Jewelry Store Closing After 100 Years in Business

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