Local jeweler shutting its doors

Florists may be thriving, but not even the holidays could keep one local jeweler from closing his doors on East Davis Street.

David Hartman, owner of Hartman’s Jewelers, decided in January to close his Culpeper store and consolidate with his original store in Warrenton. Hartman’s last day is Feb. 21.

“It was a combination of the economic climate not generating enough positive cash flow for us to keep the doors open,” Hartman said. “The other thing is, I can only be here or there. That’s my biggest challenge right there. I’m an absentee owner right now.”

Hartman opened the Culpeper store five years ago as The Jewelry Box, but decided in the fall to change the name to match his 15-year-old Warrenton store.

“I tried changing the name to boost business through name recognition,” he said. “But that just was not enough.”

All inventory is half off, and Hartman will bring in more next week. His Warrenton store has not faced the same economic woes as the Culpeper location.

“We’re doing pretty good up there,” he said. “There were no other jewelers there (when we opened), so we were able to build market share pretty quickly. When I opened here, there were already two other jewelers and we were competing against them.”

Hartman owns the building, but said he did not yet have plans for the space, though he was not interested in selling.

“All last year,” he said, “was a really tough year — for a lot of retail, not just us. We’re sorry to go; we like Culpeper. But at the time being, that’s what I have to do.”