In the Loupe
In the Loupe
Retailer Roundtable: Navigating the Jewelry Year
Mike is joined by a panel of retail jewelers to talk about how they navigate the Jewelry Year. From when they schedule in their annual vacations, which jewelry shows they attend, and what jewelry styles are doing well at their respective stores.
Matt & Kim from R. Gregory Jewelers in Statesville, NC
https://www.rgregoryjewelers.com/
Cole from Ware's Jewelers in Bradenton, FL
https://www.waresjewelers.com/
Caleb from Harkleroad Jewelers in Savannah, GA
https://www.harkleroaddiamonds.com/
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com
Welcome to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop. This week we're doing a retailer roundtable and what that is is a open discussion and conversation with jewelry retailers discussing how they run and organize their store, and this week we're talking all about how they run and organize their store. And this week we're talking all about how they structure their year, and I'm joined by Caleb Harkle-Rode from Harkle-Rode Diamonds and Fine Jewelry, Matt and Kim from R Gregory Jewelers and Cole Rowland from Ware's Jewelers, and we're talking specifically about when is the busy part of their year and when is the down part of their year, when do they take their vacations and which trade shows they're attending, as well as who do they bring to the trade shows. It's a really cool conversation. They're very open and honest about how they organize and run their store and I hope you learn maybe something from it as well. Thanks so much.
Speaker 4:And we're back next week, Tuesday, with another episode. So cheers. With decades of experience and long-lasting industry relationships, Punchmark enables jewelry businesses to flourish in any marketplace. We consider our clients our friends, as many of them have been friends way before becoming clients. Punchmark's own success comes from the fact that we have a much deeper need and obligation to help our friends succeed. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, Punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business and stitch together your digital and physical worlds in a way that achieves tremendous growth and results. Schedule a guided demo today at punchmarkcom. Slash go.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. What is up? Everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop, and this week we have a very cool retailer round table and I'm joined by Kim and Matt from R Gregory Jewelers, caleb from Harkle Road, fine Jewelry Is that correct? You got it? You got it Awesome. And Cole from Ware's Jewelers how are y'all doing today? Great man, happy to be here, awesome.
Speaker 1:So what we're going to do is I wanted to kind of set this up for the listeners we're going to be talking all about sort of like the yearly calendar. I know that this can be similar for a lot of stores, like we're all going to be busy from Black Friday to hopefully until Christmas. It should be slamming. But for some stores there are actually different parts of the year that are more popular than others. Some places do a great job around Valentine's Day or, for example, where I'm at in upstate New York, the fall is really popular because we have a lot of leaf peepers that come through. But for other stores, I'm sure that there are like regular events and promotions that might be in town that you need to plan around. And I also want to talk about when are you strategizing, like when you go on vacation, or when are you strategizing for upgrades at your store? So maybe, kim and Matt, can you talk to me. When do you think is your busy season? What would you say?
Speaker 2:Like I said, obviously Christmas, but we also we travel to Antwerp twice a year. We used to only do it in the spring, but we're now doing it twice a year, spring and fall. So we try to promote that 30 to 45 days out start, and so that has definitely become a busier season for us leading up to those two trips so that we're always kind of coming or going. It always gives us something to talk about.
Speaker 1:That sounds really smart. Is that something that you guys like you said 30 to 40 days are marketing? It Is that, like I'm sure you're probably hitting up a lot of different marketing channels for that.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do a lot of social um email blast email blasts um, sent out through you guys um, billboards um, and then in-store tons of in-store signage to get people we do some radio advertising also.
Speaker 3:Super cool with that and caleb.
Speaker 1:What about yourself? When is the the busy uh season for your store?
Speaker 5:yeah, so we. So we're in Savannah, georgia, and obviously holiday, but we actually now is a really busy time for our store. A lot of people don't know this, but we have the second largest St Patrick's Day parade in the country here in Savannah and so, oddly enough, it is a bit of a gift giving holiday here. Uh, emeralds are our number one selling gemstone in our store, so we do quite a bit. We just had a trunk show with single stone, a new designer that we picked up at Centurion. Um, it did really, really well. So now it's kind of a busy time. We come out of winter and the sun starts shining and it gets nice outside and things get kicked back up for us.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's really neat. I love that there's like a connection to that, because you know very easily it could just be like a whatever holiday. You know, I'm sure that some people have not a big St Patrick's Day, but it's great that you guys are capitalizing on that. And what about yourself, cole? What does Wares do for the busy season?
