JAM Paper & Envelope Opens On Jobs Lane

Inside 68 Jobs Lane, a cache of colors easily distracts shoppers walking up and down the sidewalk in Southampton Village.

JAM Paper & Envelope, owned by father-and-son team Mike and Andrew Jacobs, is chockful of colorful products, from sheets of blue paper to shiny gift bags and even funky purple paper clips.

The men, originally from New Jersey, have been part-time Southampton residents for more than 30 years and finally decided to bring their Manhattan-based business to the village—for the summer at least. Their location on Jobs Lane is the business’s first storefront outside of Manhattan, according to Andrew; they have three addresses in the city.

“It didn’t feel risky or out of the ordinary,” he said. The Jacobses had been searching for the perfect spot in the village since last year, when they put in an offer for the former Saks Fifth Avenue building on Hampton Road. Close to closing the deal, the building’s owner, Robert Rattenni, decided not to host a pop-up shop for summer alone, and so the Southampton JAM Paper idea was put off until this year.

Walking the village after failing to secure the Saks building again, they happened upon the old Stevenson’s Toys space at 68 Jobs Lane, which was vacated when the toy store moved across the street. It was an instant hit with the self-proclaimed “workaholics.”

While most summer residents like to relax poolside or at the beach, the Jacobses expect to work hard this summer.

“It’s tough to relax on a Saturday or Sunday and not keep running to the store,” Andrew said. “Both of our wives made us make a promise that before signing the lease we would relax.”

Andrew, who is primarily responsible for the firm’s retail stores and running JAM Paper’s website, jampaper.com, opened the store within four days after signing the lease.

Since JAM Paper’s doors opened on June 22, shoppers’ eyes have been busy dancing from color to color.

“We’re always thinking about what the next color is, what the next thing will be,” Mike said. “If it works in New York, it works throughout the country … though it may take a few years to catch on.”

The 2,600-square-foot store is jammed with a huge variety of things a party planner, teacher, businessperson or party guest would be interested in: stationery, ribbons, labels, folders and gift wrap.

According to the elder Mr. Jacobs, who is mainly responsible for shipping JAM Paper’s merchandise from its warehouse in New Jersey, JAM Paper consults with fashion designers to make sure the “in” colors of the season are a part of its inventory.

He said his store also carries things like circular paper clips, a product he said is not commonly found, and credits a lot of his products on ideas he scribbled down half-asleep on a pad of paper next to his bed.

“We love what we’re doing,” he said. “It wouldn’t work if we didn’t love it.”

The elder Mr. Jacobs started his love affair with specialty paper products in 1975 at Hudson Envelope in Manhattan. The company was then owned by Henry Berger, the father of Janet Jacobs, Mr. Jacobs’s wife, and primarily sold white envelopes. “Her father needed someone to get involved with the business, and he told me, ‘Don’t worry, you don’t have to marry my daughter,’” he said.

Mr. Jacobs stuck around, however, and married her after two years of working for Hudson Envelope.

The company really took off, he said, when he decided to sell black envelopes—one of the “hottest” colors he has ever had. Adding more and more colors to his inventory, Hudson Envelope got a good reception, especially from graphic design schools. JAM Paper & Envelope began once Mr. Jacobs took over the company and decided to focus on offering colorful products over plain white envelopes. In 1983, Mr. Jacobs renamed the business JAM Paper, which stands for Janet, Andrew and Mike.

“It was before my sister Morgan was born—and she complains about it all the time,” Andrew said laughing. His father said he has offered his “M” to her before.

Morgan is currently a teacher who works with children who have autism. “She’s the one with a heart,” Mr. Jacobs said. “Me and my son are the capitalists, but there’s nothing like having family join the team, you know?”

Mr. Jacobs and his son said they hope to return to Jobs Lane next summer if their colorful merchandise continues to impress.