Photos by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Azra Kolenda (left) helps Rachel Schwiebert select items Tuesday at Glassner Jewelers on Electric Road in Roanoke County. The store will shut down on Dec. 23; the business' other stores in Staunton and Charlottesville will close next month.

Watches are discounted Tuesday at Glassner Jewelers in Roanoke County. All the jewelry is for sale from 25 percent to 60 percent off at that location.

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A winter coat or diamond earrings? A trip to the grocery store or a pearl necklace?

This holiday season and for most of the year, practical purchasing has been the trend, forcing retailers typically fueled by consumer's discretionary spending to take a back seat.

That's the case for at least one independent jewelry retailer. Burdened by sales declines of more than 30 percent in the past year, Glassner Jewelers is shuttering its 39-year retail operation. The jeweler's Roanoke County store will close Dec. 23, and its two other stores in Staunton and Charlottesville will shut down in mid-January.

"It's been a very difficult time for the jewelry business," said Sheri Beveridge, who owns Glassner with her parents, Jerry and Charlotte McBride. "We are a luxury, and people have cut back in so many ways."

Jewelers and other luxury retailers have been particularly hard hit by the economy's slowing pace. Consumers of all income brackets are scaling back, choosing their purchases more carefully or closing their wallets and purses altogether.

Glassner's struggles are not unique to the jewelry industry. Whitehall Jewelers, which has a store at Roanoke's Valley View Mall, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year. Its stores are expected to close by the end of this year.

Some other jewelers in the region said they're hoping for a strong last-minute rush of holiday shoppers to help lift sales.

Jewelry stores generate about 30 percent of their annual sales during the Christmas season, though the number of people who plan to buy jewelry this year during the holidays has dipped significantly compared with 2007, according to the National Retail Federation. A November survey by the NRF found that 19.3 percent of consumers intend to buy jewelry as Christmas gifts this year. That's down 13.1 percent from 2007, said Ellen Davis, an NRF spokeswoman.

"Some jewelry can be considered a luxury purchase, but regardless, it's a discretionary purchase," she said. "This holiday season has been all about practical gifts."

Rather than jewelry, "some people might be concerned that they should be giving a gift that someone can use or wear regularly," Davis said.

Consumers have been focused on practical purchasing for much of this year, Beveridge said.

"I think people think, 'I'll just wait until next year to purchase jewelry,' " she said. "This year, they're dealing with so much extra of their budget spent on gas and groceries."

Her business has a long history. The late Mike Glassner opened the first Glassner store in 1969. Glassner and Alvin Fink, who were brothers-in-law, at one time both helped to run Fink's Jewelers, a local business, Beveridge said.

When they parted ways in 1969, Glassner renamed the stores that he retained as Glassner Jewelers.

In the early 1980s, Jerry McBride, a former Glassner employee, bought the business from Glassner. Beveridge joined her father at the retail chain in 1988. She's now its primary daily operator.

All Glassner jewelry is discounted 25 percent to 60 percent through the store's closing date at its Oak Grove Plaza location. Glassner employs seven people at the Roanoke County location.

"We have some wonderful employees and regular customers," Beveridge said. "We did not want to end it like this."

Elsewhere in the region, business has slowed for other independent jewelry stores as consumers spend cautiously.

At Kent Jewelers in Blacksburg, owner Marla Kemsey stocked up on three-quarter-carat diamond engagement rings. They're in demand now, instead of the more expensive 1-carat rings, she said. Though some couples aren't postponing their plans to wed, "they have been choosing to scale down somewhat," Kemsey said.

Other jewelers, including Katharine Wells, owner of Jewells in Roanoke, have bulked up on supplies of what they consider more affordable jewelry pieces. Wells placed extra orders for Pandora beads at a May jewelry show in Las Vegas. The Pandora line's bracelets sell for $50 and the beads are $25 each.

And while the year's business has slowed slightly for Frank L. Moose Jewelers in downtown Roanoke, owner Geoff Jennings said the end of the holiday season likely will drive sales. He's prepared for the wave of traditional last-minute shoppers.

"The two and a half weeks before Christmas is extremely crucial," Jennings said.

Still, it's likely too soon to tell whether jewelers can count on a strong holiday business this year. Rachel Schwiebert is an example of someone who does not plan to buy jewelry for her four daughters this Christmas. The Roanoke County resident said she traditionally buys her daughters a ring or another jewelry piece.

This year, "I'm trying to cut back on how much we're spending," Schwiebert said.

She did purchase a $55 pearl necklace for one of her daughters at Glassner on Tuesday. It was discounted 25 percent.

But the necklace won't emerge from its shiny, white box until sometime next year.