Sharone Einhorn and Honey Wolters, the owners of Ruby Beets home furnishings store, which has been a Sag Harbor fixture for 14 years, recently announced they will be closing the shop later this month, not because of soaring rents, or sagging sales, but because they didn’t want to overstay their welcome.
“We didn’t want to be like the Beales, where they drag us out feet first,” said Ms. Einhorn, referring to Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edith Bouvier Beale, the famous residents of Grey Gardens in East Hampton, who were nearly evicted from their ramshackle house. “We’ve had a good year, but we can’t do it forever, so it seemed like it was better to stop when things were going well.”
Ms. Einhorn launched Ruby Beets 28 years ago, and later recruited Ms. Wolters, a friend from New York City, to operate it with her. The store has had three previous locations, including in the building that now contains the ARF Thrift and Treasure Shop in Sagaponack.
Their shop on Washington Street is overstuffed with a mix of pricey antiques and modern art. “There are not a lot of stores that jam it in like this,” said Ms. Wolters. “Customers wanted to see the store looking robust, so the more things we sold, the more things we had to bring in, and the more arrangement we had to do,” she said, pronouncing “arrangement” with a French flourish. “We’re both tired of carrying furniture,” added Ms. Einhorn.
Over the years, the duo has had several memorable pieces on display. The ones they remember most fondly include a light fixture salvaged from the old Penn Station in New York City, and a collection of paintings and drawings by Allen Townsend Terrell, a Riverhead native. At a recent estate sale, they picked up an aesthetically pleasing piece of pottery that turned out to be by Claude Conover, a midcentury ceramicist.
“Up until that point, we had been always lamenting, ‘Why haven’t we ever found any Picassos in a garbage can?’ ”said Ms. Wolters.
“But that was never really our point of view or goal,” said Ms. Einhorn. “We always just bought things that we liked, that’s it.”
That formula proved successful. “We’ve had a really devoted following and everyone is saying how sad they are that we’re closing, which makes it difficult, but we’re like, ‘No, no, it’s all good,’ ” said Ms. Wolters.
Through Jan. 20, the store is having a 50-percent-off sale to clear out the space, which it has to vacate on Jan. 25. The shop, however, continues online. The website offers art and photography as well as custom furniture, pottery, rugs, lighting, and home accessories.
“A big part of our business is selling art, and the pottery that we make,” said Ms. Einhorn. “That will all still be online, and that’s why we thought, ‘Well, it won’t be that big of a deal, we’ll just get out from under.’ ”
When freed from tending to the shop, Ms. Einhorn is looking forward to having the opportunity to make it to the beach during the summer, and they’ll both be dedicating more time to developing their interior decorating business. “We have not had time to work on people’s houses because we could never take a job in the spring or the summer, so now we can,” said Ms. Einhorn.
Ms. Wolters said the closing will likely be much harder on customers than the owners. “They’re not going to be able to come in here and visit. It’s always been a very welcoming place, and we play great music,” she said.
One thing Ms. Einhorn won’t regret leaving behind? “I’m not going to miss people showing me pictures of their nooks on their phone, and asking what should they put it in them,” she said. “I would always say, ‘I don’t know,’ and then Honey would spend 10 minutes giving them ideas.”