Queens of Weymouth jewellers to shut after three years

Queens of Weymouth is a jewellery store on St Thomas Street, which has a magical reputation as the owner, Dean Metcalfe is often found showing shoppers clever magic tricks.

However, sadly after three years of trade, Dean and his wife Sue, who have been married for 37-years, have made the tough decision to shut up shop.

Queens on St Thomas Street (Image: NQ)

Mr Metcalfe said: “We are closing after three years. Our first year was really positive, the second much less and the third has seen a massive decline in purchases.

“The reason for this decline is that we and other retailers are putting it down to all the negativities of the economy like utilities and mortgage rates rising rapidly which has put people off buying more luxury purchases.”

The pair have been in the jewellery trade for ‘at least 12 years’ and are now planning on ‘taking a vacation,’ but they did say that they would ‘never say never’ to returning to the trade.

Mr Metcalfe added: “The trouble is that when we opened, everyone had just come out of Covid. We thought that trade was normal and that it was going to improve. People say that it’s the same everywhere - people who come in often say that they are not from round here or local people who say but we don’t come into town unless we have to.

“Customers tell us that the demise of Debenhams had a big impact on the town but there have been lots of other closures as well, including more recently Wilko.”

Queens of Weymouth (Image: NQ)

He explained that parking is also a ‘big issue’ adding that ‘we had to pay about £9 for a day and it’s nearly double that in the summer - Dorchester is easier to park in and worse they are building retail parks to drag people out of the towns with free parking.’

Mr Metcalfe described Queens of Weymouth as a ‘middle market’ jeweller and said: “The real concern is the divide between rich and poor now…people will look for something on the high street to spend £10k-£20k, or they want something for £5. The middle market is by far the most affected.

“It’s the cheap vs the high-end market - sentimentality has gone and people are more careful about where they take their money. people are also not dressing up as much now.”

The shop is currently shut until Friday, March 1, when it will re-open for a short sale which will last around three to four weeks until it closes for good.