Headlines

After Closing Store, Jeweler Carries On in a New Way

The store was open for 35 years.

Published

8 years ago

November 14, 2016

INSTORE Staff

You can’t walk into McWhorter Jewelers in Ramona, CA, and shop anymore — the doors have been closed for weeks.

But the owners are continuing the business in a different way.

According to its Facebook page, the business is now working by appointment only, doing jewelry repair and restoration as well as custom design.

The San Diego Union-Tribune previously reported that the owners, Arthur and Mary Ellen McWhorter, were closing the store after 35 years at least in part because of online competition.

“Things are changing now,” Mary Ellen McWhorter told the newspaper. “People don’t go shopping in a store anymore. They do it online.”

The McWhorters were planning to start a website for their reconfigured business and get into online sales — of Arthur McWhorter’s custom-designed jewelry — themselves.

Mary Ellen McWhorter said they were going through a sort of “grief period” with the closing of the store after so many years.

“But, I think in the long run, after everything is done, we’re going to feel real good,” she said.

Related Topics: jewelry stores in California

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