Over the past 60 years, Maddux
Jewelry has survived fire, flood and a massive earthquake. With
a fourth generation preparing to take the reins, the family-owned
business could be around to serve Hollister residents for another
60 years.
Over the past 60 years, Maddux
Jewelry has survived fire, flood and a massive earthquake. With a fourth generation preparing to take the reins, the family-owned business could be around to serve Hollister residents for another 60 years.
Rick and Linda Maddux are third-generation owners and have been running the store on San Benito Street since 1987. Linda’s son, Brian Marsmaker, 31, moved back to Hollister from China recently to become the fourth generation to work in the store.
“That we’ve been able to survive for that long is an accomplishment to itself,” Rick Maddux said.
Some customers haven’t been surprised to see Maddux Jewelry still serving county residents.
Evelyn Pivetti, a 90-year-old Hollister resident, said her husband, Al, has bought her many pieces of jewelry from both Rick and Melvin Maddux.
“They were people that you could depend on,” Pivetti said.
John Sharp, Rick Maddux’s grandfather, owned a watch repair shop in Indiana until the Depression hit in the 1930s, forcing him out of business. After coming west, Sharp decided Hollister would be a good place to wait out World War II. He opened a 100-square-foot watch repair shop in 1944 on San Benito Street.
Rick Maddux’s father and mother lived in the San Joaquin Valley at the time. His father worked delivering gas canisters to Central Valley farms. After injuring his back while lifting one of the canisters, Melvin Maddux found himself out of work.
Sharp offered to teach his son-in-law the watch repair trade. Melvin Maddux accepted, and moved the family to Hollister, where Rick was born. In 1947, Melvin Maddux bought Sharp out, changing the name from Sharp’s to Maddux and moving the store into a larger business space at 430 San Benito St.
The bulk of the business continued to be watches, clocks and repair service, but the family gradually introduced jewelry.
At the age of 10, Rick Maddux began working around the store. In high school, he began learning how to repair clocks and watches.
Although he enjoyed clock repair, it was stone setting and jewelry repair that interested him most.
After a brief stint working in jewelry shops in Denver and Reno, Rick Maddux moved back to Hollister and began helping his mother, Alice Maddux, run the store.
He met and married Linda Maddux in 1982, and five years later the couple bought the business. Things were going well, but in 1989 they experienced a series of blows.
First, a fire destroyed the jewelry shop. To complicate matters, Rick Maddux also had back surgery. And then, just as the store got back on its feet, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit, devastating not only Maddux Jewelers, but the entire downtown of Hollister.
Rick and Linda Maddux were driving down San Felipe Road near the airport when the earthquake hit that October. Rick Maddux said the entire back end of their store building on San Benito Street was gone when they reached downtown.
The recovery would take time. Rick Maddux said he understands what business owners went through in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“I really feel sorry for those people on the Gulf Coast,” Rick Maddux said. “I know what it’s like.”
Three weeks of working out of space borrowed from Bumpy Picetti, a commercial insurance agent, put Maddux on edge about the security of his wares. Making sales was also a struggle.
“There was a big recession that hit right after the earthquake,” Rick Maddux said. “It was dead around here.”
The shop moved across the street to its present 1,500-square-foot location in 1990.
As a “mom and pop” jewelry store, Maddux Jewelry has used customer service to survive six decades.
The store prides itself on not only its service, but also the selection it offers.
“That’s why you stay with the small designers and manufacturers,” Rick Maddux said. “They’re the ones who make the unique stuff. You can look at our merchandise mix and see that.”
Maddux Jewelers prides itself on excellent customer service. The Maddux family tries to educate its customers and help them get the most out of their budget.
“We’ve always tried to give people the benefit of intelligence,” Linda Maddux said.
Linda Maddux is accredited as a jewelry professional by the Gemological Institute of America. Rick Maddux is a graduate of the Gemological Institute of America’s diamonds program. He has more than 40 years of jewelry repair and design experience.
The family offers its customers unique and quality jewelry. Linda Maddux said customers who go for a cheap deals on jewelry often find themselves with problems down the road.
“If you buy quality, you only cry once,” Linda Maddux said.
The shop’s custom work has slowed in recent years, as back problems and the wear and tear of repairing jewelry has taken its toll on Rick Maddux.
“I spent years this close to everything,” Rick Maddux said with his hand several inches from his face. “I can’t do it anymore.”
However, the shop has customization capability, with the work being done off-site under the close supervision of Rick Maddux.
The store continues to change and add new elements. A trip to Belgium in October opened the family’s eyes to what it could do to bring customers a little extra.
Using pre-sales, the Madduxes traveled to the famed diamond houses of Antwerp, bringing back 15 to 20 diamonds up to half a carat larger than what customers were expecting. The family plans to make Belgium an annual destination.
Brian Marsmaker hopes to continue the 63-year-old family tradition. But he has some changes in mind.
“Where I’d like to see it go, if I take over the store, I would like it to be a more design-oriented place,” Marsmaker said.
