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Last minute boosts lackluster jewelry sales
By Michelle Graff and Catherine Dayrit
December 29, 2008
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| Jewelers who spoke with National Jeweler on Monday reported last-minute holiday sales of lower-priced pieces, including diamond stud earrings and pendants, watches and colored-stone pieces. |
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New York--Last-minute sales of lower-priced pieces last week helped a few jewelers break even for the year, but many who spoke with National Jeweler on Monday reported a drop in holiday sales and much trepidation of what's to come in the year ahead.
As part of National Jeweler's annual holiday weekend sales roundup, which appears online every Monday through the end of the year, editors interview independent jewelers around the country.
In this last installment of the series, here's a region-by-region breakdown of how jewelers responded to our inquiries about overall sales this holiday season, their outlook on the year ahead and more:
Northeast
A last-minute surge in jewelry sales brought Evan James Ltd. in Brattleboro, Vt., "pretty close to even" with sales from last year, said owner Evan James Deutsch.
In the run-up to Christmas week, the store's jewelry sales were lagging but "made huge strides toward the end."
"The last couple of days were fantastic. The 23rd and 24th were terrific," he said.
Those final days featured many $200-$300 sales of traditional diamond pieces such as stud earrings, Journey designs and diamond-heart pendants, sales Deutsch was worried he would miss out on this holiday season.
"Those people did come. The last few days we sold those pieces," he said.
Despite having a relatively merry Christmas, Deutsch said he's not very optimistic heading into the early part of 2009, when the worst of the winter weather will hit his area of the country and already reluctant consumers won't have a specific occasion for which to shop.
"As worried as I was about Christmas, I'm more worried about the first and second quarter of next year," he said.
Southeast
Like many retailers, jewelers in the Southeast region of the country reported that sales were down this holiday season.
At Elizabeth Bruns Jewelers in Charlotte, N.C., owner Wilson Glasgow contended with both a weak economy and a spike in local job losses due to turmoil in the banking sector.
"In the Charlotte region, we are doubly affected not only with the economy but with the loss of Wachovia bank," he said. "That's given us a double whammy."
He said the merger of Wachovia with Wells Fargo, coupled with anticipated layoffs at another big Charlotte-area employer, Bank of America, had his customers closing their wallets this holiday season.
Glasgow said his store was busy in the days leading up to Christmas, but not busy with the kind of high-end sales his store has made in the past. Glasgow said he didn't sell any large pieces and made very few sales of more than $10,000.
Like many other companies in all retail sectors, he doesn't have high hopes for 2009.
"No business is immune to this economic mess," he said. "Retail, and especially high-end retail, is going to suffer for a while."
At D.B. Ryland and Co. in Bristol, Va., owner Frank Molteni said his sales were down from last year, as general economic strain had fewer customers spending less.
"We did OK," he said.
Molteni said a lot of his regular customers were absent this holiday season, and that those who were buying weren't going after one specific piece or line.
"They were buying a variety of things, really nothing in particular," he said.
South Central
Like Evan James Ltd. in the Northeast, Aaron Penaloza at C. Aaron Penaloza Jewelers in San Antonio, Texas, reported experiencing a "very last-minute" rush that helped to boost his holiday sales.
"I'm satisfied with what I did," he said, noting that his holiday season was composed of a lot of purchases between $500-$1,000, and very few big-ticket sales.
As of Monday, he said the store was down about 15 percent, but that he was expecting a few big sales in the month's final days, sales that could put him on par with last year.
"We may wind up even by the end of the month," he said.
He said he's not optimistic that 2009 will be better than 2008, but thinks the store, which is located in an area somewhat sheltered from the recession, can break even in the coming year.
At Newton's Jewelers, owner Kelly Newton also reported that customers were holding onto their money until the last minute. They also weren't coming in to pay and pick up the pieces they had expressed interest in until the last three or four days before Christmas.
"You can't blame anybody for that," he said.
Overall, Newton said sales were down at his Fort Smith, Ark. store, but that was to be expected: Last holiday season, he made one sale that was more than $250,000.
"You just don't repeat sales like that often," he said.
That, coupled with the economy this year, meant that Newton didn't expect to match his holiday 2007 numbers.
"We were down," he said. "We knew we would be down."
Looking ahead to 2009, he said he's keeping a relatively optimistic attitude based on the strength of recent bridal sales. He said, however, that it's hard to say what the coming year will bring.
"It's an unknown [at] this time," Newton said.
Midwest
Jewelers in the Midwest attributed lackluster holiday sales at the jewelry counter to the poor economic environment.
In Highland Park, Ill., Jill Garfinkle, owner of Garfinkles Fine Jewelry, described sales over the holiday season as "terrible," saying that the store was down about 40 percent over last year.
"We had two good trunks shows and that was it," she said. "We went way down. And it's been a terrible year from the get-go. I'm glad it's over."
Garfinkle said the Heather Moore and Pandora trunk shows that the store held over the holiday season were two bright spots in the weeks leading up to Christmas, bringing in both new and returning customers.
"Without those, I might have been in deep trouble," she said.
In Menomonie, Wisc., John Anshus, owner of Anshus Jewelers, said the store did "fairly well" over the holiday season and was "up a little bit" over last year.
While many jewelers in the region, particularly those in General Motors and other car-making towns, reported struggling over the holiday season, Anshus said his store's long history has been an advantage.
"We're an old store--93 years--and we've made quite a reputation," he said. "But I know many stores, not only jewelry stores, but stores that have been open only a short while that did not have that following to depend on."
While Anshus said traffic was not as strong as in the previous year, he said the customers who did come in seemed to want better-quality goods. He said diamond jewelry did fairly well, while gold "picked up quite a bit." Lower-price fashion jewelry also was a big winner for the store, with customers buying most prevalently in the $50-$200 range.
West
Over in the West, Jan Case of Jackson, Wyo.'s J.C. Jewelers, said the store had a good season overall, though sales were down from last year.
"It wasn't our best, but we did better than expected, and we had great customers," she said. "Even though they were worried about the economy, they were making sure they shopped with their local jeweler to support them."
Customers spent less, Case said, but they came out nonetheless, buying "bigger, fun earrings and a lot of diamond hoops and pendants."
In Seattle, Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler faced "a double whammy" this year, according to owner Steve Goldfarb. The weak economy, coupled with a snowstorm that hit the Seattle area in the last few days leading up to Christmas, laid grounds for an incredibly challenging season. The snowstorm, which dumped more than a foot and a half of snow on Seattle, literally shut the retailer down for four days, from Dec. 18-21.
Goldfarb said sales for the season were down by as much as 50 percent over last year, though he described the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Christmas as "good days," saying that jewelry, which had previously lagged behind watches, finally picked up.
"Color came back," Goldfarb said, with pieces featuring sapphire, ruby and emerald doing well. Gregg Ruth designs and Mikimoto pearls finished strong, and Cartier watches picked up, while Rolex, Breiting, Panerai and Omega watches all remained strong.
Looking ahead to 2009, Goldfarb said, "It's going to be a challenging time and we're just going to white-knuckle it through."
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