The future is uncertain for the last main street hardware store on Martha’s Vineyard. The building that houses Phillips Hardware on Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs was listed for sale by the owners on March 15, with an asking price of $2.9 million.
When Brook Katzen moved to the Vineyard two years ago, it was not with the specific intention to buy a miniature golf course, a year-round restaurant, a taco truck, a retail building, an ice cream chain, and now a gourmet market.
The former Evolve Pilates fitness studio on Upper Main Street in Edgartown and a small house next door have been purchased by trusts managed by Vineyard Vines CEO Shepard Murray.
Here’s a proposed expedition every bit as adventurous (but not nearly as brutal) as Capt. Shackleton’s trek across South Georgia Island: Why not sit down with loved ones and plan to attend every last event being staged over the coming weekend — Dec. 11 to Dec. 13 — of the Christmas In Edgartown extravaganza?
One shopkeeper says she senses more enthusiasm and gaiety among shoppers, and a local innkeeper appreciates the way people don’t seem to be rushing through the holidays. Interspersing shopping with caroling, tree lighting and concerts is what the Old Fashioned Christmas in Edgartown program is all about, and organizer Fred Hurley reports that attendance at these events has been steady.
A year after the pandemic shuttered downtowns, causing ripples of worry about possible lasting impacts on the Island economy, business is bouncing back.
A recent survey of 28 businesses in downtown Edgartown shows the pandemic continues to have widespread and often dire impacts on Island commercial districts.
Although an annual rite of passage, the quest for summer employees has grown more extreme and spread wider this year, driven by a perfect storm of factors including and a housing crisis at its peak.