Speaker 6:I mean outside of, obviously, christmas, christmas, I mean everybody's busy during then. We, um, we actually get a lot of response from our northern crowd during the winter season. Florida is a big, obviously a big uh vacation spot. Uh. We're south of tampa so a lot of people escape down here for six months and, you know, then they go home. So we stay busy all the way from probably, you know a little bit before black friday until about the end of of april really, um, and then everybody goes home, um, and then we dip down uh pretty hardcore in the summer because it's pretty hot uh, so people don't like to really be outside uh too much during then. But you know it's it's, it's a big time of year for us. We get get a lot of people, you know, just spending a lot of time in Florida. We're running a national rarities event at the store as we speak right now. So that's been huge for the week. It's been an incredible turnout.
Speaker 1:So really good stuff. Wow, I love that you guys are doing that. They were just a sponsor for our show the past couple of weeks. That's actually where we found them.
Speaker 6:Let's go All right, justin, I'm sending this to you. At the Punchmark show that we always go to with you guys, I talked with Tyler there and he talked me into it, and it's worked out really, really well for us, so we're happy about it.
Speaker 1:Hell, yeah, that's super cool and I guess that kind of brings up the conversation. So you mentioned, you know, the snowbirds as we refer to them up here, because we're, you know, upstate New York right around now. We call this shoulder season. So this is definitely our down part of the year. It's when the skiing stops being great and but the snow is still on the ground. Or we some people call mud season, but I prefer shoulder because it's on the other side of the year as well, Because we also have November is definitely a time as soon as the leaves come down but the snow hasn't come in, we call that shoulder season. And I guess I was going to ask, because that's not true for everybody. I guess maybe, Caleb, can you tell me do you have a down part of the year and what do you do to kind of capitalize on that part of the year when you know it's going to be slow?
Speaker 5:Sure. So August for us is a really can be a slow month. School's getting back in session and those start dates are all kind of all over the place in August some early August, some middle and late. So things tend to slow down pretty much there. But we kind of allow that time for people to take some extra time off. People take some vacation again. If we're doing, like, um, some improvement stuff around the store, um, that's usually a good time for that. Um, yeah, we try to just, you know, kind of get ready for q4, uh in august and kind of get ready for the busy season and and fall that's interesting.
Speaker 1:yeah, I guess having a time to to go and take your vacations is definitely important. And what about yourselves, kim and Matt? Is there a time when you know it's going to be a little bit sleepier around town, and what do you do to kind of capitalize on that? Any of those summer months, june, july, august?
Speaker 3:I feel like there's always a lull here and there, depending on the school schedule, and then usually, like the rolling into January, right after that last week of December it can be a little quiet. So that's usually where we'll try to take a family vacation. Is that first week in January and then the summer, the school schedule. Here we'll see a kind of a little slow time, depending on where it lands.
Speaker 1:And do you typically try to like strategize around that? Because I feel like a natural tendency might be to, oh, let's have an event during that time of the year and like boost sales. But I guess another option would be to lean into it more and then, yeah, take like a vacation as well. Have you ever tried boosting it or doing like an event, or is it just not worth the juice and worth the squeeze on that one an?
Speaker 2:event, or is it just not worth? The juice isn't worth the squeeze on that one.
Speaker 4:The last summer we did the like 60 off for six hours just on a random Saturday in June, and it was I mean it was ridiculous.
Speaker 2:I'm like, okay, I mean, I was completely blown away. I had no clue it would do what it did.
Speaker 4:And then I'm wondering okay, do we need to try this again. Everybody says, yes, you have to do it again. I'm a little bit like can we be that successful two years in a row? Or do we have that much stuff we want to sell at 60 off, but we're going to do it again.
Speaker 2:So hopefully it carried us well through the summer. I mean, I was blown away.
Speaker 1:That's super cool. Yeah, I've always wondered about you don't want to go to the well too much. You know, I always think about that Because at the same time I've also heard of some stores. They have like we don't discount ever, except for this one week or something like that, and they have like this whole strategy we never discount except for this one time. Do you feel like, do sales dip after that 60% event or do they do okay?
Speaker 3:We didn't really see a dip and it's actually helped us when we put that on the books, because we put it on the books pretty far out in advance. We try not to discount anyway, so when we knew that that was coming we were able to just even hold back even harder on that, and then let them know, you know if it's still here.
Speaker 3:You know, here's the dates of the 60 off. I mean you can definitely get it then, um, but rolled into july. We even had people come in um hoping, you know, a week later hoping to get that same deal because they weren't able to make it. Um, I don't know of a incident where we actually did it. We may have budged just a little bit, you know, just to make them happy, but it it didn't seem to affect sales moving forward after that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I worried that it was going to affect, you know, just to make them happy, but it it didn't seem to affect sales moving forward after that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I worried that it was going to affect. You know like, are people going to buy now for Christmas, or was it going to affect? But it really didn't.
