Wright’s Jewelry turns 120, the longest family-owned business in town

By Mo Cranker on October 16, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

The Hat’s longest-standing family-owned business is reaching yet another milestone.

Wright’s Jewelry turned 120 this year and has been a go-to store for Medicine Hatters for everything jewelry and watches.

(Only the Medicine Hat News has been in business in the Gas City longer than Wright’s Jewelry.)

“The Wright’s Jewelry business is even older than 120 years — that’s just as far as we can go,” said current owner and operator Todd Wright. “What we know is that they were following the railroads and that they were watchmakers, so they followed the railway out West.

“It was a group of brothers where some settled in Taber, some in Lethbridge and two ended up here — eventually they all forged into one company.”

The business has been passed down through five generations, currently sitting with Todd Wright.

It started in 1898 with A.M. Wright, was then passed to Bert Wright, then Clifford Wright, Gary Wright and now sits with Todd — who has been in charge since 2010.

“It was all about watches back in the day — wedding bands were made of string back then,” said Wright. “Gold and silver started to make their way into Canada and the jewelry side of things started to pick up over the years.

“We still actually have some of the old equipment that they used when they first opened up here.”

The business has bounced around the city at various locations over the years — it moved from the Medicine Hat Mall to Strachan Road last year. Wright says it has been going well at the new location.

“The mall was OK but the times are changing,” said Wright. “The new location here has been very good and has been the best alternative to what we had before.

“I think we’ve been able to make it so long because we’ve been versatile and have been able to adapt to the times. We’ve been flexible and we’ve kept up.”

14
-13

Comments are closed.