FLIP-FLOP EMERGENCY.(The Talk of the Town)

It's hard to imagine that there is any major American clothing brand that does not have a store in the consumer vortex that is East Hampton; and it is equally hard to imagine that the most avid of shoppers, strolling past the Ralph Lauren boutique and the Scoop franchise and the Anne Klein shop, might feel that his or her purchasing opportunities are seriously compromised by a lack of options. There is, however, no J.Crew store in East Hampton, or in any of the neighboring Hamptons; and if the necessity for yet another place at which to buy a polo shirt or a pair of flip-flops may not be apparent to the town's residents and weekend visitors, the deficiency is certainly of concern to J.Crew corporate headquarters.

Erin Bixler, who is twenty-two and recently graduated from the University of Michigan, and Katye Rhett, who is twenty-one and is entering her senior year at the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee, are the form that J.Crew's response to this deficiency has taken. Bixler and Rhett, each of whom has a tidy ponytail, blue eyes, and golden skin, constitute J.Crew's "beach delivery" service team. Beach delivery is something of a misnomer, since Bixler and Rhett, who make their rounds in a 1988 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, actually deliver not to the sand itself but to beach houses. The service makes available, during limited weekend hours, a handful of the company's items--cargo shorts, tank tops, and the like--to the Hamptons house guest who discovers that he can't make it to Monday without purchasing one of those weird madras patchwork blazers.

To most New Yorkers, the idea of spending every Friday and Saturday afternoon in Hamptons traffic might sound like ...