'Hidden gem' to leave Downtown after 120 years
Advertisements promote Grafner Brothers Jewelers as Downtown's "hidden gem," but the store is more visible than usual these days as the owners sell off stock and prepare to move to the North Hills.
Balloons float above a liquidation sale sign on the Liberty Avenue sidewalk. Nearby, another notice is on the glass door at 818 Liberty, where the retail and wholesale jewelers have done business on the second floor since the 1930s. Grafner Brothers dates to 1888.
"It is tough," said Richard Lloyd, who runs the business with his brother, John. "We've been Downtown for 120 years and have some deep roots."
Like other retailers, many jewelers say they're struggling more to make sales Downtown as shopping habits change, storefronts nearby are vacated and parking continues to be tight.
"It's a tough place to do business now," Richard Lloyd said, "and the No. 1 obstable is the parking." Nearby garages typically fill up by 9 a.m. weekdays, and fewer customers are willing to drive to the city and pay for a space, he said.
Brothers Emanuel, Jacob and Albert Grafner mainly were wholesalers, selling jewelry and silverware to Joseph Horne Co. and other department stores along with hundreds of small jewelry shops.
The Lloyds focused Grafner Brothers on retail sales about 15 years ago as the jewelry distribution business changed. Now, just 10 to 15 percent of sales are wholesale.
"I have dealt there for many, many years, and I have been extremely pleased," said Lois Lackner of Mt. Lebanon, who has bought jewelry and wedding gifts at the store.
Lackner isn't happy about Grafner Brothers' plan to move in July to the Pine Tree Shoppes on Perry Highway in Pine. Neither were two other south suburban residents -- Ann Lytle of Bethel Park and Barb Rudar of Nottingham in Washington County -- who browsed the sale merchandise Tuesday.
"That's sad," Rudar said. Lytle said she'd made purchases there a few times before. "They make you feel very comfortable," she said.
Richard Lloyd said the time was right to relocate to a booming suburban retail area. The store's lease with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, which owns the Liberty Avenue building, ends in late June.
Grafner Brothers is selling off as much stock as possible, at discounts up to 60 percent, to finance the move and has set Aug. 1 as the target opening date for the new, larger store. There, the store should get the walk-in traffic it lacks now, he said.
In its history, Grafner Brothers counted Pittsburgh sports legends Terry Bradshaw, Willie Stargell and Bill Madlock among its customers. Stanley Pearle, founder of the Pearle Vision Centers chain, started there as a $12-a-week sales trainee in the 1930s -- a time when jewelry stores typically had optical departments.
Pearle was a co-worker of the Lloyds' father, James, who became the owner in the 1980s. He died five years ago.
Grafner Brothers is a half-block away from the Clark Building on Liberty Avenue, long known as Downtown's jewelry center. Retailers that occupy the lower floors there gave mixed appraisals of the city's jewelry trade.
"It was better some years ago," Michael Kurtz of Goldstock Co., which dates to 1912, said. He was referring to around 2000, before Internet jewelry shopping started taking business away from brick and mortar stores. Big box suburban and mall stores and Downtown's parking shortage also have weakened sales, he said.
Abe Frost of Frost & Co., in the Clark Building for 20 years, said customers educated via the Internet about jewelry styles and prices have posed new challenges for store owners. His business sets itself apart with custom wedding bands, earrings and bracelets.
"Business has gone down a little," he admitted, though he and other jewelers said many customers still drive from outlying areas, as well as the suburbs, to shop Downtown.
Consumers have less money to spend on luxury items these days, with rising gas prices, and jewelers these days even compete with electronics retailers, said Karen Fanelli, executive director of the Pennsylvania Jewelers Association.
"It used to be if you had a beautiful watch, that's a status symbol. Today, it's the latest cell phone," she said.
Owner Judah Samet of Irvin Schiffman Jewelers, which his father-in-law founded 67 years ago, recalls the Clark Building's hallways being filled with shoppers on Saturday afternoons.
"We still have that reputation, that you can get a good deal in the Clark Building," he said, though comparing the present to eight or nine years ago, most jewelers' sales probably are down 50 percent.
