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Business & Tech

Bixler's Jewelers Is Back In South Whitehall

The new location is at The Shops at 3900 Hamilton Center.

Bixler's Jewelers has come back to South Whitehall Township.

The new location is in The Shops at 3900 Hamilton Center, a neighbor to the popular , and the . 

Opening day was Aug. 25, five days after the store closed its location on MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township and nearly five years after closing a location at the in South Whitehall.

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The new store, which has easy access to Interstate 78 and Route 309, boasts a 3,000-square-foot showroom.

“This has a lot more positives for us than the Whitehall location,” said store manager Nicole Griffiths.

 “We found that the intersection with the major highways would be a huge draw.

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"Obviously, this store is a lot larger. It has a good feel to it, and the parking is a lot more accessible, especially for the handicapped, which we like.’’

The staff of seven people includes chief executive officer Joyce Mitman Welken, the great-great-great granddaughter of Bixler's founder Christian Bixler III.

For most of its history, Bixler’s had a strong family base. In 1785, Christian Bixler, a Revolutionary War veteran, opened a store in Easton at the corner of Bank and Northampton streets. It moved twice until the modern era -- to the corner of Fourth and Northampton streets in 1892, and then to Centre Square in 1925.

Bixler’s merged with Whitehall Township retailer Avalon, Mauer & Bash Co. in 2006, when it closed its location at the Village West Shopping Center. It closed its Easton shop about two years later.

 Since then the retailer had operated at 1457 MacArthur Road, Whitehall Township.

“In 2008, Bixler’s closed the Easton location and prepared for [a] new page in the transformation of the iconic Lehigh Valley jeweler," President and Owner Mark Maurer said in a prepared release. He said Bixler's continued to expand its products, and that the new store and location would allow the retailer to better serve its customers.

“We get a lot of people who know Bixler’s from the Easton location that still come, and we have people who have never heard of  Bixler’s before, and we get to spread the word,” Griffiths said. 

“We have a good demographic mix here," Griffiths said, of the new location. "You have families in western Allentown that have been there forever and a lot of the families that have moved in [to work at] the hospitals and the larger corporations in the area."

The new store has expanded Rolex, David Yurman and engagement ring departments, a release said. 

Griffiths said the new, large store is able to carry a lot of designer lines, such as Rolex.

 “We carry David Yurman, a high-end silver line that’s very fashion-forward,” she said.

“We carry Roberto Coin…another one that does well for us. It’s an Italian gold designer. It is versatile between day and night.”

Bixler’s also carries high-end bridal lines that are well-known with engagement companies.

“We brought in some newer lines to draw in some new clients that we haven’t touched base with," she said. ''Many are new, fun lines we didn’t have in the Whitehall store.’’

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