data.
Fast-forward 10 years, to our post-COVID world of sanctions, 
tariffs, and AI, and that number now stands at 16,620 (as of Q2 2026), 
a 17 percent drop from a decade ago.    
There are myriad reasons a jeweler might decide to close their 
store, including the growing costs and com-
plications involved in running a small business 
today. 
Owner demographics also play a part. 
Many jewelry store owners are baby boom-
ers who are reaching, or have already reached, 
retirement age and have no one to take over 
the family business because the 
next generation just doesn’t 
want to work in jewelry.  
Kyle Bullock, the mil-
lennial owner of Bullock’s 
Jewelry in Roswell, New 
Mexico, says for many of 
his peers, the choice is 
clear: You can put in 50 to 
60 hours a week running 
a small business, be on 
call 24/7 and barely get 
by, or you can take a better- 
paying corporate job and 
clock out at the end of the 
day. 
“I’ve watched a whole 
generation take the latter 
deal because the store just 
isn’t worth buying,” he says. 
Kyle thought the 
same—he studied psy-
chology when he was in 
college in Texas—but, like a 
tractor beam emanating from a UFO, jewelry 
pulled him in. 
He helped with the class ring program in 
college and moved back to Roswell in 2014 
with the intention of eventually taking over 
the business his great-grandfather, O.L. Bull-
ock, started in 1926. 
In 2024, Kyle bought the remaining shares 
his father, Don Bullock, held in the business 
and became the fourth- 
generation owner of Bullock’s Jewelry. 
When asked what has kept the store going 
for 100 years, Kyle paraphrases Warren Buffett: 
“Businesses that delight their customers last.” 
That’s true, but Bullock’s Jewelry also bene-
fited greatly from Don’s willingness to change.
As Kyle tells it, his father realized in the 
late ‘90s/early 2000s that the growing use of 
home personal computers and the internet 
were going to change the world, and he got on 
board early, something many independent jewelers did not do. 
“He was willing to embrace technology and where things were 
growing. But the thing that honestly changed [our business] was 
that he hired a consulting firm and surrounded himself with people 
who were gifted in challenging him to make the business profit-
SPECIAL
FEATURE
48          RETAILER HALL OF FAME 2026
Kyle Bullock, pictured directly above with his father Don Bullock, now owns the family 
business started by O.L. Bullock (pictured at right in top photo) in 1926.
Continued on page 50

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