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Windsor Jewelry owner Greg Bires says his upcoming 70th birthday is driving his decision to close the downtown jewelry store in January.
Bires, Windsor’s owner since 1998, and his wife, Lynn, placed going-out-of-business signs in windows at the store at 16 N. Meridian St., during the weekend.
One sign reads, “Greg and Lynn are retiring!”
“I have eight grandchildren, between Lynn and I, and they all live out of town,” said Bires, who will celebrate his 70th birthday in December. “I’m missing them growing up, which is probably the biggest reason I’m doing this. I want to be able to spend a little time with them before they’re teenagers.”
Sig Asher opened Windsor Jewelry in the bygone Lyric Theater building, 135 N. Illinois St., in 1919. Asher’s son-in-law, Herman Logan, owned the store from 1946 to 1998.
Windsor moved from Illinois Street to its 3,000-square-foot Meridian Street location just south of Monument Circle in 1970. Bires, who grew up in Gary, was hired by Logan to work in jewelry repair in 1984.
Bires eventually learned the retail side of the business and purchased Windsor when Logan retired.
Today, Bires said it would be a longshot for someone to secure funding to buy the business. Choosing a liquidation sale as his best option, Bires said he’s open to selling the “Windsor Jewelry” name to a potential buyer.
The pandemic transformed Windsor Jewelry into a destination store, Bires said. Although fewer people have worked downtown on a daily basis in recent years, Windsor persevered thanks to its history and reputation, he said.
“We’ve developed a lot of relationships over the last 100 years,” Bires said. “We have fifth-generation customers. One of the things I get the most enjoyment out of is when a guy that I sold an engagement ring 25 or 30 years ago brings his son or daughter in for me to sell them an engagement ring. I think that says we did something right.”
Windsor Jewelry is expected to close by mid-January, Bires said.
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Best wishes to you, Greg! I will cherish my pieces from Windsor for life!
Love this store. You will be missed.
Great store, great people, and great assets to the Indianapolis nonprofit community. Sorry to see them close the store. I’m not sure that they, like so many other downtown businesses, could ever fully recover from the 2020 downtown riots.
Unless the riots made him old, I don’t think this was a reason.
25,000+ people living downtown will also tell you that the riots are mere memory of the turmoil from the Trump years, or at least I hope it stays that way.
I suspect that Dan’s characteristic of the 25,000+ downtown people living in a hivemind (the “turmoil”) is far closer to the truth than the sane among us would like to think. Still, one would hope they could see the aftermath of their riots–dozens of businesses wrecked (some storefronts still shuttered 4+ years later) and at least two people murdered–would shake at least a few out of their ideological daze. Hopefully, at the very least, the family members of the murder victims don’t see their dead loved ones as having “taken one for the team”?
Maybe I’m being hopeful. Otherwise, I suspect we’ll see it again in another year or two. I guess the party of love and joy and tolerance has to fully destroy its own habitat before it will shake itself out of its stupor. And even then, it might not be enough.
Oh well. Downtowns were pretty cool for about 25 years.
Sad to see another Indianapolis institution close. Enjoy retirement.
Greg is a wonderful guy and it was a great run. Wishing him and his family the best!
Selfishly sorry to hear about this as you have been our jeweler for 35 years. We understand and thank you for everything. The Windsor team has left a permanent, positive impression on our downtown.
Best wishes as you enjoy your life’s next chapters.
Oh, so sorry to receive this news. This is a disappointing loss from downtown.
I was always amazed at the tremendous generosity they displayed as a small business towards so many charities in our community.
Always great service and great people. Windsor will be missed.
Congrats Greg on a successful run after taking over for our uncle Herman Logan!! You’ve done well and you should be glad to be able to spend more time with your family in retirement.
Best wishes on your retirement.
Thanks for the many years of great customer service.
Congratulations and thank you Greg and Lynn for adding your unique and elegant style through Windsor over the last 25 + years that I have known you in Indy!! Enjoy your grandkids!!
Congratulations to you Greg and Lynn! What a great shop you have had and I loved sending so many folks your way over the years after we (Roberts) quit carrying jewelry. All the best!