The Gay Head Store: Service and community – Martha’s Vineyard Times
The Gay Head Store has been in operation for over a month now this summer, and the Smalleys have been hard at work providing goods to Aquinnah residents and visitors. Before the store opened, the closest general store for Aquinnah residents was Chilmark General Store, while the nearest year-round store was Alley’s General Store in West Tisbury, which are 4.1 miles and 9.3 miles away from Aquinnah respectively, according to Google Maps.
Jay and Missy Smalley opened up shop in May with their children, Faith Smalley and Zachary Smalley, helping to run the store.
“It’s definitely been super-busy since we opened, even with local people coming to check us out,” Missy Smalley said. “Everybody’s so excited that there’s a store in Aquinnah and they can come and get bread and milk and necessities.”
Missy said the first month of opening the store has helped with the learning process and solidified a working schedule for the store, such as knowing that tourists from the tour buses have 20 minutes at the Cliffs, which sometimes becomes a “mad dash.”
The process of establishing the store began in October by submitting a business plan and a letter of interest to the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) council, according to Missy. The renovations on the building began in January.
Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal members have priority in establishing a business at Aquinnah Cliffs. Jay, Faith, and Zachary are members of the tribe.
“We’re really thankful that our people have been able to lock this in as not only a source of income for tribal families but just to educate people, too,” Faith said, listing the Aquinnah Cultural Center as an educational institute. “I feel like we’re kind of sharing our culture just in our presence.”
This is the only general store in Aquinnah, but it’s not the first. Around 1907, the first Gay Head Store ran its business near present-day Totem Pole Way. A brown and white photograph displaying the first store hangs at the current Gay Head Store.
“We actually found that picture in my great-grandma’s family pictures. We just came across it one day,” Faith Smalley said.
“We’re still trying to figure out who that is in the picture,” Jay added.
Jay continued, saying the store has had a positive impact on both tourists and residents. “We have saved birthday parties where they didn’t have something for their cake, saved dinner parties,” he said. “It’s been a good addition to the town.”
“And breakfasts,” Zachary added to the list of events the store saved.
While customers from tourism are a benefit to the store, the “biggest purpose” behind Jay’s vision for the establishment was to serve Aquinnah.
“That was my real driving force behind this, to have a store, in Aquinnah/Gay Head,” he said. “We’re going to try to stay open as long as we can. I figure I will change up my inventory when it comes time for Thanksgiving, for the holidays.”
Sometimes, suggestions or requests from customers have helped to shift what is available in the store.
“We get so many good suggestions, things we would never even think of, like ant traps and soy sauce. Just little things when people get to their house and say, ‘We don’t have it,’” Faith said. “So that’s been kind of a fun process.”
Among the various products offered at the store, Faith said Up-Island Cookie Co.’s cookies (Jay recommends the chocolate chip flavor) and Eileen’s Pies offerings are definitely some of the more popular items people buy, not to mention the store’s merchandise. “People love to rep us,” she said.
Usually, the task of picking up products that do not arrive by delivery truck falls on Zachary.
“[On Friday morning] I went to Cronig’s to pick up our sandwiches and salads to make sure we were all set for July 4,” he said.
The Smalleys expressed thanks to the various people who were a “huge part” in establishing the store, such as the water from Island Source, the vendors and builders who made the store possible, and Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School student Lily Duarte, who has been with the store since Day 1.
For the Smalleys, having the store up on the Cliffs was not just a matter of serving the town or preserving Aquinnah Wampanoag lands. It held family tradition.
“Just being up here with the other shop owners has been just amazing. Jay has been coming here since he was a baby with his parents, because his dad grew up here, and the first place his dad would bring him was up here to see relatives,” Missy said. “It’s really nice to be able to continue the legacy, that’s for sure.”
“This would be our first stop. When we hit town, we would come right up to the Cliffs, and my father would see everybody. We would see everybody,” Jay said.
The Gay Head Store is open Monday to Sunday, from 7 am to 7 pm each day.