End of an era

Moase Quality Jewellers shuts its doors after 80 years of Summerside business

Grant Moase sits on his work stool and fiddles with a tricky watchband clip as the timepiece’s owner waits patiently nearby.

On the wall above him is a framed black and white photo of his father, Wallace Moase, doing the same kind of work.

In another picture, Wallace stands in front of a large display of jewelry with a rather pint-sized Santa Clause at his side.

“That was my first beard,” said Grant, gesturing to the little boy in the costume.

He finishes his work with the watch and hands it back to the customer, who thanks him and goes on his way.

Watch work is something Moase, 74, has done countless times over his life-long career in the jewelry business.

But those days have come to an end.

After 80 years in business, Moase Quality Jewellers has turned the “open” sign to “closed” for the last time.

CLOSING DATE

The SaltWire Network visited the establishment on July 22. The last day of business was scheduled for the following day.

It was time, said Grant.

His three children have work of their own, and health concerns have forced him to slow down considerably in the last couple of years. When a buyer recently came along for their building at 236 Water

St. – that sealed the deal.

Almost before the ink was dry on the last of the paperwork, the Moase family put up the 50 per cent off signs in the store’s windows. The closing date was just two short weeks away and they had no time to spare. There was merchandise to liquidate and decades of family and Summerside history to sort and move out of the building.

The place was hopping with thrifty Islanders looking to score a deal, satiate their curiosity or probably both.

Grant watched it all with a mix of sadness, happiness, nostalgia and relief.

“I’m a day-by-day liver.

I can accept the change for tomorrow,” he said as he watched all the activity.

FAMILY BUSINESS

That being said, breaking a lifetime of habits is still no easy task.

“When COVID-19 came out and I locked the door, I was thinking every day for about a month ‘I should be in the store, I should be in the store.’ But I’ve been home long enough that I’ve gotten over that. Now I’m not healthy enough to be in the store.”

Grant has almost always been in the store. He grew up in and around it, though it wasn’t always located in its most recent location.

His father, Wallace, got into the jewelry business in 1941, buying out an existing establishment whose owner had died. He did not have any professional training as a jeweller but was always a tinkerer. Over the years, he worked on and sold clocks, jewelry, musical instruments, bicycles, motorcycles and more.

“He lived to work,” recalled Grant.

Grant was born in 1947, and growing up, a lot of his memories of his father are related to being in and around the shop. Some of his first jobs were setting up displays, shovelling snow and generally doing odd jobs.

He assisted in his father’s ventures for years before striking out and starting his own store across the street. He ran it separately for a few years before eventually coming back to the family business, which itself operated out several different buildings in downtown Summerside.

It has stayed a family business ever since. Grant and his wife, Shelley, have had other ventures come and go over the years, but Moase Quality Jewellers has been the constant presence in their lives and those of their children, Matthew, Jennifer and Greg.

Just like his dad, some of Greg’s earliest memories are of arranging displays in his father’s shop window. He remembers curling up in his dad’s jacket and napping behind the display cases and watching Mr. Bean on a TV perched on the safe while his parents worked.

It’s the end of one era for the family and hopefully, the start of another, said Greg, as he did his best to help all the customers coming through the doors.

“We’re one of the longestrunning businesses in downtown, but as sad as it is to see things shutting down – it is kind of time for something new. Time to move on,” he said.

Summerside has been good to the family to have kept them in business for so long, added Grant from his stool behind the display cases.

Making a go of it here has not always been easy, but they are grateful for the trust so many of their customers have shown in them, he added.

“I appreciate the patronage of all the people over the years, especially during the closing sale. It was good to have a quantity of customers who we earned their trust and they continued to shop here over the years.”