General stores serve the Jersey Shore with smiles and (practically) anything you need

If you’re standing in line to pay at Dalrymple’s Card & Gift Shoppe in Sea Isle City this summer, settle in and relax.

This could take awhile.

“We’re open to any kind of talking with customers at any time,” said owner Charles Dalrymple, whose family founded the general store in 1963. “Even if there’s a line.”

His sister, Val Dalrymple Gaughen, agreed: “We’re often the first stop people make as they return for vacation after a year. It starts with, ‘Hello, we’re back.’ You don’t want to cut them off when they begin chatting.”

That casual manner and genial attitude are signature features of the Jersey Shore general store — places like Dalrymple’s that sell practically anything, from Band-Aids to boogie boards, in beach towns up and down the coast.

Patrons often aren’t merely repeat customers, but human links in chains of relationships that go back generations. The mom and dad buying those sandals and tubes of sunscreen today first squirmed in the store 30, 35 years ago, clamoring for beach pails and shovels.

Celebrated for their convenience (even if their prices might be a bit high) as well as their if-we-don’t-have-it-you-don’t-need-it charm, Shore general stores breed loyalty in their customers, and a sentimentality that elevates their significance.

“These family stores — they’re personable,” said Marissa Kevilus, 45, a Yardley IT worker who left Dalrymple’s with a canvas beach bag filled with treasure. “There’s a nostalgia here that’s lost when you’re shopping on Amazon or at Target.

“People in the store genuinely want to help you find something. It brings back the idea that people really do care and want to engage. We grew up in communities during the age of small shops, not Best Buys.

“Without them, you’d lose a lot.”

It’s impossible to list every Shore general store, though most of the towns have them, or establishments like them, and people aren’t shy about shouting out some of their favorites:

Bain’s Point Hardware in Point Pleasant Beach; Shorelines Shell Shop in Wildwood; Diamond Beach Bums in Wildwood Crest; Pessano’s Variety in Ocean City; Shore and More General Store in Seaside Park; Hand’s on Long Beach Island; and Hoy’s 5 & 10 in Ocean City (two locations), Stone Harbor, and Avalon.

In New Jersey, 16% of all stores, or 64,604, are listed as “general merchandise,” according to a 2021 New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development report. More such places are closing than opening: Their overall number has declined from 67,509 in 2010 to 64,604 in 2020, the report said.

“These stores sell everything and do quite well,” said Richard Bernstein, emeritus economics professor from Temple University who summers in Barnegat Light. “They charge higher prices because they’re convenient, and many aren’t open year-round. They have a pretty wide selection.”

Bernstein wondered how many stores may ultimately be sold and turned into beachside homes, “since the most valuable property on the Shore is residential.”

Real estate stagnated from 2008 to 2020, but suddenly increased 25% to 30% after COVID-19 hit, Bernstein said. Much of the rise was fueled by an influx of workers from New York, Philadelphia, and elsewhere who could suddenly work remotely, brokers have reported.

Don’t look for Dalrymple’s to be sold any time soon, Charles Dalrymple, 67, said, with sister Angel Dalrymple taking an even more adamant tone:

“We’re never selling,” Angel, 78, said. Gaughen, 71, put it into perspective, adding, “This is family. This is blood. And we’re part of this community.”

Charlie’s daughter, Nicole Dalrymple Conahan, 35, who’s equipped with a marketing degree from Drexel University, manages the store and is expecting to take Dalrymple’s into the future.

“Our life has been this place,” she said simply.

Such is the state of affairs in the Hoy’s group of 5 & 10 stores.

“They’ve been in my family since 1935, when my grandfather started them,” said owner David Hoy, 70, standing in his Ninth Street and Asbury Avenue Ocean City shop. He added that his son, David, 30, is the heir apparent.

“You hear few complaints from people, who come in at the start of their vacations,” Hoy said. “Although, some young kids wonder why there’s nothing in our 5 & 10 that actually costs just 5 or 10 cents.”

At Hand’s General & Hardware Supply in North Beach Haven on Long Beach Island, the founders’ family no longer runs things, but the current owners understand the importance of being a place of permanence for customers, according to Johnny McGee, the store’s hardware manager.

“I’m not in the original family, but I started here when I was 14 and now I’m 31,” he said.

McGee added that Hand’s actually “saves people’s vacations.” Because of the wide selection of hardware and traditional beach general store inventory, people don’t have to travel to mainland big-box stores to get what they need.

“No one in summer wants to go off-island, sitting in traffic for two to three hours to get something that we probably have,” McGee said.

Customer Kathy Pappas, 56, was certain a time-consuming trek to Home Depot was in her near future when she realized she needed a new toilet seat for the house her parents bought in 1970.

“But Hand’s had it,” exclaimed Pappas, a homemaker from Boonton, Morris County, as she held up her inelegant prize. “I love it here. I’ve been in this store every summer since I was 3.”

Patron John Feliciano, 42, an electrician from Flemington, Hunterdon County, was equally enthusiastic as he purchased door locks and a ring toss game for his kids.

Not long ago, he needed a particular cord to connect his phone to a projector to show photos for a family funeral. Hand’s had it, but it wasn’t for sale; the cord was being used by the store. But Hand’s personnel allowed Feliciano to borrow it.

“What people, what a place,” he said. “If you need it, you go to this spot. This store will have it.”