Mar 9, 2012

The Second Time Around: Retirement Was Short-Lived for Smithville Shop OwnersBy Marjorie PrestonShoreNewsToday.com

Smithville, NJ – In March 2011, after 16 years of selling antiques and collectibles in Barnegat, Dale and LuAnne Duff were approached by a businesswoman who offered to buy their business for cash. “She bought all our inventory, all our displays,” LuAnne Duff said. “We gave her everything.” The only thing the Duffs did not sell was the business name, Mrs. Duff’s Gift Shoppe LLC, a decision that now seems prescient.

The couple decided to semiretire to Florida, but within a year, they unretired, moved back to South Jersey and reopened their business.

“We came close,” LuAnne Duff said of their brief stay in Winter Garden, near Disney World. “But we couldn’t bring ourselves to do it.”

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