Robert Glassberg, a Best Wishes of Boca Raton employee for more than 31 years, assists
Samantha Santoro and her boyfriend, Ryan Leavitt, both 18 and seniors at Boca Raton High School.
Santoro was searching for a graduation present, taking advantage of the steep discounts offered at the store.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Lucy Lazarony
For almost four decades, Arthur and Suellen Sussman, of Boca Raton, have run Best Wishes of Boca gift and jewelry shop.
But the shop will soon be no more: The Sussmans plan to close the business when it runs out of inventory.
“The store was opened in 1972 and I bought it in 1977,” Arthur Sussman says of his business, a mainstay of the Fifth Avenue Shops on Federal Highway since the 1970s. “It’s been happiness ever since.”
The store’s inventory evolved over the years.
“It was originally a card and gift shop, and my mother-in-law suggested we take in jewelry,” Sussman recalls. “And subsequently, we grew to mostly jewelry.”
In addition to cards and jewelry, Best Wishes of Boca carries fine collectibles and tableware by brands such as Armani figurines, Boehm porcelain, Christopher Radko, Dansk, Lenox, Nikko china, Swarovski and Vera Wang.
Suellen Sussman did the shopping for the store for almost 40 years and loved “bringing beautiful things into the shop,” she says. “As you can see, we deal with the most lovely lines and pretty items.”
With each line, she sought out the most beautiful and useful pieces.
“In any one line, there will be something so extraordinarily beautiful or useful in some way,” she says. “I really zero in on that. You can use it in a couple of different ways.”
Longtime customers who bought their engagement rings and wedding bands at Best Wishes of Boca have brought in their children and grandchildren to do the same.
“That’s very gratifying,” Arthur Sussman says.
Cynthia Brown, of New Hampshire, spends a month in Highland Beach each year and is a 20-year customer.
“I love the owners,” Brown says. “I have a collection of the Swarovski at home. I just like coming in and seeing all the nice things that they have.”
Brown said she will miss Artie and Suellen, and Artie Sussman feels the same way about customers.
“I’ve made lifelong friends with customers and I’ve seen children and grandchildren grow up. They’ll say, ‘Why are you leaving?’ Because I want to retire,” he explains.
“Basically, I’m hitting 74,” he says. “My wife is going to be 70. We want to take some time off and do some other things.”
The Sussmans and their children made the move from Lido Beach in New York to Boca Raton in 1977.
“It was little. You knew everybody. We came here with three little kids. What a wonderful place to raise children,” says Suellen Sussman. “We didn’t lock our front doors. After Little League, you went to McDonald’s. The kids had lunch. We happened upon Boca purely by accident. We liked the small-town feeling.”
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