After 50 years in business, Rio Grande Trading Co. is closing for good.
Owner Marsha Schuetz said the death of her husband and business partner, Jonathan Schuetz, along with a half-century of running the store, has left her ready to retire.
“I love that little store, and I’ve loved it for 50 years,” Schuetz said. “This has been a hard decision.”
Schuetz said she is thankful to those who supported the store over the years.
“The main thing that I noticed with my business downtown is that even though it’s especially a tourist shop, the locals support me,” Schuetz said. “They bring down their visitors when they come to town. They know I’m a tourist shop, but they love my little shop anyway. So it’s always been pretty tight-knit in that regard.”
Schuetz said the business relied heavily on passengers disembarking the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, and that her shop’s proximity to the downtown depot kept it running for five decades.
“It’s all about the train,” Schuetz said. “Anybody who tells you that it’s not, they just don’t know retail in downtown Durango. If you don’t realize that, then you’re not going to make it, because that train is what drives the economy in downtown Durango.”
Longstanding relationships with other business owners and her landlords ‒ the Jackson family, who leased her the space from the start ‒ also played a vital role in keeping it open for so long. She often hired retired women from the community and said she loved her staff.
Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Durango Business Improvement District, said Schuetz helped him understand business in downtown Durango time and again, because her business outdates the district by two decades.
“They are one of the longest continuously running businesses in downtown Durango on Main Avenue, and are a very unique shop in a great location with fun items inside for sale and really, really nice staff and owners,” Walsworth said. “They’re good people and have given the BID really good advice because of their longevity. They’ve seen all the ups and the downs, and the good and the bad and the ugly.”
Walsworth said Rio Grande Trading Co.’s five decade run is impressive by any metric.
“A make-or-break point for businesses is if you can reach five years,” Walsworth said. “Those guys did it times 10. That tells you something about their business model, the products that they sold, the price point, the customer service, the location.”
For Schuetz, running a business that long has taught her much about Durango. She has watched it grow, but said one thing has remained consistent: both newcomers and old-timers share the same appreciation for the place.
“As far as I’m concerned, Durango is paradise, and when you live in paradise, you’ve got to expect that there’s a lot of people that are going to want to move here,” Schuetz said.
Schuetz said she plans to spend more time with her family and attend her granddaughter’s wedding in New Zealand this spring.
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