Speaker 2:We're coming off literally the best year we've ever had in 40 years of business. So, um well, we'll see what this year does.
Speaker 1:That's so fascinating. I love hearing about that kind of stuff and and Cole, and so you had already alluded that the summer gets pretty hot. I can't sympathize, so I don't really know anything about that. But do you, do you have a anything that you do during that? Is that like when you try to remodel or try to, you know, try out new business strategy? Or is it just like hey, we know it's going to be a little bit slow, so take as much time as off as you want?
Speaker 6:Um, our store is a little bit of a different place than than most. I think we're in transition. Um, my fiance and I are buying the store at the beginning of next year. So, um, uh, with with the current ownership, we're not trying to bleed them completely dry uh, promotions and like market this and market that and spend all your money. Um, so, to go forward, and obviously we want to do stuff like that, but we're trying to kind of figure that out and there's going to be a remodel attached to the um to the buy.
Speaker 6:So we have some some stuff in the in the works there, um, kind of not not necessarily a rebrand, but kind of like a, you know, an upgrade to where we're at now. So we haven't planned anything for the summer just yet. Um, I want to do a couple different things, but we might do a wedding band event or something like that. But we really got to figure out what works best for our store. Um, moving forward. So we kind of, honestly, we do a lot of our events during busier seasons because it makes people more excited about being in the store. We kind of do it a little bit differently than most, but once the transitions fully happen, we want to try to do at least one event a quarter, um to get people excited every quarter, instead of just, you know, one or two.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that that marketing and, uh, I affectionately refer to as, like the cadence, you know one, one a quarter, because you don't really want sometimes, I think it's. It's a shame that Thanksgiving and Christmas are so close together, because they're two of the you know the best holidays and they're only within three weeks of each other. Is that something when it comes to, like, deciding what kind of events and promotion that you're going to be doing? Is that something that you plan you know how far out in advance? Is that, cole? Is that like you're planning, you know, 12 months at a clip, or are you doing like quarter by quarter?
Speaker 6:I mean, ideally I want to run it based off of where we struggled last year.
Speaker 6:If there was a lull between November you know your Thanksgiving to your Christmas, there shouldn't be a big lull there. If there is, we probably need to figure something out. But ideally we would try to. We would try to plan it you know, middle of Q2, running into Q4, plan it, you know the middle of q2, uh, running into q4 because we want to make sure that we can get the marketing out there and plan how we're going to market and then reach out to our resources and make sure they have the script they're going to run or make sure our sales staff knows exactly what they're going to say to uh, to employee or to the customers that are coming in. So yeah, I mean, I think everybody kind of has a different view of that. I mean, obviously you want to start as early as you can, but you don't want to start too early to where everybody forgets that it's even happening. So it kind of just depends on your staff and how you can communicate with them. I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Caleb, you get to be, you know, in the busy season right now. What did you guys do to market for this event? Obviously, it sounds like it's a pretty good time, but is there anything that you do to try to like kind of push it to the next level each year? Or at this point, is it sort of, I guess, running on its own, like volition, essentially?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so we're in. You know, I came back to work with my dad and his business 10 years ago and so ever since then I've been kind of trying to get a calendar of events going on and um, trunk shows and things like that. So definitely there's a concerted effort to try to keep that momentum going and, um, to keep the events consistent. Um, you know, I think that's a big thing. You get through a year, you go, okay, that was great.
Speaker 5:And then you know, sometimes you know we, I think for us we get caught up in the day to day, running, running, running, running the hamster wheel, like, oh, you know, q1's over in two weeks and we haven't done anything, like you know. So my big thing is, yeah, starting at the beginning of the year, like you mentioned, like 12 months out, and just saying, hey, let's plan. You know, we'll do this trunk show here, this trunk show here, we'll couple it to St Patrick's Day, to Mother's Day, to Thanksgiving, you know, and then our holiday, open house. So we are two or one a quarter and like to at least, you know, get it on paper at the beginning of the year. So it's in the back of our mind to plan.
Speaker 1:Now and I guess this is kind of open to everybody no-transcript, and I think it's very interesting to try to figure out why, like you know, if you're, if you're going fishing and nothing bites. Maybe you have a reason, or maybe it's just a slow day for fish and have, I guess maybe you know Kim or Caleb or Cole or anybody, um, have you ever tried a marketing uh, or a marketing event or some type of promotion and had it not go as well or that you learned a lot from? Is there anything like that that you that you'd be willing to share? And if not, we'll just call this one of those events and I can just cut it and move into the next one.
Speaker 4:I'm like probably too many to count. That's what I'm saying. Yes, I mean. We try things all the time and they flop, but I'm trying to think like specific one that, well, we've even had like.
Speaker 3:So we do an estate sale every November and we've had record breaking where we've done, you know, over $100,000 in one day with them. And then the next year you're all ramped up because last year you killed it and, for some reason, like it, just completely flops and you do half of what you did the year before and everybody's standing around looking at each other and you're embarrassed.
Speaker 2:You brought somebody in and people here and they're looking and we did this great business
Speaker 6:last year, where you know where's all the customers that marketed the same.
Speaker 2:We, we did all the same things. So, yeah you, you never know.
Speaker 5:Yeah, for me, I think, trunk shows are always. I was just talking to my wife about this because we just had a trunk show. You know, you bring just like I said, you bring somebody in, you've got all this, there's all this hype, and then you know the door opens at 10 and you're like, hey, all right, where are the? Where is everybody? And you know you, just, that's the thing.
Speaker 5:Like, there's a certain amount of you know with like, particularly like a trunk show. You know, either it's going to be a day that the people show up or they don't, no matter how many postcards you send or text or emails. You know you've done what you can to get them in the door. But yeah, we've, we've certainly had some that like, at the end of the day, I was like, oh, you know nobody. I was like, oh, you know nobody. But then we've had others where, you know, I expected nobody and we killed it. So there is a bit of you know you, just, it depends on the people. You know we can do so much to get them there, but they have to show up and be in the mood to buy. So but, yeah, plenty, we've had plenty that just didn't take off.
Speaker 6:You know, you chalk it up and you do it again next year, you know that's impressive, yeah, uh, I mean, as far as our store is concerned, I'm still relatively new to the business. To consumer side of of the business, um, I not. We did plenty of things that didn't go so well in six or seven years. So, um, you know, we learned from those, obviously, and pivoted. But on the retail side the only thing we've done that we've been able to run twice since I've been there, um was we did an inventory reduction sale. The first year I was there and it did amazing. Um, the second year it didn't do so great Um, and I know that Tim and your husband had talked about that.
Speaker 6:I don't necessarily think that's something you guys should worry about. I think for us it was just we were one of those stores who never discounted and never did anything like that, and then we did a 50% off and then we did another one the next year. So it felt like people were kind of waiting for it to happen. And then it did happen and it still didn't show up. So I don't know if it's be something we're going to do in 2026 or not, but, um, that's the only one we've really ran into that hasn't worked. But again, we've ran two or three events since I've been there. So nothing too crazy on our end as of yet, but I'm sure I will find plenty that don't go so well at some point.
Speaker 1:Undoubtedly it happens. But at the same time, you know, I've been the beneficiary and also the victim of both sides of that, where and I do feel like I remember the flops way better than I remember the surprisingly good ones, whereas, like you know, I do art walks where it's kind of like a farmer's market where I sell my art, and what's so funny is sometimes I go to one and, unbeknownst to me, they booked an event across town at the exact same time, so no one is walking the streets, everyone's there. And I feel terrible about myself, like why did I do so bad? Maybe my work is bad right now. Like maybe I need new stuff. It's like, oh okay, this one is actually out of my control.
Speaker 1:But a really interesting one that I've been thinking about a lot more is, in case you didn't know, there was a massive solar eclipse right around this time last year I guess it was more like May-ish last year and it came right through the Northeast and, believe it or not, my hometown, saranac Lake, was one of the best locations to see it and, as a result, the town showed out for it and there wasn't a single vacancy in the Tri-Lakes. There wasn't for hotels. Airbnbs were doing a killing job. But what's so fascinating is I saw all this news and I was like this is so good, how are they going to do it next year? And it's like, oh, it's like a solar eclipse. Maybe in like 250 years is the next one, and I guess that's one of those things.
Speaker 1:How can you learn from the marketing of it all and how can you learn about the success if you can't actually replicate and duplicate it one-to-one? So, like what you're talking about, cole, with these hyper sales and going in and like, ok, this was super successful. What is it that we learned, other than people love discounts, you know? Like what can you learn from that nugget? Well, I'm hoping that our you know my area learned is you know how can they market behind a happening and be successful? I guess that ties in with what I was hoping to talk about is, like what channels you monitor and when it comes to marketing. So I think that we had touched on this earlier like, oh, we market through our website and in-store signage and stuff like that. Cole or Caleb or Kim or Matt, are you all using print advertising primarily? Are you mainly digital print of meaning billboards and newspapers and things like that and flyers, or are you all primarily on like Facebook and Google and things like that?
Speaker 6:So for the most part, our store before we had made the change and started the transition, did almost no marketing. I think a lot of that was because Bob and Cheryl ran the store by themselves, primarily, with Bob being a bench guy since he was 20 years old. Marketing never really was something he had time to do and or the resources to make it happen. The store does a lot of repair business as it is, so he was doing all of that by himself. So we've really pivoted and we do a lot more direct mailers. Our average customer sits somewhere between 55 and 58. So direct mailers are everybody's favorite here. Email blasts don't get opened, just not something our customers do really well.
Speaker 6:We do a lot of direct mailers. We do a lot of direct mailers. We do a lot of organic marketing too. We go to the local markets and we pop up and take an ultrasonic and clean jewelry and talk about it and kind of tell people the difference between lab grown and natural, because everybody wants to know. So we do a lot of organic stuff. That's different. We still have digital stuff running. I'm just it's hard to crack the market of Bradenton because it's not necessarily a younger market. So the digital stuff is kind of a struggle for us, not necessarily because of who provides it. That'd be punchmark. By the way, if anybody was wondering, they do an exceptional job with their advertisements. It's just I don't have a base that finds it yet. So we do a whole lot of kind of guerrilla marketing stuff we've come up with on our own, just because we know our customers are going to respond to it.
Speaker 5:Yes, savannah is a big social town, so kind of one of our primary things is just networking. I'm at luncheons and happy hours and all sorts of stuff all the time and it makes a huge difference. I mean, my first year when I came back to work for dad, you know from you know, let's say, june to December that year, we added, you know, $100,000 to the bottom line just from contacts that we met, that I met networking. So it's been that's huge for us. You know we're out, um, um, in town a lot, um, just you know savannah's just, that's just how savannah is. You know that they, they deal with who they know and um, and so it's good to be in front of people so that that facebook, google are probably top three Interesting Wow.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. So is it as simple as just like hey, if you've never been to the store, maybe stop in, we'd love to hang out with you. Is it like that? Or is it more just like letting them you know, talking about other things and then oh, by the way, I also am a jeweler.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so it's. I think it's front of mind for us. We've been in Savannah, we're all local here, we're all from here, we've been here about 40 years, so we're known in town. So I think it's just front of mind for us. And there are certainly new people. Savannah's kind of booming with growth right now in hospitality and the ports and things like that, so plenty of new people too. So it's a front of mind. Just say hey, you know good, oh, I saw Caleb last week. I need to get reminds me I need to get my ring cleaned or a pop in and my wife's ring needs to be fixed, things like that. And then, too, like meeting these new people that are also like new to Savannah and they're kind of getting their feet wet and trying to figure out you know who does what, um, you know. So there is some some introducing yourself to people for the first time too.
Speaker 1:Very cool. And Kim and Matt, you had mentioned it earlier, but just remind me, are you so? Are you on um online marketing and then in store as well? What's your particular cocktail look like?
Speaker 2:predominantly social um. We do a lot of, have basically put all of our money, I would say, in social media, social, digital um seo.
Speaker 3:What does all be? It's all been handled by punch mark. So um, and we get I mean we get really good results and we dabble a little in radio. It's a small local radio station that I've got the ability to literally text the dj and say hey, do you mind if I run in this morning for a little while and talk about our antwerp trip and different things like that? But the majority is all digital we are doing another um local.
Speaker 2:Well they're syndicated. They were radio radio, but now they're mainly podcasts and but so we do advertise with them as well and they're influencing, you know. So they come and come up and do all the pictures and all that kind of stuff. So we are throwing a little. You three stores, though between you all it's so different.
Speaker 1:And I think that's what's so exciting to me is I'm on here all the time preaching like the values of digital marketing and things like that, but hearing that it really is different. For a long time, I always used to poo-poo on billboards. I think that they are just from a personal standpoint. I think they're very ugly and just like I have like a lot of animosity for them in general, but there are some places that they swear certain billboards are just like their moneymakers and they just love them, and I guess that kind of goes to show that it is very dependent on where you are and every store is.
