Our History
For more than 60 years, the Iannone family has been serving the needs of the Sea Isle community year-round in the same, blue-roofed building that Matthew Iannone helped create so long ago.
Matt Iannone Sr. welcoming Two Ton Tony Galento to Sea Isle for the Opening of Surf and Sand Variety Stre in the mid to late 1950’s. Two Ton Tony was a fighter from Matt’s home town of Orange New Jersey. His claim to fame was that he knocked down Joe Louis. Surf and Sand is now Sands Department Store and owned by Arthur Iannone and his wife Lisa.
In 1958, Matthew Iannone opened the Surf & Sand Variety Shop on Landis Avenue. Now known as Sands Department Store, the business remains owned and operated by his son Arthur and wife Lisa. It has been in the same building, located next to the Acme Supermarket, and can rightly be called the store that has just about everything.
It all began when Matthew Iannone, originally from West Orange, N.J., came to Sea Isle in the early 1950s to work in the real estate business. After the shopping center on Landis Avenue was constructed, Iannone learned that the people who were going to run the department store backed out of the deal, and he decided to step in. He christened it the Surf & Sand Variety Shop, while also keeping his hand in real estate. His son Jimmy took over the business in 1967 and after college, his brother Arthur became a partner.
In 2008, Arthur eventually bought him out and continues to run the store to this day with his wife, Lisa. Their two daughters, Krista and Hannah, who have practically grown up in Sands have pursued careers outside of the family business, however they still make time to come back and help their parents alongside many cousins and friends who have become like family over the years.
