Shop closing after 43 years in business
After 43 years of creating a gleam in customers’ eyes one of the Taradale retail district’s longest-serving retail shops is set to close its doors.
Ian Carr Jeweller in the heart of Gloucester St will be shutting up shop at the end of July if owner Jackie Carr can’t find a buyer for the business.
“I’m getting too old to be working,” she said, adding it will be sad to walk away from such a long-standing business which her late husband Ian started up.
“I will miss it,” she said, but added that it would mean she would get more time to spend “improving my golf”.
She said she would miss the many customers she had served and got to know through the years and said many had called to see her after hearing the business was set to close. “They’re saying it is a shame.” One long-time Taradale shopper said it was sad to see the familiar shop about to go and that “it was one of the longest going shops around here”.
Mrs Carr said she had sadly watched over the past few years that Taradale had been getting “a bit slow” in terms of people shopping in the area.
She and her husband, who passed away 20 years ago, arrived in New Zealand from the UK aboard the Southern Cross in the summer of 1964. “So yes — been here a long time.” Mr Carr had been a watch-maker in England and brought his skills to Napier — first setting up a watch repair shop in an upstairs room in Tennyson St in the central city.
He carried out repairs for local jewellers before deciding to set up in business for himself, choosing a spot in Taradale near one end of Gloucester St.
“He wanted to start his own business and he did.”
The business flourished and after a few years he eventually shifted to a more central spot in the main street — where the shop still stands today.
It had previously been occupied as Pyke’s Bookshop and has been the sole jewellers in the Taradale district.
Taradale Marketing Association coordinator Linda Walsh said it was sad to see such a long-term and respected business leaving the Taradale retail landscape.
“Forty-three years is a long time to be in business and it will be sad to see it go — but we understand and wish (Jackie) all the best.”
Ms Walsh said retail was a tough business to be in at this time, and said the same was being experienced across Napier and Hastings as well where there were also vacant shops in the main shopping districts.
But she said there still a mainly positive feel in Taradale and there were still several businesses with up to 20 years behind them operating there.