Speaker 1:We talk with people that have, you know, these smaller stores in areas like my town you know 4,000 people and they're not fighting for the general populace, they're just fighting for these people to be shopping with them instead of online like through some bigger box store, whereas then there are people that we're talking with, like you said, in Savannah, or, you know, we have people in Los Angeles where they're fighting for just their block, essentially, and it goes to show that you know there's no right way to do it. There's no. I think that there's a wrong way, but there's no. There's definitely no perfect way and I think that that's kind of worth keeping in mind and I really appreciate you guys sharing that. But we're going to take a quick break and when we come back I want to talk about your trade show strategy and then we'll talk about what's working at your store. So everybody, stay with us.
Speaker 7:Hey everyone, jason from Punchmark here. Are you ready to take your online presence to the next level? If so, then I invite you to join us for our annual education workshop in Charlotte, north Carolina, where you'll gain expert insights, hands-on training and actionable strategies to grow your business online. This exclusive event is designed just for jewelers like you, covering everything from website best practices and e-commerce strategies to digital marketing and customer engagement. Plus, you'll have the chance to network with industry experts and fellow jewelers who share your passion for success. Join us, may 18th to the 20th. Limited spots are available, so don't miss this opportunity to refine your digital strategy and set your business up for success. Register now at punchmarkcom slash workshop and secure your spot today. Again, that's punchmarkcom slash workshop.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. Welcome back everybody. I'm still joined by three very distinguished jewelry retailers, four members but three different stores, and I want to talk to you all about trade shows. To me they sort of mainly set the cadence, at least for us, because we are a vendor. So we're constantly looking at, we go to two RJO shows a year, two IJO shows a year, jck and Centurion. I don't know if there's a second Centurion show. It's so far away I can't even remember. It seems like those are a lot of them, though there are a lot of other optional ones, like JIS in Miami and AJS in Atlanta, and there's a lot of other ones. There's some in New York City that we don't go to. I kind of wanted to ask first of all maybe we'll do a quick loop around Kim and Matt, are you part of any jewelry organizations?
Speaker 2:Yes, we're IJO and RJO, ijo, rjo, caleb, what about yourself? We're.
Speaker 1:RJO, rjo and Cole. We're just IL, ijl, rjl. Caleb, what about yourself? We're RJL, rjl and Cole. We're just IJL, ijl. Oh, very cool. So we have one that's in both, one in one, one in the other. So, cole, when you are in as IJL, are you going to both shows? And what's your group look like? Is it just you? Are you bringing um bob, the current owner, um, or how big is your entourage, if you will?
Speaker 6:yeah, I mean, we go to both shows. So I think it's super important to go to both. Um the first the first one is a little bit different than the second one. Obviously the the summer show you're looking for your, your q4, you're trying to figure out what's going to work for you and what's not working or hasn't worked all year.
Speaker 6:Um, as far as staff is concerned, we bring everybody. Um, I think it's our, our staff is not huge. We have five, uh total people that show up, and that's Bob and his wife, uh, my fiance, and then, uh, the sales associate we just hired. So we're working toward um making sure everybody's allowed to go, because, as a previous vendor, I think it's a big deal when the whole staff is involved, because a lot of the time, as the owner or the sales manager or whatever your title is, you're not on the floor selling all the time. So if your staff's not involved in understanding of what you're buying and why you're buying it and how expensive it is and all this stuff, they don't need to know everything, but they need to know a lot about what's in the store. So we find it very beneficial to bring everybody and get everybody's opinion, because it takes more than just the owners to run the store.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've heard a million times that getting buy-in from your sales associate when you decide to bring on a new line or re-up with the line, maybe that has given you troubles in the past, having that buy-in from them so important. I think it's the hidden sauce that really helps make a sale. But Kim and Matt, you guys I'm sure have your hands full with a lot of options. Four shows a year if you wanted, if you had to guess how many are you going to and what's your entourage look like.
Speaker 2:We do both IJO shows. I mean no offense to RJO. I hope no one's listening and going to be offended but we're very much more integrated than IJO.
Speaker 3:So that's a non-negotiable Matt usually does summer solo.
Speaker 2:I have other things that I do in the summer, so I do take summer kind of a step away for a minute, so Matt usually does summer solo. I have other things that I do in the summer, so I do take summer kind of a step away for a minute, so Matt usually does summer solo. And then we try to take our employees to the first show, the spring show.
Speaker 3:And then, depending on what we get accomplished with those, we'll go to AJS, mainly this proximity. We can literally hop on and get there and if we wanted to, we could turn that around in a day if we really wanted to grind it out.
Speaker 3:But usually at least every other year, if not every year, we'll go to AJS too. If we're looking for something new, that's maybe not in one of the buying groups, or if we're just doing mainly research on, you know, preparing for the year out. If there's a line we think we want to add, we may go and just kind of almost do recon to see what we think about.
Speaker 2:We try to hit an RJ and this year they were both Wow.
Speaker 4:Phoenix and Palm Springs, so it was hard and like a week apart, so we couldn't go.
Speaker 2:I mean we could have, but it just didn't feel feasible to do both back to back like that. So it just kind of depends on where the RJO show lands, on whether or not we try to hit those or not.
Speaker 1:And Caleb. So on the RJO side of things I think that was RJO was in Phoenix, I believe I can't remember. And what's that? Are you trying to go to both? I can't remember where the next one is going to be and what's your entourage look like?
Speaker 5:So yeah, so we went to Centurion for the first time in February, which was a really great show, and we were planning originally on going to RGO back in Phoenix. But we're also in the process of opening a new store where we're going building our own freestanding store, and we weren't sure if we were going to be in by then or not. So we opted not to go to the RJO show. We'll go to Chicago in the summer.
Speaker 5:Normally it's it's either it's a combo of me and my wife or me and my dad, my wife and his wife, so it's usually, you know, kind of a family trip, which is nice. But we have been kind of toying with the idea of bringing some staff just for the exact reason that they mentioned, like getting them some buy-in, letting them see, like how this works, and they're the ones selling it every day. You know I'm not on the floor every day, I'm kind of in the process of taking over from my dad. So there's a lot of stuff that back a house that requires me and they're the ones pushing it and selling it for you, and so getting some buy-in from them I think is a great idea. So we'll probably start this summer at JCK and bring one or two, um, maybe, of our top sales people with us yeah, going to jck is just, uh, man, mind-boggling.
Speaker 1:It's just the world of jewelry at your fingertips and I guess that kind of you know ties in rather nicely. Um, caleb, what, what right now, would you say. Obviously it's very store dependent and it's so different wherever you are in the world. Um, what's doing well for for your store currently? Um, if you had to say, sure.
Speaker 5:So, uh, naturally or, excuse me, lab is still um, doing is very strong, uh, it's, it's uh the lab and natural is uh kind of back to meeting in the middle. So, um, but we're doing, you know, lab, fashion, lab, studs, lab, you know bridal um, and then, as far as natural goes, um, we're doing really well with um, natural diamonds that are two carat plus. So the diamonds that we're selling in natural are are bigger, which is really nice. Um, you know, I think this year we've sold a number of two and three carrots and we're working on a seven carrot sale now. So it's, it's, the natural business is bigger, for sure for us. You know any, and then you know, beyond that, it's it's lab.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's so fascinating because it felt like there was like a moment where I sort of quieted down. Maybe I was wrong looking at it, but at least from what I was hearing, For sure For us anyway I was.
Speaker 5:You know there was a big push back to natural Um and that's kind of that kind of has softened a little bit. But, like I said, with loose you know, we're doing well with larger natural um and nice color too. Um too is doing well for us, kind of higher end color doing super well. Things that you know. We're trying to focus on things that you can't. You know we are three jewelry stores within a mile of us and so things that you can't go shop, things that you can't go down the street and get, you know an important area for growth for us.
Speaker 1:That's a really interesting distinction, that's for sure. And Cole, what about yourself, if you had to just pinpoint, is there anything in particular that's doing really well for you right now?
Speaker 6:I mean, like Caleb said, big color, that's a lot different than, like he said, a store down the street can shop. I couldn't have said it better myself than what he said. Um, it's kind of hard for somebody to find a one-of-a-kind parlay piece. If you find it, good luck. Uh, I don't know how you did that, but, uh, that's, that's doing really well for us. Um, balari does really good for us in that.
Speaker 6:In that circumstance as well, um, and of course, lab um is inevitable. Um, but I guess the good thing there is it's a bigger stone. Um, I mean, it starts at three carat and above. I rarely do they want to see anything lower than that. Uh, but I have seen a trend recently, um, with, like your, your first marriage, like your, that those, those customers are buying a very, very big stone and then a small band that they can barely even see. It looks like the stone is kind of floating on their finger. It's a repair nightmare, to be honest, but it is what people are loving right now for us. And then another thing that does really well for us too is custom. We do a lot of pulling old customers' diamonds out of stuff they don't want to use anymore, and then we do cad image and make that all up and pretty for them. It's different than what they used to have, but same stuff. So people tend to love that and we we use shaw for that. So they're doing really well for us I love that.
Speaker 1:That's super cool and kim and matt, um anything, particularly that's kind of driving the ship for you, I would say probably being high in color.
Speaker 3:It's funny. You said parlay, I was going to say parlay.
