CAROL CAIN: Respected east-side jewelry business ends an era
Michigan business
While I’ve spent much time focusing on people entering the world of entrepreneurs, this column is about a seasoned small-business owner and his decision to throw in the towel after 50 years.
For the first time in his working life, Dick Schwenter isn’t sure what he’ll be doing today, as Whittier Jewelry at 22333 Kelly near 9 Mile in Eastpointe shut its doors for good last weekend.
Schwenter, 68, and his wife, Shirley Schwenter, 57, had spent decades at the family-run store, selling wedding rings, high school graduation gifts, baby presents and much more, mostly to folks from the east side.
It’s not exactly “Cheers” but it was the kind of store where the Schwenters knew many of their customers on a first-name basis.
It’s the sort of service-driven enterprise that often separates the independent business owner from the larger chains, at which frequent employee turnover is the norm and finding an employee who can tell you offhand at what location a certain product can be found is the equivalent of spinning your wheels in the sand.
On Detroit’s east side
Whittier Jewelry started in 1955 by Albert and Grace Schwenter and was at 11606 Whittier on Detroit’s east side for decades. Grace Schwenter is to celebrate her 90th birthday Feb. 21; the elder Schwenter died 17 years ago.
The couple had built a loyal following among residents in Detroit.
Dick Schwenter helped out at his parents’ store as a young man, leaving for two years to serve in the Army from 1960 to 1962. He then worked in the production control department at General Motors Corp. from 1962 to 1969 while continuing to work weekends at the family’s business.
He took over the store in 1970, and Albert Schwenter worked part time.
Shirley Schwenter joined him after they married in 1974. The couple have two sons, Eric, 28, who works as a computer engineer in Portland, Ore., and Jeffrey, 26, a marine biologist who is working on his master’s degree at Grice Marine Laboratory in Charleston, S.C.
Though the couple loved being on the east side, both having been raised in Detroit, the location did come to offer some challenges — the kind that caused them to move to Eastpointe in 1995.
Like the time they were robbed in 1977 (they got the merchandise back after someone turned the crooks in).
And there were other incidents through the years.
But Oct. 4, 1994, sticks out. It was the day they had a botched robbery attempt that ended up in a gunfight between three men and Dick Schwenter.
Three males came into their store. “They were wearing hoods. You just knew something was up,” Dick Schwenter recalls. As a small retailer, you learn to deal with, among other things, the constant threat of robberies.
The three, ages 16, 18 and 21, spread out throughout the store, and the robbery attempt unfolded, one having a gun. Schwenter quickly went for his loaded gun — “my .38 special” — he says.
He still has that gun and another .38, too, that he has kept in a drawer near the cash register at the Kelly Road store, though he never had cause to use it.
Schwenter ended up shooting three times at the thieves, hitting a wall and a jewelry case. He was shot in the chest and ended up in the hospital for five days.
He still has shrapnel in his liver.
The three males escaped unharmed but minus any jewelry.
As the story of the gunfight got out, the store’s business suffered because the regulars — many of them older people — were afraid. Even some of their employees wanted them to leave.
“Let’s move,” Shirley Schwenter recalls saying at the time, but her husband was undeterred.
He did hire a security guard for the front of the store.
“He only carried a billy club, no gun,” Schwenter says.
But Schwenter began to worry about the liability costs if someone did come in, and the guard hit him. He decided that was crazy, so they settled on the Kelly Road location, which was only a few miles away.
They did well in the new location.
Extended lease sought
About six months ago, their lease was up, and their landlord wanted them to sign an extended lease, something Dick Schwenter wasn’t prepared to do.
“I didn’t know if I’d want to be open five years from now,” he says.
After a lot of soul-searching, the Schwenters decided it was time to close.
Their two sons, who had worked at the store as teens, were not interested in running it.
“Times change,” says Eric Schwenter, who was at the store last week helping his parents close it.
Dick Schwenter admits surprise at the outpouring.
“I had little old ladies in here crying that we were closing,” he says. “They were people who knew us, my mom, my dad for 50 years.”
Indeed, their last day of business, last Saturday, was like an upbeat Mardi Gras celebration.
They were busy selling jewelry, and Grace Schwenter stopped by for a last look.
Shirley Schwenter plans to work somewhere, likely using her managerial and bookkeeping skills.
But Dick Schwenter isn’t so sure, adding that he’d like to work a few days a week.
He’ll be busy planning his mother’s 90th birthday party.
And he’s looking forward to dinner with Shirley at Coach Insignia restaurant in Detroit, which was a retirement gift from their sons.
“I have mixed emotions about closing,” Dick Schwenter says, looking away.
Once all the cleaning was done and merchandise gone, the last thing the family took out of the store was a framed picture of a younger Albert and Grace that adorned their shop for decades.
Harry Shorter, their brother-in-law, was there to snap a picture of Dick and Shirley holding it. They then turned off the lights and walked out.
