Photograph by Paul Myers
Gilda and Joe Weisberg of Saratoga, who have run The Jewelers Showcase from 14531 Big Basin Way since 1982, will close the store after Jan. 26. The Weisbergs posed the same way in front of the store for a photograph taken the year they moved into the store location.
Jewelers close Village store after a lifetime in the trade
By Rebecca Ray
Saratogans may have grown accustomed to Gilda and Joe Weisberg selling jewelry from their corner store on Big Basin Way. Since the Weisbergs opened The Jewelers Showcase in 1982, customers and their children have returned there to buy jewelry, even after moving to other states, the Weisbergs say.
But after Jan. 26, the store will close. The Weisbergs, who live in Saratoga, plan to retire and spend more time with family members. Their daughters, Cheryl Chandler and Dr. Laurie Weisberg, and three grown grandsons live in California. Gilda and Joe say they also hope to travel.
"We really enjoyed friendly conversations with our customers and learned all about their families," Gilda said. "They learned about our family. We were known as a mom-and-pop business. We knew everybody who came into our store."
Gilda and Joe have sold mostly antique jewelry pieces, including rings, broaches, earrings, bracelets and watches, since they opened their first store in Merrick, N.Y., in 1969. Thirteen years later, they moved to Saratoga to be closer to their daughters. Laurie, a Stanford University Medical School graduate, had no plans to return to Merrick, which is on Long Island. And Chandler, who is now a film editor for Warner Brothers, worked in Hollywood.
Gilda and Joe thought of retiring once they moved to California. But Joe, who had been a jeweler since 1937, loved the business too much to give it up. So he and Gilda opened The Jewelers Showcase at 14531 Big Basin Way.
Joe, 82, has been in the jewelry business since he graduated from high school. He took a job at a jewelry manufacturing shop during the Depression to help his parents pay the bills. He worked there and learned the basics of jewelry making until 1942, when he joined the Air Force. However, he returned to the jewelry business after the war ended three years later. Joe stayed in the business until he and Gilda, who he married in 1946, opened their first store.
The Weisbergs set up their first showcase at a health spa. Gilda said she decided to help Joe run the business because "the children had grown, and I figured it was time for a second career." The Weisbergs later acquired two more storefronts in Merrick.
While Gilda enjoys selling jewelry pieces, Joe enjoys creating them. Joe, who also buys merchandise, says he tries to spread his enthusiasm for the jewelry he sells to his customers.
"I guess I had a special feeling for jewelry," Joe said. "That's why I stayed with it. A successful jeweler has to be able to show a love or an interest in the jewelry pieces that he or she is selling and create an atmosphere for the potential customers, so they'll want to make a purchase."
Personal touches abound at the Weisbergs' store. In addition to arranging jewelry in the storefront window, Joe loves to decorate it with miniature objects and figurines, such as automobiles, Cinderella carriages and Betty Boop. Inside the store hang European paintings from past centuries and magazine photos of Princess Diana wearing expensive jewelry, since Joe enjoys cutting pictures and sayings out of magazines and making collages.
Some things have changed since the Weisbergs opened their first store. "More and more women have been buying jewelry for themselves," Gilda said, instead of waiting for men to buy it for them.
However, customers still put the same amount of thought into purchasing jewelry as they did back then.
"Jewelry is different than when you buy a shirt or a purse or other merchandise," Gilda said. "Jewelry is something that's going to stay with you a long time."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
