Super Silver closes downtown Coeur d'Alene after nearly two decades

Super Silver’s closure at 414 E. Sherman Ave. takes another longtime independent storefront off downtown Coeur d’Alene’s main retail corridor and closes a family business that helped define Sherman Avenue for nearly two decades. The jewelry shop had been part of the street since 2009, a run that came as downtown continued to market itself as a walkable, family-owned specialty-shopping district near Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Kristy and Mike Chappelear said the business began in October 2009, after an earlier stop on Fourth Street. What started simply, with Kristy and her sister Stephanie selling toe rings at local fairs, grew into Super Silver, a store built around sterling silver, semi-precious stones and a mix of earrings, rings, toe rings and Native American pieces. Mike Chappelear said the ring station alone held more than 10,000 rings, a scale that made the shop a destination for customers looking for variety in a small downtown space.

The store’s inventory also reflected tastes that helped set it apart on Sherman Avenue. Native American pieces were a major draw, along with stones such as turquoise, amber, quartz and Larimar. Over time, the shop became as much a relationship business as a retail one. Kristy Chappelear said she met amazing customers and made friends over the years, a reminder that the store’s value to downtown was measured not just in sales, but in the regulars and repeat visitors who kept returning to the same counter year after year.

The closing also carries a personal weight for the Chappelears. Stephanie died of cancer about four years ago, leaving Kristy to carry much of the business herself. Mike Chappelear said retirement is approaching and the timing now feels right. For downtown, the loss lands on a street that the American Planning Association named one of its Great Streets in 2016, and on a corridor the city has described as the eastern gateway to Coeur d’Alene and a priority for long-term physical and economic development. That makes every storefront shift on East Sherman part of a bigger story about what downtown Coeur d’Alene sells, who can stay, and how much room remains for the small independent retailers that once gave the avenue its character.