Treiber & Straub Jewelers is located in Brookfield, Wisconsin, about 14 miles west of Milwaukee. John Treiber and Mike Straub opened the store in 1980, and Straub bought out his partner in the mid-‘90s. Over the summer, Straub made the decision to close his store and retire, for myriad reasons.
Brookfield, Wis.—After more than five decades in the jewelry industry, Wisconsin retailer Mike Straub is retiring and closing the store he opened in 1980, Treiber & Straub Jewelers.
Straub, 74, said retirement is something he had been considering in recent years but only decided that 2024 would be the year after losing a key brand, bringing to a close a career that started with a borrowed suit.
As a young man, Straub served in the U.S. Marine Corps. After he got out, he married, and his wife’s uncle, who was in the jewelry business, asked him if he’d be interested in a job in jewelry.
“I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t know the difference between a ruby and a sapphire,” Straub said, but he was willing to give it a try.
He borrowed a suit from a friend, went for an interview at Brodnax Jewelers (then part of Zale Corp.’s Guild Division) in Memphis, Tennessee, and landed his first job in the industry.
In 1974, Zale transferred Straub from Memphis to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He stayed with the company six more years, eventually rising to the level of district manager for a group of Milwaukee-area Bailey, Banks & Biddle stores, also part of Zale’s Guild Division at the time.
In 1980, Straub branched out on his own, opening Treiber & Straub at the Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, with colleague John Treiber.
Straub bought out Treiber’s share of the business in 1995, and in late 2000, the store moved west to its current standalone location in Brookfield.
Treiber & Straub opened at the Mayfair Mall in 1980 and moved to its current location in Brookfield, Wisconsin, in 2000. Mike Straub owns and operates the business with his daughters, Kimberly and Tracy Straub.
When Treiber and Straub opened their store, the idea was to bring the finest brands to the Milwaukee area so Milwaukeeans did not have to travel to bigger cities like Chicago to shop for jewelry.
A longtime American Gem Society member store, Treiber & Straub stocked brands like David Yurman, Gucci, Fope, Mikimoto, and, until recently, Cartier and Rolex.
But, as any jeweler will tell you, a lot has changed in the business over the course of four decades, from the way technology has transformed consumer behavior to vendors’ relationships with independent jewelers.
Straub said for the last three years, he’s been locked in a back-and-forth with Cartier about doing an expensive build-out in his store to expand the brand’s footprint.
Ultimately, he decided that the investment Cartier was requiring outweighed the benefits, and he and the Richemont-owned brand mutually parted ways after four decades in business together.
In February, shortly after ending his relationship with Cartier, the jeweler received a call from Rolex telling him that, after nearly 45 years of being an Official Rolex Retailer, the brand would be revoking his dealer status at the end of September.
According to Straub, Rolex told him that he did nothing wrong but the watch brand was simply “going in a different direction,” meaning migrating its retail footprint to higher-profile markets and larger metropolitan areas, a trend Peter Smith discussed in a column published by National Jeweler earlier this year.
(Rolex did not respond to request for comment on this story.)
Losing Rolex was a huge blow to Treiber & Straub.
Straub said the watch brand accounts for 60 percent of his store’s annual sales and to sustain the business without Rolex would, “require me to take a step back to move forward.”
“As I am turning 75, I am not willing to start at the beginning again. I envisioned my children taking over my business, but due to the recent industry changes, the risk is too high.”
For Straub, it’s the perceived lack of loyalty that really stings—having an account closed in a single phone call after years of following all the policies and procedures Rolex requires.
In his view, it’s not just a problem with Rolex but across the board, between the demands placed on independent jewelers to build out spaces for jewelry and watch brands and the fact that many independents now find themselves competing with their vendors for sales.
“That’s the bottom truth about the whole thing. There’s no loyalty today to your jeweler. It’s all about [the brands],” he said.
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Treiber & Straub enlisted jewelry liquidation company Wilkerson to aid in closing the store. The retailer’s going-out-of-business sale began in mid-November and is continuing through the holiday season.
Beyond that, Straub is unsure what retirement will look like for him.
He has hobbies—he hunts, fishes and boats—and he has plenty of family, including six grandchildren he is eager to spend time with, but he also is a self-described “Type A” personality.
Straub built his “little castle” after years of hard work, including putting in as much as 70 hours a week back in the days when he was working at mall jewelry stores. Not working is going to be an adjustment.
“I will miss all that,” he said. “I’m not 100 percent sure, because this is happening so fast, really what I want to do. I for sure want to do something, because I have a type A personality. I need to do something.”
And he is sorry to disappoint his longtime customers.
“I feel very bad. I have a lot of very good, loyal customers, a lot of good friends I’ve established over the years. My sadness is leaving that. I have people coming in here crying. I can’t tell you how many people [are saying], ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this,’” he said.
“But I’ve had a great business, and I’ve got to walk out of here with my head up. I feel like I always gave my customers a great value. I’m proud of that.”
