Dan's Papers - December 7, 2007 - Hampton Tradition XVI

When you stroll through the doors of the 5 & 10 Variety Store located at 114 Main Street in Sag Harbor, you take a step back in time - the smell of candy, the feel of a wooden floor, the aisles of toys. Lisa Field, manager of the store and daughter of owners Phil and Roseann Bucking, was kind enough to share the magic of what makes their 5 & 10 store timeless. With over 20,000 different items in stock, the inventory is still the same as when her dad left the Bulova Watch Company to buy the business in 1970.

"The bank would only lend him the money to buy the business from Mr. Hanson if he bought the building too," she explained.

Lisa, who grew up in Sag Harbor, said that as a child she and her brothers were not allowed to just take any toy they wanted from the store, but had to save up and buy the toys. With her own children now, she said, "I am a little more liberal, but they still have to pay for it. My thirteen-year-old daughter works here during the summer." She also noted that being open seven days a week 362 days a year (closed Christmas, New Years Day, Thanksgiving Day and Easter Sunday) was taxing on her family, but also a service to the community. Still, today, old friends stop in to buy odds and ends they can only find there.

With Perry Como singing "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" over the speakers, I strolled down all nine aisles. The hula-hoops, plastic toys, soldiers, cowboys and Indians caught my eye, as they did when I was seven years old. Games such as Monopoly, Scrabble, CandyLand and Chutes and Ladders are still there, along with Barbie and G.I. Joe. Also on the shelf was Silly Putty, right next to the slinkies and Nerf balls.

Believe it or not, over 40 different types of contact paper are available at the Variety Store as well as woven laundry baskets, pots, pans and potholders, all in different, sizes, colors and shapes. Not to mention clothes ranging from inexpensive but vital gloves for children to fleeces and wool caps. The store will even create spare copies of car and house keys for you.

Remember visiting the school supply store in early September as a kid? Notebooks, binders, #2 pencils, ballpoint pens, loose-leaf paper and erasers are all available at the Variety Store. Being Christmas time, holiday decorations are currently on display, including Santa masks, tree ornaments, wrapping paper, Christmas lights and stockings. And everybody knows that the 5 & 10 is the best place to find fairly priced costumes for Halloween for children.

Linda Casanova, a customer who grew up in Sag Harbor, recently confessed to once stealing candy as a young girl. Lisa scolded her, forgave her and gave her free candy. Phil and Rose Bucking never took down the 5-cent Pepsi sign from the 1922 era when the store first opened.

The tradition of the 5 & 10 store is a dying one, but not in Sag Harbor. The banker who talked the Buckings into buying the building along with the business insured that their tradition would be around for many years to come.