By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
Get our mobile app
ROCKFORD — Over roughly two decades as a customer, Judy Lindberg said Crimson Ridge‘s staff never failed to impress with their knack for helping her walk away with a gift that was just right.
Longtime customers like Lindberg bid farewell this week to the locally owned source for flowers, gifts, jewelry and other merchandise. The store officially closed its doors Wednesday after clearing out the last of its remaining inventory.
“Whenever I didn’t know what to get somebody, they had some suggestion that was just perfect every single time,” Lindberg said. “I’m going to really, truly be sad. There is no other store anywhere around that has that kind of assistance when you don’t really know what you want but you know you’ve got to get something.”
Positive news: This Rockford violinist was born deaf. Here’s how ‘music became her voice’
Crimson Ridge had announced in August that it would close its retail shop and focus solely on flowers as owner Kip Hartsfield and longtime employee Cristy Giacone prepared to semi-retire. Then, in mid-December, they announced the flower shop would close too, marking the end of 27 years in business.
“It’s been 27 phenomenal years,” Hartsfield said Wednesday by phone. “Great customers. Great employees. They drove it to a great success.”
The store had spent the last few weeks selling off its final items, including a garage sale in the last days. On Wednesday, the sign out front was changed to thank customers for 27 years. Customers offered their thanks right back.
“Thank you for everything you did for the community, I’ll miss your wonderful store filled with treasures,” Bonnie Heimbach wrote on Facebook. “You always had the perfect item….and something that I needed as well.”
More news: The push to keep Belvidere Assembly Plant workers here as the factory’s future sits in limbo
Crimson Ridge opened in March 1995 as a flower shop and grew into a source for many other types of gifts and merchandise.
Lindberg said the store has superior salespeople, fantastic advice and gorgeous gift wrapping in a beautiful environment. And, she said Hartsfield and Giacone were extremely generous with customers and the community.
“It definitely leaves a void. Hopefully someone will step up and see that need, but I think they’re kind of irreplaceable,” Lindberg said. “They were really unique, one-of-a-kind.”
In the last few weeks, Crimson Ridge left Sharpies along the downstairs checkout counter for people to write farewell messages.
“You couldn’t even put a message there by the end,” Lindberg said. “It was touching. I would stand there and read things and I thought, ‘I am not the only one who loves this store.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas