After 58 years in business in Alliance, Williams Jewelers is set to close this summer as owners Brad and Sue Williams are set to retire.
The announcement was made on social media on April 17 with a post saying, “After a lifetime in the jewelry business the time has come for us to retire.”
Brad Williams spoke with the Alliance Times-Herald, sharing the history of Williams Jewelers.
“My dad started the business in ‘57 in Crawford,” said Williams. “We moved to Alliance in July of 1965 and opened the store here, and we’ve been here ever since. When my dad passed away in 1999, Sue and I bought the store from my mother, and she worked with us for a while. We decided this year would be a good time to retire.”
Williams said he is grateful for the support they have received from the community throughout the years. He explained that the best part of owning the business has been meeting with the people and hearing the stories of the custom jewelry that he has worked on.
“We’re very proud to be part of this community,” Williams said. “We’ve gotta thank our customers for making it what it is. We couldn’t have done it without our customers. The joy of seeing them with something they helped create, that’s been rewarding in itself. They’ll bring in mom and dad, or grandma and grandpa’s diamonds, or they have some old stuff and we custom make a new mounting using those stones. They’re just tickled pink when they see the finished product. We’ve just been blessed to have lived in this town and to have the customers that we’ve had. We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Williams explained that they have a sale going on through June 17. After that, they will close to make the final arrangements to wrap up the business before the end of June, which is the end of their fiscal year.
Williams said that in his retirement he plans to travel and to tackle projects he has not had the time to do.
“We’ve got grandkids, so we’ve gotta enjoy the grandkids and their activities,” said Williams. “We hope to do some traveling and just enjoy retirement.”