The wealthy residents of the East End are suffering. Their usually tidy hedges are untrimmed and wild. Their lawns are uncut, their beds unmade. And for those not savvy enough to book a recurring slot at the salon, their hair looks like shit. The cause? A lack of available labor, well before summer is even in full swing.
With home prices skyrocketing, the usual availability of rentals for summer workers has evaporated, leaving restaurants and shops desperately short. A previous ban of visas for temporary workers hasn’t helped the situation. Add to that the fact that the population of the Hamptons has ballooned since March 2020, and it was only a matter of time until things got messy.
What do the Hamptons look like without the usual help? It’s not pretty. Annie Barton, who has owned and run The Salon & Day Spa in Amagansett Square for 21 years, said she has “never seen a summer like this.” And that was in June, before the season reached its peak. “We have a two-week waiting list, and some hairdressers have a one-month waiting list,” she said.
Barton said she continues to plead with year-round regulars to prebook or risk not getting in. With her stylists working “nonstop from the minute they arrive to the minute they leave,” those who only get a couple of blowouts over the summer are out of luck. “People get upset. I understand,” she said. “But I have no openings for children’s cuts or blowouts. If they call day of and there’s a cancellation, we’ll gladly take them.” That is, if they can get through on the phone. “I have two full-time receptionists,” she said, “for four hairdressers. The phone is ringing off the hook. We can’t answer all the calls, so they’re emailing to get appointments. I’ve never seen that before. We can’t answer fast enough.”
And it isn’t just coiffure. “You can’t get your nails done either,” one East Hampton resident said. “Everyone’s going for the natural look this year. If you see unpainted nails, you know they just can’t get an appointment. I watch them at the nail salons with walk-ins and they just laugh.”
Scour neighborhood app Nextdoor and you’ll find people “desperate” for an electrician, a plumber, a gardener, or a house cleaner. One late June post reads: “I can’t seem to find a person to cut my lawn…. I had someone for years, but I think he is too busy with estate job.” Part of the issue might be a new law passed by the Town of East Hampton that restricts the use of gas or diesel-powered leaf blowers and the use of more than two blowers at the same time for properties one acre or smaller.
For the one East Hampton resident, the absolute worst has happened. “I had to buy a lawn mower and cut my own lawn. I wanted flowers planted behind the pool. The landscaper didn’t show up. I had to do it myself,” this person said. “My brother just showed me how to use the thing that trims the weeds. Yesterday, I finally did that. I had to take my $800 sneakers off first, but it was actually satisfying.”
As for workers, it’s a name-your-price situation. The überwealthy have snatched up a lot of staffers, but even money can’t fill every job. One superrich homeowner’s house manager was recently scrambling to find a laundress. What’s a laundress, you ask? “Someone to iron the sheets,” said the person doing the hiring.
Frustrated by their inability to get a doctor’s appointment without blading back to the city, Manhattanites have made a push to import. Desperate calls went out to city service providers to make their way east. Sollis Health, a 24/7 members-only concierge service with medical centers in New York City and Los Angeles, answered the call with its first-ever pop-up clinic in Water Mill. For an annual fee starting at $3,000 for an individual under 45 or about $8,000 for a family, home visits at any hour, day or night, are yours. “There’s a real demand for good quality medical care in the Hamptons. It’s much busier now, and the labor shortage has decreased supply in all areas,” said Sabine Heller, Sollis Health’s chief commercial officer. “We’ve pivoted to respond.”
Same goes for four-legged patient providers. West Village and Upper East Side–based Small Door Veterinary responded to clients on the South Fork for the summer by sending out two pop-up mobile practices—one in Southampton, one in East Hampton. Pet owners just arriving to town won’t easily find pet sitting or walking or grooming services. One East Hampton dog groomer said she had to start saying no to anybody except existing customers; same with a local pet sitter.
The conspicuous labor shortage inevitably results in a circular conversation among those being served: frustrated diners waiting longer than usual for their lobster salad while watching waiters literally run from table to table have been heard to say, “They’re paid too much collecting unemployment. Nobody wants to wait tables.”
One local said that’s simply not the case. “If I hear anyone say it’s because of unemployment again, I’ll freak out,” said longtime East Hampton resident Sarah Focarino. “It’s not that.”
Instead, Focarino said that once lockdown began, many took matters into their own hands. “I know a lot of restaurant people who took that time to start doing what they originally wanted to do,” she said. “We all slowed down and remembered that those jobs aren’t who we are. A lot of people I know started doing stuff from home. Small businesses. Online work. Things that can’t be shut down again.”
She added that many local homeowners simply cashed out to city dwellers, taking advantage of the soaring prices. Focarino, whose parents moved to East Hampton in the 1980s, stayed and continued her night shift at a restaurant once it reopened, but also relaunched her fitness-training business, started walking dogs, and even got back to painting—something she hadn’t done for years.
The pivot was a matter of survival. “We can’t take the risk of another shutdown,” she said. “It’s nearly impossible to stay afloat year-round as a local, and there’s not much left besides things for the wealthy.”
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