jennifer, her teenage son, and, occasionally, a granddaughter. Richie Gross is the only non-family employee.

"You are a professional shopper," Ms. Hagen told her mother.

Mrs. Hagen admitted that she was right. "I'm like a kid in a candy store when I go to the Javits Center and shop at all the shows." She also buys toys and stationery from salesmen who visit the shop, and locally made items such as cards and soap. "It's a tiny little store, but we probably have 60 suppliers."

After two years, Mrs. Hagen can barely imagine a time when she wasn't behind the counter at the Corner Store. "I love it," she said.