Tangier’s small buisnesses find niche in ailing economy

MAKING A LIVING

A look at Tangier’s small businesses

Brian Charlton Staff Writer

Aside from commercial fishing, there are limited opportunities for work on Tangier Island, whose isolation 12 miles from the mainland also isolates the job market. Several small business owners, however, manage to sustain a living providing goods and services to Tangier natives – and, in the summer, an eagerly anticipated influx of tourists.

1 Lorraine’s

Lorraine’s was an innovation when it opened in 1984 – there were no other restaurants on the island at the time.

Now, the restaurant owned and operated by lifelong Tangier resident Lorraine Parks acts as a sort of self-serve restaurant in the off-season, allowing regulars to help pour coffee for newcomers when Parks and her daughter Jamie are busy cooking in the back.

Lorraine’s is the only restaurant open during the off-season on Tangier: Others only stay open from May to September, when tourist traffic is busiest. Still, the mother-daughter team looks forward to the summer for the accompanying income boost.

Lorraine’s used to operate in a much smaller building closer to the water, but moved to its current location in September of 2010. Since the move, not as many locals hang out there anymore, Parks says. This, combined with higher food prices from the mainland, puts an obvious strain on the business – not to mention the declining population.

Parks has food delivered twice a week from the mainland, but the local favorites – crab cakes, or the Crème de Crab soup – are caught fresh next door.

2 Wanda’s Gift Shop

Wanda Marshall originally set up her gift shop – one of three on the island – as a means to make ends meet after she lost her husband when he fell overboard on his boat. Aside from teaching, job options have traditionally been scarce for Tangier women.

T-shirts are her best sellers, hanging in banners and clusters throughout the small wooden building – but she supplements her social security check selling an array of Tangier-themed trinkets.

With a store that can only do business during half of the year, Marshall is concerned about her future as well as the uncertain future of the island as a whole.

She is critical of the states refusal to build a sea wall to protect the island, as well as the regulations placed on the watermen.

“They’re worried about the Fiddlers,” Marshall said. “They’re not worried about us. We’re just people.”

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3 Daley’s Grocery

JoAnne Daley, who owns Daley’s Grocery, also works the counter. She’s lived on Tangier her entire life. Daley’s, which occupies a small one-story building dating back to the 1920s, is the only place for islanders to buy necessities.

The shelves are sparsely supplied, due to the relatively low demands of a small populace.

Since it opened 25 years ago, Daley’s has always provided groceries by delivery truck to Tangier residents.

“It’s always been done,” Daley says. “It’s courtesy.”

Daley’s sells no alcohol, and neither does anywhere else on Tangier – although legal in the rest of Virginia, Tangier is a dry island for religious reasons. This does not stop locals from purchasing it elsewhere, however.

4 Double Six Sandwich Shop

Ocean-blue paint peels and chips from the walls of the Double Six Sandwich Shop, whose creaking door is held shut with a bungee cord. The owner, Sean London, is a local hero among Tangier’s children, who gather en masse on weekends to buy soda, candy bars, bubble gum and other valuables.

London has lived his entire 40 years on the island, but only recently bought the shop in 2010. Before his time, the Double Six was a hangout for adult watermen rather than schoolchildren, where all the men would come together to grab breakfast before heading out on the water.

While London continues to offer a breakfast of coffee and grilled cheese to early-rising workers, his business really thrives as a result of the addition of candy and chips to the shelves: As one of the only places on the island geared toward children, Double Six caters to its own market.

One wall displays fading photographs of customers crowded around tables in watermen’s hats and work boots – former regulars who have since passed away.“There’s not been anybody to replace them,” London said. 1 When Lorraine Parks opened Lorraine’s in 1984 it was the only restaurant on Tangier Island.

2 Wanda Marshall operates Wanda’s Gift Shop out of a building located in the front yard of her own home.

3 Daley’s Grocery is the only place to buy groceries or other necessities on Tangier.