When Yvonne and Bill Reid started serving customers at Cardiff Jewellers, flares were all the rage, Gough Whitlam was the Prime Minister, and Atari’s popular arcade game Pong was a toy that every kid envied.
The year was 1974 and the married couple had decided to enter small business life after a three-month overseas holiday left them in search of a new challenge.
Leaving behind their administration jobs, they launched straight in.
Neither could have predicted what would follow – a retail store selling watches, clocks, diamonds, gifts, ornaments, gems, and necklaces for almost half a century.
They would learn how to change watch batteries, replace links in chains and resize rings, and it became “all part of the service”.
But, like all good things, Cardiff Jewellers will soon be calling time out.
Perched on the corner of Main and Veronica streets, the small space that watched the suburb’s central trading hub grow and change over time, will soon close its doors for good.
And, the buzz of local gossip, news and events will have to find a new home.
“I think we might be the longest-running shop on the street,” Yvonne says, before mentally clocking every other store along the popular strip.
During its tenure the iconic, maroon-bricked building would witness its fair share of news-worthy incidents.
Two snatch-and-grabs, countless break-ins and even a streaker.
“We think that was a dare,” says Yvonne, now aged 88.
“He came running out of the post office completely naked and took off down the street until a car picked him up.
“Oh, we did laugh.”
And, laughter is one feature that has continued to fill the address for years, the team watching generations of shoppers come and go through its doors.
Inside, the faces remained relatively unchanged.
Although Bill passed away in 1991, Yvonne, her daughter Robin Roworth, and friends Leslie Bath and Ann Grimshaw continued to run the family-owned business throughout the decades.
“We became like family,” Ann says.
“I remember starting here when I was 16. It was my first job and I nearly fainted three times. I think I was just so nervous.
“I remember Bill telling me to just sit down and breathe.”
Ann is 56 now and despite moving on to another job in the past few years, Cardiff Jewellers she says, was like a second home.
“Our regular customers would come in and chat all day,” she says.
“Then when they had kids, they’d bring their kids in and then some have even now got grandkids that they bring in to show us.
“You just don’t get that anymore.”
Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and weddings would all be celebrated between the team and its customers.
“At Christmas time we’d be spoilt with home-made biscuits,” Robyn (now in her 60s) says.
“Our customers would come in just to drop off a gift and wish us a great Christmas.
“That’s what I’m going to miss the most – the many wonderful customers we’ve had over many, many years. I just can’t thank them enough.”
Cardiff Jewellers will cease trading at 5pm on Saturday 17 June.
It is currently hosting a Closing Down sale with most items reduced to clear.
On Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 June they are inviting their regular customers to join them instore for a ‘Cuppa and cake’.
“That’ll be between 10am and 3pm so whatever time suits them,” Robyn says.
“This is an end of an era, and we want to thank so many people for their loyalty.”
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