Headlines

Jewelry Store Closing After 100 Years in Business

Published

8 years ago

December 14, 2016

INSTORE Staff

The owner says shutting down is “bittersweet.”

Gaalaas Jewelers in Stillwater, MN, is closing after 110 years in business.

Christmas Eve will be the downtown shop’s last day in business, the Pioneer Press reports.

Owner Dan Gfrerer had retired from the store in 2007, with his son Brandon Gfrerer, taking over the business. But earlier in 2016, the younger Gfrerer went to work for the Minnesota Department of Transportation and Dan Gfrerer took over once again.

Dan Gfrerer was “locally famous for keeping track of customers’ birthdays and anniversaries and making reminder phone calls,” the newspaper reports. He began working for Gaalaas Jewelers in 1965 before eventually buying the business.

The store is also well-known for its custom work.

Gfrerer said closing up shop is “bittersweet.”

“I want to be done with it, but I hate to see the end of an era,” he told the Pioneer Press.

Read more at the Pioneer Press

click to Comment(Comment)

Up Next

De Beers Opens Flagship US Store

Don't Miss

‘Notorious’ Jewel Thief Arrested Once Again

Retiring? Let Wilkerson Do the Heavy Lifting

Retirement can be a great part of life. As Nanji Singadia puts it, “I want to retire and enjoy my life. I’m 78 now and I just want to take a break.” That said, Nanji decided that the best way to move ahead was to contact the experts at Wilkerson. He chose them because he knew that closing a store is a heavy lift. To maximize sales and move on to the next, best chapter of his life, he called Wilkerson—but not before asking his industry friends for their opinion. He found that Wilkerson was the company most recommended and says their professionalism, experience and the homework they did before the launch all helped to make his going out of business sale a success. “Wilkerson were working on the sale a month it took place,” he says. “They did a great job.”