This specialty store in Seghwaert is moving to the Dorpsstraat: ‘With pain in my heart’

A storefront will soon become vacant in the Seghwaert shopping center. Casper Optometry is moving to a new location after the family business was there for almost 45 years. “We simply need more space.”

Zoetermeer residents hardly know anything different: the optician is a permanent part of the Seghwaert shopping center. Casper Optometry was there for nine years and Rembrandt Optics before that for 34 years. There will be no more years. Casper Optometry will open a new store in April at Dorpsstraat 67. This is the former building of clothing boutique Whoopsy.

From Maassluis to Zoetermeer

Owner Casper Haastrecht joined his father’s business in Seghwaert as a nine-year-old. “My father started Rembrandt Optiek on Rembrandtlaan in Maassluis in 1973,” he says. After the construction of the Seghwaert shopping center, he moved his business to a new building there in 1981. “The name Rembrandt Optiek therefore referred to the previous address,” he explains. Nine years ago his father retired, after which Casper took over the business and changed the name to Casper Optometry.

With pain in the heart

Casper and his staff are busy with eye tests and the sale of glasses, contact lenses and sunglasses. Actually, the retail space is too small for the range and the number of customers. “This made us look for a larger building. We found that in the Zoetermeerse Dorpsstraat.” Partly due to the long history of the store in Seghwaert, it is close to Casper’s heart to leave the shopping center. “It is with pain in my heart that we leave.”

Preparations for moving

Casper and his employees are busy in the store and preparing for the move. In April, the optician will leave Seghwaert to move into Dorpsstraat. The exact opening date is not yet known. It is true that the offering in the new store remains the same as in the old store.