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Greensboro visitors to San Francisco will find in Shreve & Co.’s mahogany-walled ambience that much of what glitters really is gold.

The prices and atmosphere can be intimidating, but it’s a home away from home.

Just mention Arnold (Tony) Schiffman Jr., of Greensboro to the staff ...

“Oh, Mr. Tony!” declares Nina Vlanar, from behind a long counter. “Nice man. He signs our checks.”

Founded in 1852, Shreve & Co., continues as one of San Francisco’s finest jewelry stores, elegance in a wealthy city’s most fashionable retail district. Neighbors include Burberry, Coach and Kenneth Cole.

When Shreve opened, San Francisco was still in its infancy. Many of the '49ers, who had hustled to California and struck it rich after the discovery of gold in 1849, probably paid with the precious metal.

The store’s skilled craftsmen made the official gifts for delegates attending the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco at the end of World War II. Shreve crafted California’s official gift to Queen Elizabeth for her coronation in 1953.

What’s surprising is the store at Post and Grant streets has been owned since 1992 by Schiffman’s Jewelers of Greensboro. Schiffman’s also owns a Shreve store in nearby Palo Alto.

Schiffman’s has 10 stores, most with names other than “Schiffman’s.”

The family’s strategy has been to buy old family-owned jewelry stores that are almost mirror images of Schiffman’s flagship store at 225 S. Elm St. The name of the purchased store stays the same, and the management operates as before, working with families who have been customers for generations.

Tony Schiffman says the first time he walked into Shreve, in one of the few structures that survived the 1906 earthquake, he was struck by its resemblance to his Greensboro store.

The South Elm store was founded in 1893 by his grandfather, Simon Schiffman, and it moved twice from South Elm locations before occupying its present spot in 1922.

The San Francisco and Greensboro stores have warm wood paneling, beautiful display cases and a mezzanine.

In Greensboro, Tony Schiffman’s father, Arnold Schiffman Sr., kept his desk on the mezzanine. He could see action below and hurry down to help customers.

Tony Schiffman runs the store and the chain from a small office behind a front display window. The location offers him quick access to the sales floor where he can be found more often than in his office.

Nina Vlanar looked impressed when told that, 3,000 miles away, her boss, Tony Schiffman, was probably doing what she was doing: waiting on customers. He and his sons, Tony III, Vance and Lane (who runs the Friendly Center store), aren’t leather chair-bound executives.

As for Shreve, “It’s the second oldest business in San Francisco, behind Wells Fargo,” Tony Schiffman says.

The Schiffmans visit the Shreve store about once a year and communicate daily by computer and phone.

Every piece of merchandise sold at Shreve — and at other Schiffman stores — is shipped from the big and busy basement on South Elm Street.

If only the Schiffmans could buy San Francisco Bay and move just part of it — let’s not get greedy — to Greensboro. Now, that would be a jewel.

Contact Jim Schlosser at 601-9879 or beale1@clearwire.net