After more than 25 years of combined time in the jewelry business, two Gillette retail jewelry stores are closing after the New Year.

Edenfield Jewelers and Susan Kay's Fine Jewelry will close sometime in the next two months, depending on how quickly the inventory is cleared out.

As those stores close, a new chain store is entering its second month of business in Gillette.

Nancy Edenfield, owner of Edenfield Jewelers, said she's ready for a break after running the store for 18 years.

With time, she has found it more and more challenging to get away from the store. With children and grandchildren in Colorado and Kansas, Edenfield wants to have more time to visit her family and to travel. She plans to wrap up the final closing details in early 2009.

Edenfield said she plans to stay in Gillette. Her husband still operates a local stockbroker business. She also would like to spend more time volunteering and find at least a part-time job.

For now, Edenfield is taking care of business as usual. The last few weeks have been busy due to a liquidation sale.

Susan Shurtz, owner of Susan Kay's Fine Jewelry, also is looking forward to having more free time.

Closing Susan K's Fine Jewelry was not an easy decision for Shurtz, who has owned the business for seven years, but it's something her husband has wanted her to do for some time.

"When you own a retail jewelry store, you're very tired," Shurtz said. "You just can't get away very easily."

Keeping adequate staff has been one of the biggest challenges of owning her own business. "I don't have a fully trained staff that I can leave for extended periods of time," Shurtz said.

Contact with customers is what Shurtz will miss most.

"I like the sentiment involved with people giving jewelry as a gift," she said. "You're working with intimate parts of their lives with family members."

Shurtz also is holding a liquidation sale, and business has been brisk.

"Our sale is going much faster than we anticipated," she said.

While two jewelry stores are closing, another opened Oct. 3 in the Powder River Basin Shopping Center. Riddle's Jewelry, a chain based in Rapid City, S.D., has been eyeing the Gillette market for several years, according to Riddle's Jewelry Vice President Dan Casanova.

So when a location they liked came available in the shopping center, the company decided to open in the new store.

"The community has been very receptive so far," Casanova said. "It's been very good and we're excited to be there."

Riddle's also has locations in Casper, Billings, Mont., and Rapid City.