Worcester Telegram, MA
Feb 27 2010

Jeweler bids city adieu
Shavarsh scion to pursue her career in Boston

By Danielle M. Horn TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER – Arpine Shavarsh Azizian acknowledges the bubbly tone she
has used in hundreds of phone calls this week may not fit the message
she has been delivering.

More than a thousand customers of Shavarsh Jewelers: Design by Arpine,
have been notified by Miss Azizian and her office manager, Kathie P.
L’Abbe, that the 30-year-old family jewelry store is going out of
business. The women have thousands more to make. And in each call,
Miss Azizian has maintained the friendly, uplifting demeanor that has
helped earn her a loyal customer base.

`If I’m not happy, they won’t come!’ said the 22-year-old, who has run
the Main Street store since 2006, not long after her father and the
store’s namesake, Shavarsh Azizian, left the business because of heart
problems.

Miss Azizian said it wasn’t an easy decision to close Shavarsh, which
has been an extension of her and her family since she was a young
girl. As a student at Nelson Place, and then St. Peter-Marian, she
spent countless afternoons watching and admiring her father’s and
grandmother’s work. It was never a question that she would enter the
jewelry business, not because of familial pressures, but because it
was all she ever wanted to do.

And she’ll continue doing it: that’s why it is hard for her to be
completely glum. She will continue to pursue her passion, just not in
Worcester, which she and her father say has become increasingly
difficult for downtown business owners.

`This is surreal,’ Miss Azizian said yesterday in the store at 420
Main St., surrounded by signs advertising reduced prices on jewelry,
which she is selling at cost. `But at the same time, I’m very excited.
My father has built the foundation for me and now I must follow my own
path.’

Miss Azizian can’t count the number of times she has paid customers’
parking tickets, not wanting them to leave her shop with a sour taste
in their mouth simply because they couldn’t find adequate parking. She
has noticed that many of her out-of-town clients, which account for 35
percent of her customers, have become uncomfortable coming downtown.
And while she doesn’t consider the economy as a major factor for her
decision, the lack of comparable businesses on Main Street doesn’t
help matters. Shavarsh is a destination store, and with neighbors
including doughnut chains, a Subway and a pizza place, it’s rare that
new customers stumble upon the small store.

`Yes, the economy is terrible, but Worcester has been this way for
years,’ her father said yesterday in a phone interview. `Even in good
times, our city does little for businesses. They’ve been working on
sidewalks, but they’re in the wrong section of the city!’

Mr. Azizian gave the store its start in 1979, when, after emigrating
from Armenia, he opened a workshop on Main Street. In 1984, he opened
Guaranty Jewelers and in 2001, changed the name to Shavarsh.

Heart problems (he now, at 48, has 16 stents) forced him into
retirement in 2005. A friend took over the business for a year before
Miss Azizian stepped in.

`She truly is the female version of Shavarsh,’ said family friend
Richard Yacuzzi. `She could outwork any CEO.’

A certified gemologist who has studied jewelry manufacturing in Europe
and the United States, Miss Azizian, like her father, chose to
specialize in custom design. About 75 percent of the pieces at the
store have been recently designed by her, or are pieces her father
designed before he left.

`She has a good brain and she’s turning the page,’ her father said in
the phone interview. `On the other side, it’s sad. No longer will my
name be on that sign.’

After the store closes April 15, Miss Azizian will further her studies
at the Gemological Institute of America in California before returning
to the Boston area to continue a career in the jewelry business.

`Truly, it’s kind of like the city is getting too small for her,’ Mr.
Azizian said.

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