Beloved Issaquah small business Nault Jewelers is closing its doors after Christmas.
After 45 years in business, Phil and Christine Nault have decided it’s time to retire so that they can at last relax and enjoy some travel and time with family. Throughout the 45 years, the couple has had time to take only one two-week vacation.
Phil Nault said that hundreds of the shop’s customers were “in tears” when they heard that the business would be shutting for good.
“We have become very close with our customers,” he said. “It’s the kind of bond you make with people when you’re [a small business].”
Nault Jewelers originally began in 1971 in Kansas, where Nault’s parents had owned a small-town jewelry shop. Nault was working for his parents’ business when his father offered to co-sign a business loan ($4,000 in those days) so that he could start a shop of his own. Even though Nault’s parents had the only jewelry shop in town, they did not mind creating competition so that their son and daughter-in-law could get a start in the business world.
“We didn’t know what we were getting into,” Nault laughed.
In 1990, in the hope of finding a livelier economy, the jewelry shop moved out west to 1175 NW Gilman Blvd. in Issaquah, where the Naults had relatives. In the two-and-a-half decades since then, the shop gained quite a local following and gave the Naults numerous new friends.
Without a doubt, Nault said the thing he will miss the most about the shop will be “all the great customers … We’ve gotten to know a lot of our customers and their children — they’ll be missed.” He loves the way that a having a business in a small community allows business owners to form lasting relationships with their customers.
“Issaquah still has a small-town feel, though it’s grown a lot,” he said. “It has small-town values, friendliness.”
What he won’t miss will be the amount of time and energy needed to run a small business. The family has worked tirelessly without a break, even having cribs for the children at the shop when they were young. Now an adult, their daughter Amy works at the family business as well.
“[Running a small business] is a lot of work, but when you decide that’s what you’re going to do, it’s the price you’re going to pay,” Nault said. The survival of small businesses is very important, Nault said, and he encourages everyone to shop local this holiday season.
“Local people pay local taxes that support local schools,” he said. Additionally, when a person shops at a small business, “you’re talking to the owners … it’s a lot more intimate.”
The Naults plan to close Dec. 26. Until then, all merchandise is between 25 and 75 percent off.
