Longtime Castro Valley Jewelry Store To Close

CASTRO VALLEY, CA — A popular jewelry shop in Castro Valley will be closing its doors to customers after 15 years in the community.

The owners of Yarnal Jewelers – married couple Sherry Yarnal and Ralph Yarnal – have decided it's time to retire.

“My mission statement for the store has been to treat others as I would want to be treated – to treat them with dignity, with honesty and trust,” said Sherry Yarnal. “And that's, I believe, what we've built our business on.”

In mid-July, the Yarnals announced their plans on Instagram, referring to an in-store “retirement sale” celebration currently underway.

A poster about the sale reads, “As our thanks to you, we are going to have the biggest liquidation sale ever! All must go! Come in and see us one last time before we close the doors forever!”

It’s a bittersweet moment for the Yarnals after a long tenure in the city, operating a store they hadn’t foreseen lasting beyond a decade.

“We thought, ‘Oh, we'll do it for five years.’ And we're here, 15 years later,” she said.

Her husband had retired after 40 years in the tech industry and “was bored,” she said, prompting them to consider setting up the store. They opened their Castro Valley Boulevard space in spring of 2010 and have since amassed a Yarnal Jewelers following, both on Instagram and in the form of loyal customers.

“We have been well-supported and well-loved. And we know that to be true, because we took our preferred customer list and we contacted them personally to tell them before even the public knew what we were doing, and they have shown it. They’ve come out in droves,” she said.

Yarnal herself is a certified gemologist, and she’s passionate about it. She began working in the jewelry industry in 1985 and spent 15 years at JC Penney’s jewelry department. When she and Ralph, whom she’s been married to for 57 years, moved from Waynesboro, Virginia to California, she set up a concierge, by-referral-only jewelry business in their home. Down the road came Yarnal Jewelers.

She followed her passion, in large part, thanks to one of her three daughters, who had posed the question, ‘Mom, what is your fantasy?’ prior to leaving for medical school many years ago.

“We were having a bite of breakfast together, and my answer was, ‘My fantasy is I want to become a graduate gemologist of GIA [i.e. the Gemological Institute of America],’” she said.

Her daughter told her it was her turn to follow her dreams, and that’s just what Yarnal decided to do.

“I took her to the airport in San Francisco, came home, called GIA and said, ‘I want to be a graduate gemologist,’” Yarnal said.

She paid for the course in full over the phone and graduated from the program in three years out of the five-plus years students are given to earn their degree. The rest is history — or, in this case, jewelry.

“It is my love,” she said. “I adore gemology.”

The Yarnals have sold their Hayward home and are currently staying in a hotel until the store closes. Once retired, they plan to move to Omaha, Nebraska to live near their grandson and daughter, a trauma surgeon at an Omaha medical facility.

The sale will go on for as long as there is jewelry to be sold, though they anticipate the official closing date being sometime in September.

“Because we told people that we're going to be retiring, they're coming in with, ‘I want to buy one more thing from Yarnal’ and ‘I’ve got to have a Yarnal piece of jewelry.’ That's how they talk about us,” she said.

Customers have also been coming in for that one final repair on a jewelry piece, which Yarnal is glad to assist with, knowing that they value the store and its services.

“They’ll be like, ‘I don't want anybody to touch this. I trust you. Can you repair this before you leave?’ And it's been so heartwarming. I'm feeling every emotion in the world right now,” she said.

The Yarnals have received plenty of hugs and well-wishes from those who’ve recently stopped by the store, as well as touching tokens of appreciation, including cards, garden-themed gifts and food items.

“We love this community,” she said.

Yarnal Jewelers is located at 4029 E. Castro Valley Blvd., Castro Valley. The store is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment.