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Jewelers pleasantly surprised after Black Friday
By Michelle Graff and Teresa Novellino
December 01, 2008
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| Jewelers nationwide who spoke to National Jeweler on Monday said they were both pleased and surprised with sales over the Black Friday weekend. |
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New York--Braced for skimpy sales and slow traffic, jewelers nationwide who spoke to National Jeweler on Monday said they were both pleased and surprised with Black Friday and the weekend sales that followed.
As part of National Jeweler's annual holiday weekend roundup, which appears online every Monday through the end of the year, editors interview independent jewelers around the country.
Here is a region-by-region breakdown of how jewelers responded to our inquiries about sales, merchandise, marketing and more:
Northeast
In the Northeast, several jewelers said they were pleased--and even a little taken aback--with just how well the weekend went.
"We were pleasantly surprised and optimistic," said Evan James Deutsch, owner of Evan James Ltd., in Brattleboro, Vt. "We didn't have high expectations given the economic climate. [Black] Friday was surprisingly strong. Saturday was about average. We are up about 8 to 10 percent over the previous year."
The store is located in a town that benefits from high-paying blue-collar jobs and is largely insulated from the downturns impacting Wall Street financial firms and the Detroit automotive industry, Deutsch said.
On Friday, the jeweler sold several three-stone diamond rings. That particular category, which is being heavily marketed with a holiday push by the Diamond Promotion Service this year, also benefits from marketing by chain jewelers, who tend to promote the category for the whole industry when they blanket their television ads on channels such as ESPN, he said.
Given the proliferation of deep discounts at retail stores nationwide, particularly apparel stores, Deutsch says it is important for jewelers to hold firm on price.
"You can sell anything if you want to give it away," Deutch said. "You have to be able to preserve the integrity of your margins."
At Castiglione Jewelers in Gloversville, N.Y., owner Louis Castiglione had been bracing himself for declines, but sales over the Black Friday weekend ended up being about even with last year, which felt like a coup given the gloomy economic news he'd been hearing.
"This is a year where you don't know what to expect," he said. "If I listened to you reporters I'd have to close my doors...We have been very fortunate."
He found that loose diamonds and engagement rings sold particularly well over the weekend.
At David Craig Jewlers in Langhorne, Pa., about 35 miles from Philadelphia, jeweler David Rotenberg said he enjoyed a "substantial increase" over the weekend, which came as a surprise since Black Friday is not normally a big traffic day for the store.
"Coming into November, we were up 15 to 20 percent, year to date. By the time November had finished, we were up 25 percent," he said.
He attributes the success partly to an uptick in marketing, but primarily to 30 years of "good positioning" and following savvy advice that the American Gem Society has supplied over the years, such as aligning the business with charities and doing promotions with celebrities.
"This year, we're finding that the people we've befriended over the years are not necessarily the ones who are cutting back on jewelry purchases," Rotenberg said. "We really cater to customer service."
His marketing initiative included buying merchandise from a liquidator, running newspaper ads and sending out mailings offering them as sale items and providing consumers with dollars-off coupons for use in the store. To his surprise, though, many customers ended up going for non-sale items, the jeweler said.
Southeast
In the Southeast part of the country, business was not great, but better than expected for jewelers reached by National Jeweler.
Steve Allen of Allen's Jewelers, in Albany, Ga., said that Black Friday weekend is usually not a hit for his store. He is in a standalone location away from the main shopping area, and consumers shopping that weekend tend to flock to the mall stores where they can find Zale Jewelers, Kay Jewelers and Reeds Jewelers, as well as a range of independent jewelers that he competes with.
"We don't get the mall draw so to speak," he said. "We did have a lot of lookers in here on Saturday, and we've been busy the last three weeks."
In his region, house sales are low but not terrible, and while sales have slowed a bit, they have not been as sluggish as he expected.
"You watch the news and it's all gloom and doom, and then you come to work and you don't really see it," Allen said. "We get a lot of women coming in and filling out wish list cards. We've been doing that for 10 or 15 years and it really brings in business."
