Valletta household goods store Caruana & Sons is set to close for good this week, due to the property’s landlord wanting the building back, owner Josef Caruana said in an interview with The People of Malta on Tuesday.
The family-run business is the “last shop of its sort in Valletta,” since people are now more inclined to look for places outside of the city to do their shopping, Mr Caruana said.
He is one of the four siblings that purchased the business from their father, yet the shop has undergone plenty of changes since then. “My father, Nikol Caruana, had started off with a sweet shop, Johnny’s Bar in Mosta. When he realised that it was not profitable, he opened this shop here, 85 years ago,” Mr Caruana said.
Mr Caruana, who is now 82, continued working up to this day with the help of his nephews, and ever since he started going to the shop 69 years ago, he does not recall “ever going to work unhappy”.
Caruana & Sons suffered from a heart-breaking tragedy in 1971, when a fire raged on for three days and destroyed everything, including machinery, Mr Caruana explained. “We did not give up. If you give up, you will not get anywhere in life. I was the youngest, and together with my brothers Guzeppi, Giulinu and Karmenu, we decided we wanted to rise and start all over again,” he added.
After the incident, they continued in the furniture business, yet they then opted to switch over to household goods. “We slowly started recuperating. We have been in this business for the last 55 years,” he continued.
Mr Caruana added that the Founder of M.U.S.E.U.M. catechism centres St George Preca regularly visited the store as he used to preach to men on every first Monday of the month, and to women on every first Tuesday of the month. “At the top of this building there is a large room and my father used to invite St George Preca to hold his meetings there. I still have a lot of memories and anecdotes from those times,” he said.
While Mr Caruana “did all he could” to keep the business open, he “is not unhappy” that it is closing down, as it has given him “huge rewards” over the years.
“I have always tried to make sure that our clients were happy. Everything works out in the end. You strive to give a good service and to be of service,” he continued.
He has worked with a number of agents since its inception, and whenever a client came to purchase something that was not in stock, he “used to make sure to see how to find it”.
Mr Caruana thanked all of Caruana & Sons’ customers, who in turn took to social media to express their gratitude for the store’s service over the years.
