Michael’s Jewellery founder not sure what retirement will bring, but expects to be busy

By Craig Westcott

Everyone has to retire eventually, but the still youthful looking owner of Michael’s Jewellery in Kelligrews, Michael Walsh, 62, admits he probably wouldn’t be going just yet if his wife and business partner Sandra was still alive.

Sandra, who for Michael was the true gem in the family enterprise, passed away last year after a long battle with cancer.

The closure of Michael’s Jewellery this month, after 25 years of operation, is in many respects the end of a Conception Bay South institution.

“It’s crazy,” said Walsh, reflecting on his 44 years in the jewellery business.

He started in the industry while attending Memorial University. He had already worked several part time jobs in shoe stores when he decided to restock.

“I was on my third year of electives, and I figured, you know, let’s take a year off and figure out where all this is going to go,” he said, laughing, during a stolen 10 minutes away from the hubbub at the counters where customers were lining up to take advantage of the closing sale prices.

“I took a job with Charm and things just went from there… From the Village (store) I moved to the Avalon as assistant (manager) and from Avalon I eventually opened up the store in Stephenville in 1985. I got married in ’85 and moved to Stephenville and opened the Charm Diamond Centre store.”

It was a big change moving from employee to manager.

“A lot more responsibility,” Walsh allowed. “Not a heck of a lot more pay, but a lot more responsibility. But that was my grassroots. That gave me a good foundation to start from. I can’t complain about Charm, they taught me the industry. And then 25 years ago I got laid off. The catchphrase was restructuring back in the day. And I don’t know what that really was – it was an excuse to be able to thin out the herd, but I got laid off. And after a couple of months of not really doing anything and not getting much response from resumes I just looked at my wife and said, ‘You know what, I’m going to open up a store,’ and she jumped on board with it and we just took off from there. We opened up in the Villa Nova (Plaza) in 1999. The Morgans were a huge part of that. They took a chance on leasing me space. Back then it was Clarence and Betty and their daughter Jackie, I was dealing with her a lot. But they were a big part of me starting off. I was down there for nine years, and then from there I moved up here. And we’ve been here for 16 years.”

Managing a chain store for a big company was one thing; owning it and running it was something else.

“Oh my gosh, if somebody came to me today and said they were going to do what I did, I’d tell them they were crazy, don’t even bother,” Walsh said. “But it’s funny, myself and my wife always took the attitude that the only way this won’t succeed is if we decide that it won’t succeed. So, we just kept pushing forward, we kept pushing upward and we kept trying do what we felt the community needed and the community was always good to us, the community always supported us.”

Walsh was lucky to have such a key partner.

“That was huge,” he said. “Sandra kept a full-time job with Revenue Canada and she worked in here just as much if not more. I had one job, she had two.”

All that and raising two children, including Kimberley who is now married with children of her own, and Brad, who is the store’s jeweller and who also has children. Brad is going to continue on as a customer jeweller and repairer in the same building but as a separate business after Michael’s closes.

“I feel a little better knowing he is going to continue in the area, because I feel bad taking this (business) from people,” Walsh said. “It’s nice to be able to come in here and get your significant other a nice piece of jewellery and not have to go to town, and I appreciate that, because I love not having to go to town for anything, because going to town is a bit of a pain.”

Of all the lessons he learned in business, one stands out.

“Treat everybody who comes through the door like your best friend,” Walsh said. “Greet them like they’re your long-lost buddy, or your best friend just walked through the door.”

Walsh said it was the main thing he taught to all his employees.

“And if the customer picks up on that enthusiasm, they can tell if you’re sincere or if you’re fake, or what have you,” he added. “And I’ve seen that amplified these last few weeks because people are coming in, and I had one customer particularly, who said, ‘Mike, I wouldn’t be here (today) except for you’re closing. And the reason is, we’ve shopped here since you’ve been open, and I can’t let you close without buying one more thing.'”

Walsh fed off the interactions with customers.

“I had a lady in here just a week or two ago and she had her little girl with her, and she said, ‘I remember when I was her age I was at your store,’ which is cool,” Walsh said. “It’s kind of neat to see the generations grow up… My daughter-in-law Cassie said her first time meeting me was when her dad took her down to the store when we were down at Villa Nova and put her up on the (display) case and bought her mom a watch. Little did she know she was going to marry the jeweller’s son.”

Walsh said it turns out that winding down a business is as intensive as starting one.

“It’s faster paced, a lot of big decisions have got to be made, a lot of things have got to come together,” he said. “In my case here, we’ve got the help of a company that’s come in to help me with this, this is what they do. But it is a huge amount of work. It’s an eyeopener. I figured you just put everything on sale and you’re good. It’s not the case.”

He’s not sure what he will do after the store lights are switched off for the final time.

“I don’t know, I haven’t had time to think about it,” Walsh said. “I know there are four grandkids who are going to get a portion of my time. But I haven’t really thought about it too much. People keep telling me, ‘You’re not going to be idle.’ It’s impossible to be idle especially when you work for yourself.”

Walsh said he’d like to thank the community for its support the past 25 years and for helping him and the staff close down “as gracefully’ as they can.

“Am I ready?” Walsh said of his looming retirement. “Yes. I didn’t realize how ready I am until I started doing this, but I think that if San was still around, I probably wouldn’t be. But I mean it’s inevitable, it’s got to happen.”

Michael Walsh at his eponymously-named jewellery store in Kelligrews. Walsh and his late wife Sandra started what became a CBS institution in 1999. Craig Westcott photo