Retail Therapy

I never thought I'd say this, but I miss the mall. The stores that cater to the hipper summer crowd close in winter and what you're left with, well, let me just say I feel fairly secure stating that no one would come to Montauk to shop in winter. Where is Cynthia Rowley when you really need her?

Not that you need an extensive wardrobe to winter in Montauk. A puffer, Uggs, and one of those hats that look as though you bought it climbing Macchu Pichu or trekking in Nepal, but more than likely came from a flea market in Soho, and you are good to go. It doesn't much matter what you have on underneath, because there's really no place to go where you'd be removing your outerwear. Good thing, because there are only a handful of stores that sell clothes in town, if you include the tee shirt shop and two that feature Hawaiian-style clothing, which I can't imagine is a big seller in the dead of winter.

And it's not just clothing that's in scarce supply. Oh, you can find the rudimentary stuff here, but if you're looking for anything exotic, like, say, an egg separator, as I was today, chances are you are out of luck. The woman behind the counter in White's, Montauk's only "department" store, confirmed they had none and quickly exhausted the other possibilities, the supermarket and the hardware store, both of which I'd already scoped out. She didn't think I'd find one between here and Bridgehampton, which is home to the Bridgehampton Commons and the closest thing to a mall between Montauk and Riverhead.

The closest thing Montauk has to a department store

I've passed the Bridgehampton Commons more times than I can count over the years, but have never paid it much attention, given that its flagship store is K Mart. However, after almost a month without any retail therapy, it was starting to look like Roosevelt Field.

The Commons isn't a traditional mall in that the stores don't open into an interior space, but I was willing to slog, store to store, in the cold, and started with the Gap, hands down the most unappealing Gap store I've ever been in. For a minute, I thought it was an outlet store for the retailer, but, no, just poorly designed. There wasn't a soul in Banana Republic and not many in the other mall stores like Victoria's Secret or Williams Sonoma either. Only five shopping days until Christmas, people!

Turns out they were all in T.J. Maxx, where I was sorely tempted to buy a Kate Spade scarf  that said "No Sleep Till Brooklyn." At $50, reduced from $150, it was a steal. I just wasn't sure it would go with my Peruvian beanie.

Regardless, I didn't leave the Commons empty-handed. I did, however, completely forget to look for the egg separator.