The late Alvin Goldfarb opened Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler in 1980. The store will close in September as its current owner, Alvin’s son Steve Goldfarb, retires. (Photo courtesy of Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler)
Editor’s note: This story was updated post-publication to include more information about Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler’s relationship with Rolex.
Bellevue, Wash.—Another family-owned, longtime independent jeweler is closing its doors.
Alvin Goldfarb Jewelers in Bellevue, Washington, announced this week that it will close in September after 45 years in business.
The store’s owner, Steven Goldfarb, told National Jeweler that his decision to close the store and retire wasn’t part of a longer-term plan but, rather, a decision he made after taking stock on Jan. 1, 2025.
Goldfarb said he was looking around the store after the holidays and was struck by how much updating it needed.
The store’s cases are dated, its software system is cumbersome, the surveillance cameras need an upgrade, and even the setup of the store is not modern.
Goldfarb said a lot of jewelry stores today have seating areas, or even a bar, for customers, noting that, “It’s not just standing on either side of a counter and handing merchandise back and forth anymore.”
“We were a really cutting-edge store about 10, 15 years ago. I looked around and thought, ‘I need to update a lot of things,’ and it wasn’t just carpet and paint,” said Goldfarb, who will turn 63 at the end of the month.
“It was going to be a much more substantial investment than that.”
In addition to the upgrades needed inside the store, the area around the store is changing—the building next door to the jewelry store is being torn down, which will disrupt business—as is the industry.
Goldfarb said the bigger watch and jewelry brands now want the independents to build out shop-in-shops, if not standalone boutiques, and many of them are more “aggressive” with their retail partners, though, he noted, they make it worth the jeweler’s time and effort.
He also said he is unsure which way to go with lab-grown diamonds, arguably the biggest topic of debate in the industry right now.
In addition, Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler lost Rolex at the end of 2024, a challenge for any independent jeweler, though Goldfarb said it was not the deciding factor in closing the store.
“I viewed our parting as a mutual decision, as the requests they made in order to move forward were not something I wanted to do at this stage of my career,” he said.
“That being said, we had a wonderful 45-year relationship. In fact, my father Alvin took on Rolex back in 1980 when it was not nearly the brand it is today; so, I think of it as a mutually beneficial relationship.”
All of this, combined with his age, promoted Goldfarb to retire while the store was still well regarded.
“I have loved every minute of what I’ve done in the industry. I really look back with great fondness at everything I’ve done, and I want to make sure I always feel that way,” he said. “I didn’t want to stay to the point where I was kind of a cranky old man.”
He also wants to leave his customers with fond memories of Alvin Goldfarb Jewelers and preserve its good name.
Alvin (left) and Steve Goldfarb at the store, circa 1997 (Photo courtesy of Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler)
Steven’s father, the late Alvin Goldfarb, opened Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler in Bellevue, located across Lake Washington from Seattle, in 1980, though the family’s history in jewelry stretches back much further.
Steven said he is a fifth-generation jeweler on his mother’s side, while his paternal grandfather, Samuel Goldfarb, was a musician who composed a famous song (hint: it’s a children’s Hanukkah song).
Alvin ended up in the jewelry business by accident, sort of.
After graduating from college and serving in the Air Force, Alvin got a job at a jewelry store.
While he was working there, he met and married a woman named Jackie Friedlander, a member of the family that owned and operated Friedlander & Sons, then a downtown Seattle institution.
Members of the Friedlander family outside their Seattle jewelry store (Photo courtesy of Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler)
Alvin went to work there after the two got married in 1957, staying for two decades before branching out on his own.
Steven, meanwhile, started putting in hours at Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler while he was still in high school.
“I remember a lot of sweeping and case cleaning,” he said of those early days.
Steven, a Gemological Institute of America graduate gemologist, formally joined the family business in 1986, and became president of the store in the mid-‘90s, when his father semi-retired.
The staff of Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler with Steven (seated in the blue suit) and the store’s four-legged employee, his Havanese, Stella. Steven said one of the things he’ll miss when he retires is his staff. “They’re just wonderful people,” he said. (Photo courtesy of Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler)
The going-out-of-business sale at Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler, facilitated by the Gordon Company, is scheduled to start July 24 and last eight weeks.
The store is expected to close by the end of September.
Steven said he has a couple of business ideas he’d like to pursue after he closes his store—one involves a seat cover for airplane seats—but, other than that, he hasn’t had much time to process the idea of retirement.
“I’m in the storm right now. There’s so much to do, you don’t have time to think or feel or contemplate all the changes.
“The reality of stopping doing this to start doing that has not set in yet.”
