Half a century ago one of my favorite stores to “shop” was the old Abercrombie and Fitch. In the 1950’s it was a high end sporting goods store, complete with an incredible gun room that properly belonged in a movie (it had a huge stuffed Polar Bear in one corner!). In addition to guns, rods and reels it also carried men’s and women’s clothing aimed, however, at “the carriage trade” rather than the youth market catered to by the current iteration of Abercrombie and Fitch. Somehow, forty years ago or so, clothing led the company astray. I can only guess that sporting goods had become stagnant; so management decided to plunge heavily into women’s fashion. The clothes didn’t sell. In fact, the strain imposed by “the wrong bet” on fashion forced the company to seek bankruptcy protection, thus illustrating the fact that cash flow is the life blood of business. A retailer must turn (sell) his inventory to remain solvent, let alone make a profit; and of course, this affects the jewelry business on many levels, right down to the consumer.
Makers of jewelry can find themselves faced with falling demand. Those who make “high end” jewelry can usually scrap jewelry that doesn’t sell and fashion new jewelry reusing their gems (the labor is lost, the gold and platinum will be re-refined, but for small value). Those who provide jewelry to “mass merchandisers” and low end chains have a harder time of it as they are ‘married’ to the fortunes of their ‘big buyers’. Mass merchandisers suffer from the volatility of their market; and this opens the jewelry makers who supply them to risk as well. Lured by ‘big sales, they often commit themselves to contracts with extended terms of payment and even agreements to take back unsold merchandise. When business ‘softens’, and mass merchandisers fail to pay their bills, they’re at once in trouble. If they are compelled to take unsold goods back, the intrinsic value of such jewelry is small; so scrapping it will yield little. Fearing economic risk, then, ‘gun-shy’ mass merchandisers and their suppliers very often tend to adopt a conservative character in design as well as a commitment to ‘cheap’ manufacture
This explains why, when I comparison shop chain jewelry stores and the jewelry departments of mass merchandisers, I usually see a strong commitment to basic designs and little attention to either quality or fashion. You may see 50 diamond crosses, all of which look fairly similar to one another, and you may see 50 variations on the diamond heart, but you are far less likely to see a wholly original piece of jewelry - let alone a beautifully crafted one. For you, the prudent jewelry buyer, this infers that you must concentrate your jewelry dollars on quality jewelry possessions you can enjoy “forever”. It clearly means that you should allocate a much smaller part of your budget to jewelry you see as “nice” but perhaps without durable “legs” in design or execution.
If your ears are pierced, you should own the pair of diamond studs you best see yourself in. If you can’t afford the pair you want at once, buy a smaller pair of quality diamonds and trade up for the ones you want. If you enjoy rings, concentrate first on those that will have meaning for you - celebrations of your life that will give you a lift every time you look at them. Bracelets? If you like them, take a hard look at what you like about them (wide? multiples? with gems? cuffs? bangles? links?), then buy them in proportion to the pleasure you derive from wearing them. Necklaces? Diamond pendants are more versatile than other necklaces as they can be worn with a wider variety of clothing, though it’s a good idea to be able to put your diamond on attachments (chains, chords, ribbons) of varying lengths so they can remain “neckline” friendly. Like diamond earrings, as long as you buy quality, you can trade up until you get the diamond pendant you want “for always”. Above all, keep your eye on what you prize in jewelry to keep from bankrupting your jewelry budget with purchases of fashion you’ll soon tire of. Observe this maxim, “If you don’t love it, don’t buy it.” Liking a piece of expensive jewelry just isn’t good enough; and the corollary to this is, “Making do with ‘poverty jewelry’ will never make you happy.”
Of course the ultimate basics are diamonds. Color, clarity and carat weight all play a part in determining the rarity of diamonds, but there is more to it than that. So it is that here at Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers we select our diamonds for beauty above all - not laboratory values nor price. So it is that we insist on originality in design and quality execution. We want the jewelry we offer to be a joy forever for its wearer. So it is that if you want to give a ‘forever’ Christmas gift you must come see us. Check out our collection on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com, then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment to make this the merriest Christmas!
P.S. If you have diamonds, broken or unworn pieces of jewelry that you would like to sell, come in and we’ll help you establish their market value; and perhaps, we’ll make the best offer to buy them.
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