Glass shop, gem shopping network find new buyer For the first time in its history, a gem shop in the Los Angeles suburb of Westwood is closing its doors after three years of operations.
Lori Smith, owner of The Gem Store, said Thursday the Los Angles store is closing because of a lack of interest in its gem collection.
“I don’t know if you’re going to see this place for the next three years,” she said.
The store opened in 2010 with a focus on jewelry and gems.
In 2016, the store opened a jewelry boutique in a former jewelry store in the former T-Mobile store at Sunset Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard.
“The new owners didn’t really want to go in there because it’s too expensive, too expensive for the jewelry shop,” Smith said.
“It’s too much for the employees.”
She said the store’s business is not impacted.
Smith said she wants to keep the store open and open up her business, but the owners are not going to keep their jewelry shop.
She said it was hard to keep a jeweler’s shop open after closing the shop in 2011.
The owner’s sister started a jewelry store on the same street.
“They didn’t want to shut down the jewelry store, they wanted to get rid of the jewelry,” Smith recalled.
The owners said they wanted a “garden” of sorts in Westwood.
Smith said they had some ideas for a garden of dreams, but couldn’t find one.
They tried building a house on the street, but it didn’t sit well with the neighbors.
“We’re going down here, we’re going home, we’ll get it done,” she explained.
The building is expected to be ready to open in about three months.
