For 58 years, Kakesako Bros. Jewelers has provided that old-fashioned service that people count on: a place to buy a graduation gift, a watch or a Hawaiian bracelet. They also are the folks who change your watch battery at cost.

That will all come to an end this summer with the expected closure of the family business in June. The store on Alakea Street will begin winding down operations with a "customer appreciation sale" that starts today.

Family member Lorna Kakesako is the sister-in-law of founding brothers Tommy and Kenneth Kakesako. Since the founders died — Tommy last August and Kenneth in 1992 — the family lacks the expertise and resources to keep it going despite a solid business, she said.

"Nobody wanted to give it up," Lorna Kakesako said. "But nobody could just step in and take it over." The surviving siblings and their children branched out into other careers, with no jewelers to take up the family business.

The news has shaken longtime customers. Federal Judge David Ezra headed over to the store as soon as he got out of court last week.

"I'm heartbroken," he said. He first came to the store with his father, who was friends with Tommy Kakesako. Since then, he's bought most of his significant jewelry there for his wife and their three daughters.

The unpretentious landmark shop is packed full of watches, rings, necklaces, bracelets and pendants.

Now, Ezra said, the third generation of his family is shopping there. "My daughter bought her husband's wedding band here."

Ezra said customers came back for decades because of the trustworthy reputation: "Scrupulously honest, which is extremely important in the jewelry business."

Lorna Kakesako said it's hard to think of the business closing. She said Tommy Kakesako had hoped manager Marjorie Nishimura would run the business after he was gone. But Lorna Kakesako said Tommy's bills mounted with the cost of caring for his wife over a long illness. "He accumulated a lot of debt," Kakesako said, which complicated the effort to have the veteran staff take over.

"We just made the decision over the last two weeks," Kakesako said. She said competition also has increased with department stores like Macy's and big-box retailers like Costco expanding jewelry sales.

Nishimura worked at a neighboring insurance office until Tommy Kakesako hired her to help with a holiday rush. Thirty years later, she and account executive Robin Imamura are having a hard time imagining life outside the little store. Imamura has worked there for most of his life, first starting in high school in the late '70s.

"Tommy was like a dad to all of us," Nishimura said. "He didn't have any children. He would scold us sometimes. But he was very kind and gentle. That's why we stayed so long."

Over the years, they've faced tough times — two attempted robberies, ups and downs in the economy, and the deaths of the founders.

But they said it's been a happy place to spend their working lives. Their favorite part is easy: "Working with the people," Nishimura said. "They become like family. You can tell that they trust you."

State Sen. Brian Taniguchi said he started shopping there decades ago because it was affordable, even on a young lawmaker's salary. "I would buy earrings and pendants for my wife," he said. "I guess for me it's always been a very reasonable place to get high-quality jewelry."

Former City Councilman John Henry Felix stopped in Friday as he often does, just to visit. "I've been coming here ever since I remember" to buy watches, Hawaiian bracelets, black pearls and more, he said. "This is an institution."

"They're so friendly and honest and so accommodating," Felix said. "They're like family."

And you can tell it's true when customer after customer greets the staff by name.

Engraver Abel Mattos III stopped in, the third generation of his family to work with the store. "It's just always been here," he said, for his wife's ring, his mother's bracelet, the jewelry you wear every day.

Mattos remains optimistic that Nishimura and Imamura will be able to find a way to keep going. "They'll be back," he said.