It is no small thing to keep a local business going when online shopping gets easier and easier with each new technological innovation. Walmart offers free shipping these days, and Amazon’s fleet of delivery trucks now prowl the streets of the South Fork like an invasion of beetles. Amazon, indeed, had gross profits of about $345 billion last year, up nearly 20 percent from 2023 — spinning off enough money to fuel Blue Origin, the spacecraft company from Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, sending the middling pop star Katy Perry, among others, beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
This Thanksgiving, we’re thankful for the moms and pops who keep the lights on all winter, even when it doesn’t always bring home a whole lotta bacon. There are real people, neighbors and families, behind each of these stores, and it’s easy to forget that each and every small retailer is doing this community a service by sticking with us and serving us through thick and thin, not just in sunshine but in slush and the dreaded February gloom.
So thank you, Wittendale’s, Buckley’s, and East Hampton Gardens. Thank you, Park Place Liquors and Sam’s Beverage Place. Thank you the Corner Store and Springs Hardware. Merci to you, Bonne Nuit, the Monogram Shop, and the Vacuum Store. We see you and appreciate you, Obligato. Danke Schon, Village Hardware. What would we do without you? These small businesses — too many shopkeeping friends old and new, of course, to list here — bring life to our streets and keep lots of locals employed.
This Friday is Black Friday, promising blockbuster deals on the latest Apple gadget or espresso machine at the big-box stores and online behemoths, but it is worth a reminder that the following day has been dubbed Small Business Saturday — an excellent excuse to visit our town’s independently owned shops and spread some money around at a time of the year when it is truly needed. While you’re out and about browsing for stocking stuffers or sipping your nutmeg latte, swing by the Alice and Olivia boutique at 79 Main Street (where Our Fabulous Variety Show and Sew Hampton have set up Anchor Society Winter Shops camp for the winter) and the Gathering Marketplace at 82 Park Place in East Hampton Village: At both these locations, a little Jingle Mingle holiday gathering will be held on Saturday afternoon from 4 to 6. Shopping local always feels virtuous, but it feels even better with a little wine and cheese.
Meanwhile, we are also thankful for the businesses that carry this newspaper, from a handful sold each week at the Southampton Village CVS to the Montauk I.G.A. Among the most-lively “newsstands,” as we call them, are One-Stop Market, Barnes Country Store, Citarella in East Hampton, BookHampton, Red Horse Market, the Sag Harbor Variety Store, Schiavoni’s Market, and all the Goldberg’s Famous Bagels locations. The Star can also be found each Thursday at Loaves and Fishes and the Sagaponack General Store, at Bridgehampton Deli, and King Kullen. It can even be picked up down by the docks at Montauk Marine Basin.
Last but by no means least are our readers in print and online who make the whole thing happen. Thank you and have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.