Several businesses have closed across in Durango recently, with aging owners citing retirement as a primary reason for shuttering. With La Plata County’s median age continuing to trend upward, a “silver tsunami” – referring to the rapid and unprecedented aging of the global population and the retirement of baby boomers – may be on the horizon.
At least six Durango businesses – some of which became known as city staples – have closed since 2024 as a result of owners retiring, including Tucson’s Barber and Styling, Rio Grande Trading Co., Jamie’s Fine Jewelry, Susan’s Salon and Permanent Makeup, the Starlight Lounge and Tarpley RV.
Rio Grande Trading Co., Tarpley and Tucsons all spent about 50 years in operation, while Jamie’s Fine Jewelry, the Starlight Lounge and Susan’s Salon and Permanent Makeup touted runs of about 20 years.
Each owner described retirement as a factor in their decisions to close their well-known businesses.
“As I think more about it, I feel I’m going to be barbersick – that I’m going to miss it,” Amador Tucson told The Durango Herald amid his closure in July. “I got so used to being here at seven o’clock. But I’m happy that I’m going to retire. My wife is going to be happy. (My son Izzy) is going to be happy, too.”
Data from the Colorado State Demography Office show the 65-plus population in La Plata County has grown by more than 2,000 people between 2020 and 2024 – a nearly 19% increase in only four years.
As of 2024, La Plata County’s median age was about 43 years old, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Janae Hunderman, director of career and workforce at Fort Lewis College, warned of an incoming “talent shortfall” as a result of retirement during an economic presentation at the college earlier this year.
“People are retiring faster than we expected in the 80s,” she said. “… When we lose this population, when the baby boomers retire, that knowledge is going with them. … We are not replacing people. We are not reproducing as much as we used to. We have those baby boomers retiring earlier than expected, we have a lower birth rate … we have low immigration and we have low employment. So, the predictions are, the U.S. will still lack talent.”
Nate Peach, an economics professor at Fort Lewis College, says the retirement wave holds both opportunity and risk for Durango. His worry, he said, is more on the public and government finance and intergenerational equity side, rather than based in any single-market outcome.
“The things that worry me the most, in terms of being an economist thinking about it, are the governmental or public strains that it can create,” he said. “… With such a big demographic wave going through – (which is) a very unique thing that’s going through our economy – it will be … kind of interesting to see how it plays out.”
One positive of the wave of baby boomers retiring, Peach said, is spaces being left open for younger entrepreneurs to fill.
Adam Caver opened Caver Jewelry on Main Avenue in September 2025, and described Jamie King’s retirement and the closure of Jamie’s Fine Jewelry as a catalyst to his decision to pursue launching the storefront.
“The (Durango Herald) article (about the closure) came out, and … I was like, ‘I should just do my own thing, because Jamie’s retiring,’” he told the Herald shortly after Caver Jewelry opened.
Another prominent example of the younger population taking over for their retiring older counterparts is Evan Schertz, the son of former Maria’s Bookshop owners Peter Schertz and Andrea Avantaggio, who took over ownership of the bookstore in his early 20s when his parents began moving toward retirement in 2019.
Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Business Improvement District, said BID has supported succession planning efforts in the past in response to rising retirement rates in Durango.
“A lot of these businesses that you’re talking about have been around for a long, long time, and ideally, we’d love it if they would remain and just change hands to the next person, right?” Walsworth said. “And we’ve seen that transition happen a couple times, and we’ve seen it the other way, where a business has just closed its doors.”
He said BID is keeping its eye on the increasing retirement rate and the related shuttering of longtime Main Avenue businesses.
“Yes, it concerns us,” he said. “But our experience over here, getting close to 15 years here at the BID, shows me that spaces will fill up with the next person who wants to roll the dice on locating a business down here.”
The high cost of living in La Plata County edging out young professionals and young families is a concern, Peach said, which may make it more difficult for gaps left behind by retirees to be filled by younger counterparts.
Walsworth presented a more nuanced perspective on the cost-of-living-based succession roadblock.
“Certainly, we’d love it if we had more housing that the local workforce could afford,” he said. “So, does it play a part? Probably a little bit. But I would think in these succession planning (situations), where someone’s very intentionally setting up the next owner, it’s going to be someone who’s already here, who they already have a relationship with. Maybe it’s a child, maybe it’s a family friend, maybe it’s an existing employee, right? So I’m not sure if I could put the two things directly together.”
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