Keeping Account 07.26.15

Waldbaum’s Out

Stop & Shop will be taking over the Waldbaum’s stores in East Hampton and Southampton Villages as part of a $146 million deal.

The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company announced on Monday that it has entered into an agreement with the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, which owns A&P and Waldbaum’s stores, to purchase 25 of the stores in the greater New York area, including the ones in East Hampton and Southampton. A&P has filed for bankruptcy protection and is in talks with Stop & Shop and other grocery retailers to sell off 120 stores employing 12,500 workers, according to The New York Times. The South Fork deals must first be approved by the court.

At present, the closest Stop & Shops are in Hampton Bays and Riverhead. Some Waldbaum’s stores on Long Island, including the one in Riverhead, are slated to be closed.

The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of 2015.

Housefolk at Home

Philippa and Christopher Winterbourne have opened a new store in East Hampton called housefolk, selling housewares such as dishes, towels, hand-woven tablecloths, handmade ceramics and baskets, lamps and lanterns, bedding, and more, as well as jewelry and other accessories.

The former owners of the Brook Farm General Store, a Brooklyn shop and online retail business, they moved to East Hampton’s Northwest Woods two years ago. The East Hampton shop opened Memorial Day weekend at 10 Main Street in the Parish Mews courtyard. It will be open all year. Summer hours are Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Housefolk also sells its merchandise online at housefolk.com.

“We think that beauty and function should go hand in hand, so everything we have here is useful but special, beautiful in some way,” Ms. Winterbourne said. “Everything we sell is handmade, and it matters to us who made it and where it comes from. Anyone who also feels that way will hopefully find things they like here.”