Jeweler Frank Molteni, who owns D.B. Ryland and Co. in Bristol, Va., said Black Friday is not normally his best time either.
"We have never done very well on these two days," he said. "People are going to Wal-Mart and Kmart."
Business has been slow in his town of 45,000 people, which is on the border with Tennessee and has lost manufacturing jobs in recent years.
"I was going to do billboards (this year), but I backed off because of the economy," he said.
Midwest
Sales were unexpectedly brisk over the weekend for two Midwest retailers who headed in with low expectations. At Anshus Jewelers in Menomonie, Wisc., sales were up as compared with last week, said John Anshus.
"We didn't really expect a rise," he said. "We expected a dip."
What particularly stood out at his store over the weekend was that while foot traffic itself was down, those who came in the store purchased higher-priced merchandise. Those customers who would normally walk away with a $150-$250 watch instead bought $400-$500 timepieces, he said.
Anshus said the desire for higher-quality merchandise among his customers is a trend he's noticed of late, a trend in line with the Diamond Trading Co.'s latest research showing that today's consumers are opting for "fewer, better things."
"We are doing a little better, but we're doing it with less traffic," Anshus said.
At Garfinkles Fine Jewelry in Highland Park, Ill., Jill Garfinkle had a better weekend than she expected in what she terms her "worst year ever."
"We didn't do $10 million, but it was decent," she said. "There was a least more life in the store."
She attributed the unexpected uptick in traffic to the large number of people in town visiting family members and nice weather in her suburban Chicago community.
South Central
The holiday shopping season opened to mixed reviews in the South Central portion of the country. Sales were down, somewhat inexplicably, for Aaron Penaloza of C. Aaron Penaloza Jewelers in San Antonio, Texas.
"It would have been a good weekend if we were in May, but not for (a weekend) four weeks before Christmas," he said.
Penaloza said he hasn't hit a sales target at his store since July, but can offer little explanation, as his Texas town with its stable housing market and growing military base has been shielded somewhat from the nationwide recession.
"It's all perception," said Penaloza, who predicts he'll need "a miracle" to have a great Christmas.
Meanwhile, the cash register rang all weekend at Newton's Jewelers in Fort Smith, Ark.
"It wasn't bad at all," said owner Kelly Newton. "We were really busy."
He said Rolex watches were hot sellers over the holiday weekend, and his bridal ring business continued to boom, buoyed by his store's longevity and good name in the community.
"I think that helps a lot--reputation," he said. "People know we're honest and that we have a good selection."
Heading into the rest of the month, Newton expects engagement ring sales--which traditionally see an uptick in December due to holiday marriage proposals--to continue to be hot, despite the economic slump.
"You can't stop love," he said.
West
Despite the fact that his Washington state jewelry stores are not "huge" Black Friday destinations, Steven Goldfarb, of Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler, reported strong sales over the holiday weekend.
"In both stores, we saw traffic substantially up on both Saturday and Sunday," he said.
And, like Newton's Jewelers in Arkansas, Goldfarb said his Seattle and Bellevue, Wash. shops sold a lot of watches and bridal.
"There must be something in the air that people want to get engaged for the holidays," he said.
Other hot sellers included diamond pendants in the range of $1,500-$6,000 and jewelry by designers Gregg Ruth and the always popular Roberto Coin.
In addition, Goldfarb notes, the weekend seemed to have a family theme, with husbands and wives bringing their children along for an afternoon of holiday shopping.
"This year seems to be shaping up to be more family-oriented," he said.
Like Goldfarb, Jan Case said Black Friday is never booming at her Jackson, Wyo. store, J.C. Jewelers.
Situated in an area populated with vacation homes, the popular ski resort town generally gets most of its traffic closer to Christmas as people filter in for the holidays.
Case said she expects an "OK" Christmas and has one specific item on her personal wish list heading into what many expect to be a shaky holiday season.
"Everyone, including everyone that's not in the retail business, wishes the media would quit being so negative. They're just doom and gloom and you hear it 20 hours a day...I think they scare people," she said.
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