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After Closing Store, Jeweler Carries On in a New Way

The store was open for 35 years.

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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.

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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.


Read more at the San Diego Union-Tribune

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When There’s No Succession Plan, Call Wilkerson

Bob Wesley, owner of Robert C. Wesley Jewelers in Scottsdale, Ariz., was a third-generation jeweler. When it was time to enjoy life on the other side of the counter, he weighed his options. His lease was nearing renewal time and with no succession plan, he decided it was time to call Wilkerson. There was plenty of inventory to sell and at first, says Wesley, he thought he might try to manage a sale himself. But he’s glad he didn’t. “There’s no way I could have done this as well as Wilkerson,” he says. Wilkerson took responsibility for the entire event, with every detail — from advertising to accounting — done, dusted and managed by the Wilkerson team. “It’s the complete package,” he says of the Wilkerson method of helping jewelers to easily go on to the next phase of their lives. “There’s no way any retailer can duplicate what they’ve done.”

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