Plymouth jewelry store closing after selling to 4 generations of shoppers
Teri Allen has spent 45 years of her life working in the jewelry business.
The Plymouth Township resident has worked with plenty of customers over the years, spending plenty of time with generations of buyers at the family business, Dearborn Jewelers of Plymouth.
But after all those years, her and her brother are ready to move on to something else.
The shop will close some time in June after the family decided it was time to retire and close the business, as there was no one willing to take on ownership.
It’s a decision that has left many customers full of emotions, Allen said.
“We’ve had literally hundreds of customers calling, sending emails, stopping in: ‘Where are we going to go now? Where do you recommend?’ ” she said. “We’ve now had four generations of customers buying from us.”
First opened in 1950 in Dearborn by Allen’s father, Nick Pavlich Sr., the shop relocated in 2003 to downtown Plymouth in the Mayflower Centre. With more growth taking place northwest, Allen said her father — who was semiretired at the time of the move — thought trekking north to Plymouth was a the right decision to keep the business going.
“He was very, very excited about it,” Allen said. “He thought it would be a good move for the future of the business.”
There the shop remained, selling necklaces, bracelets, engagement rings and more to generations of buyers. Allen said she now sees customers looking to get engaged whose greatgrandparents shopped at the store.
The closure doesn’t mean all of the family is out of the jewelry business. Allen said her brother, Nick Pavlich Jr., plans to find another place to utilize his talents.
“His plan is he wants to keep working,” she said. “So he’s still trying to figure out where that’s going to be and so forth.”
While her brother wants to remain the the jewelry world, Allen said she’s ready to move on to other ventures. She had a long list of things she’d like to do, from traveling to yoga to volunteering to taking up pickleball.
“We’ve got our bucket list of what we’d like to do,” she said.
Before the shop closes its doors, it is still selling its remaining jewelry, some at deep discounts of as much as 70% off.
Dearborn Jewelers of Plymouth joins a host of longtime downtown Plymouth businesses that have closed their doors in recent months. Those include Delta Diamond, another jewelry store just down the street. Others such as Wiltse Pharmacy and Kemnitz Fine Candies & Gifts, though signage in the that shop’s storefront indicates it will reopen under new ownership in the future.
“Town is changing and it’s evolving. There comes a time where a lot of these businesses that have been here for many, many, many years and decades, owners want to retire,” she said. “And there’s not always someone that wants to step up and take it over.”