RAPAPORT...
DO YOU SELL SYMBOL JEWELRY?
The 4Cs are not the only things that make a piece of diamond jewelry a sales winner. In an ongoing series, RDR explores the “3Ws” — what’s selling, what’s not and why — by going straight to the people who really know — jewelry retailers. Each month, we ask a sampling of retailers to comment on the important issues that are facing the industry today. Here is what they had to say when asked: Do you sell jewelry with a message — mother-child and family jewelry, symbols, zodiac — and how do customers respond?
CATHY CALHOUN, OWNER
CALHOUN JEWELERS
ROYERSFORD, PENNSYLVANIA“I just had a ‘hippie’ party called ‘the happening’ and we introduced our new line of peace symbol jewelry, which has just walked out of here. Anything with the peace sign — I just sold one that looks like a dog tag with the peace symbol on it. We have diamond peace symbol necklaces and drop earrings. You name it and we have it. For me, anything with the peace symbol is a hot, hot item.”
DALE GORDON, OWNER
GORDON JEWELERS
BOONVILLE, MISSOURI“We sell the mother and child, or family, jewelry. We sell that year round — not necessarily just for Mother’s Day. Customers buy it whenever someone has a child. We also do an eternity bracelet that has different words on it like ‘hope’ and ‘love.’ It’s mostly in sterling. We sell some in 14-karat, but not much.
“As far as birthstone, we sell a lot of that in smaller price ranges. It’s a lot of rings and tons of earrings. We sell very little in terms of zodiac jewelry — if someone wants that, generally we order it.”
LOWELL KRONOWITZ, PRESIDENT
LEVY JEWELERS
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA“We have not carried that style or done well with it for some time. Religious symbols are a different story. We sell crosses in quite varied styles, from all diamonds to simply yellow gold, from Celtic to Renaissance to classic style. Here, in the South, it’s a symbol that sells very regularly. But peace signs or zodiac don’t sell here. We occasionally sell some charms — but it’s once in a blue moon and it’s just small sterling charms.”
GEORGE FRITZ, OWNER
MILLS JEWELERS
LOCKPORT, NEW YORK“Not really very much. I think anything sells as long as your staff is excited about it. If we’re recommending something and we’re excited about it, it will sell. But we’re not really focused on those categories.”
KLARA HAMORI, DESIGNER
KARIM JEWELERS
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA
“We have a new Zodiac line that I’ve designed that is available at our retail store. I did some research before I designed it and I did not find anything nicely made or upscale. There’s definitely a void in the market. People want more and more personalized jewelry, so I thought this would be a good niche to jump into, offering them something personal that they can relate to. It’s a little disc-shaped pendant/charm done in 18-karat gold with pavé-set diamonds. If you flip over the back side, it’s polished and has the name of the sign and the dates. Everyone loves it. We did the Couture show in May and had a very good response.
“I have it in the window of the store and people come in every day to take a look and to order it. It makes a great gift and people buy it for themselves. We also have earrings and charm bracelets. Besides the Zodiac sign, I have a sun pendant and a star-shaped pendant. I have a small Zodiac-star-sun-moon theme.”
PHILIP DuPUIS, OWNER
DuPUIS ET FILS JEWELERS AND GOLDSMITHS
JACKSON, MICHIGAN
“Mother and child and family jewelry — the mother’s rings and mother’s pendants and so forth — is something we certainly have available since I’ve been here, for 33 years. We see other things come and go. Just recently, we’re getting a little bit of interest in peace signs. Zodiac? Not so much. The family jewelry is the strongest of any message-type jewelry that we have. They’re usually done in 14-karat and have natural birthstones. Recently, I’ve done some pieces in sterling. The family jewelry has always been very steady. In the past, jewelry from some of the service clubs, like the Masons, was popular, but that’s faded considerably.”
SONNY MORSTEIN, OWNER
MORSTEIN’S JEWELERS
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND“It sells; it always sells. Is it selling more than normally? No. It’s just a staple of the business. Have I seen a bump? No, it’s running about the same. We have Egyptian, we have mother-child. We have I.D.s, where you can actually carve a name into them, and we certainly display it. Basically, they’re the gold and silver metals. But it has not set the world on fire. But nothing sets the world on fire right now.”
JIM SWEANEY, PRESIDENT
MARDON JEWELERS
RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA“We have a local product line that we make ourselves based on our city logo, which has a lot of historical content to it. There’s a local establishment here called the Mission Inn, which is a national landmark hotel. The Raincross was the marketing logo of the Mission Inn and, over the years, it has become the symbol of our fair city. And we made a whole line of jewelry based on this Raincross. We have some versions with diamonds, mostly small stones.
“We do very well with the Raincross. It is a symbol to the local community. It represents a lot of things — history, a connection to community and all those abstract things. We have sold those for years and continue to do so. We also have a mother-and-child piece we do that’s our design, and we sell that.”
RONDA DAILY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
BREMER JEWELRY
PEORIA, ILLINOIS“We do carry the Goldman Kolber bracelets with interchangeable top rings. We don’t carry Pandora charm bracelets or anything like that. It’s not our focus. Our focus is diamonds. And we try to do what we know.”
LUCIAN LEE, PRESIDENT
HALE’S JEWELERS
GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA“Not really. Obviously, we’re in the Southern Bible Belt and we do lots of crosses and things like that. But crosses can be some of the finer jewelry. I’ve never really done anything much in the symbolic jewelry. I think of that as being kind of ‘middle,’ a lot of silver and charms, and we do a little more high-end things than that.
“The cross business is steady for us. I inventory that and we do well with that. Most of it is diamonds. There are a few simple crosses, children’s jewelry and baby jewelry for baptisms and christenings. But most of the crosses we do are more jeweled pieces.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - September 2008. To subscribe click here.