WODONGA’S highest profile jeweller and furniture salesman have given a last thanks to customers as they prepare to close their shops for the final time on Friday.
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Fogarty Jewellers has been at the water tower end of High Street since 1994 and Peter White’s Furniture has sat prominently at the top end of the same thoroughfare since 1996.
But come Friday afternoon the doors will close on their premises as the financial year comes to an end too.
Jeweller Michael Fogarty, who flagged his closure in March, said he had been stunned by the gratitude of customers.
“It’s been absolutely a humbling experience from our perspective in regards to the kind words that our customers have said and their wishing us well for our next adventure,” Mr Fogarty said.
Unlike Mr White, Mr Fogarty is not walking away from work entirely.
He will be setting up a mobile van in Beechworth Road’s centre median strip for two days a week from early September.
Mr White, who has been holding a closing down sale over recent weeks, said old customers had been wishing him well.
“I’m very grateful for the number of people who have come in and said ‘Pete we don’t want anything, we just want to shake your hand and say thanks’,” Mr White said.
“It’s been great, it’s made be feel good.”
Both men said they had been thankful for the positive feedback.
In addition to being familiarly known as the ‘Howzat’ man through his advertising, Mr White was a Wodonga councillor and president of the Wodonga RSL sub-branch.
Mr Fogarty, who has run the jewellery with wife Glenda, was a community support director with the Rotary Club of Belvoir – Wodonga.