Speaker 3:You can't be like the one of a kind piece like this so I'd say color and then, just like normal staples, like bangles and the soft flex bangles have been very strong for us the past couple of years. And then, of course, lab. I'm kind of glad to see the lab growing, like we've kind of seen it start to meet in the middle and almost start to sway back to natural, um, so I'm hoping it trends that way too. But you know, bangles, we use haramodi and then our color, um, it's typically parlay and we do some with roman and jewels, um, but yeah, like you can't, that's that's always a great
Speaker 2:great way to get people in when you've got a strong custom business. We do a lot.
Speaker 1:Do a lot of custom man, that's so cool, shout out the parlay, I'm gonna I'm gonna drop them this episode. I'd be like, yeah, you wanna, I'll wear some parlay, I don't mind. But I wanted to ask a little bit about. I wrote an article recently about trends and as I was researching it they were saying that the fine gold jewelry fine gold meaning like dainty is just like another kind of version, is kind of on the outs and things are starting to be more I don't want to say clunky, but more built up Bulky, bulky, bulky stuff, which is confusing to me because the price of gold is at an all-time high. How does that kind of rationalize itself?
Speaker 2:It does too.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I look at things. I'm like this is crazy, yeah.
Speaker 3:But it's what people want and they're buying it. We just placed an order with Royal Chain and there's some chunky. I mean big chunky. I mean I hate to say expensive, but when your invoice comes in and it's billed at $2,500 an ounce it is what it is, but it's kind of nice in a way, because you don't have to apologize for the price.
Speaker 3:Everybody knows everything's up, yeah, so eggs are up. Why should gold jewelry not be up? So we apologize for it? We just, we just price it. They talk about how, what the gold price is all the time, in all different avenues, so we just price it and they, if they balk at the price, they will. It's $2,900 an ounce, that's. I mean, it's kind of is what it is, and usually they'll shrug and they'll just buy it. Yeah, fascinating.
Speaker 1:Wow, I never would have thought the price of eggs but actually help out the jewelers. But here we are. I guess that's that's one of those other ones is, you know, just the flexibility, especially because of so you talked, we all had talked about lab grown. Um, what's fascinating about lab is something I have been.
Speaker 1:I've been following the e-commerce trends, um, for our platform, and 2023 was, you know, like our, our, one of our best years, uh, and that's because the average value AOV was incredible and it's because everybody would buy one lab-grown single stone pendant on a gold chain and then the value was through the roof and that would be the one thing that they would buy. But nowadays, people are buying it and the value is much lower. It and the value is much lower If the value is kind of again sort of shifting. Are you, how are you communicating with your shoppers that the value of a lab is very uncertain going forward? How do you kind of? I've heard of waivers where you have them like signed, like hey, we communicated this to you, do not try to sell us this stone back in three years. Is that something that you've dabbled with Anybody?
Speaker 6:And for us, the people that come in that are looking for Lab already know what we're going to tell them Majority of the time. Rarely do I have to go through the spiel and explain it and say you know, this is not worth what you think it's going to be worth if you try to pass it down and we kind of present it as like, if this is a family heirloom, if this is a fashion piece, it's, you know, lab's not a bad option for you, but this is something you're going to pass down and give to your daughter or your granddaughter or whoever Natural is the way to go in that circumstance. So a lot of the time, I don't we don't make them sign a waiver or anything, but I think they probably already understand it, Um, and then we'll bring out, obviously, their testers and everything like that to to make sure they know what the difference is. Um, and now, most of the time, I don't even have to worry about it. Honestly, um, upfront, at least. So for now.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's the same with us. You know the lab shopper, um, for us there's just not a whole lot of selling involved. They, they know exactly what they're getting. They go hey, I want a three-carat on a solitaire and that's what I want. Okay, good, ring them up and that's really it. That's crazy. One way we've it is I mean, the sales are over, just like that. It's very different than the natural presentation and one just like he was talking about regarding, like heirlooms. You know, people come in and they do say, I'm going to get this, I'd like to pass this down. You know how we've decided to word that. As you know, this is going to be valuable because it belonged to this person. Not going to financially, it's not going to be valuable. This is going to be special because it belonged to your mom. Like, and we, we try to, we make it very clear that you know, hey, you know, and, and, like he said, they all, they all know it, they're aware.
Speaker 1:Wow, from what we've seen, yeah, you know it's such a wide variety of education levels across the across the U? S with regards to the lab, because, you know, I live in a pretty pretty small upstate town and people don't even know about them. They like literally do not know that labs are a thing, that they are whatever identical to a natural. But that kind of education is maybe more, I wonder, is it more pertinent in a city setting or in the South, or is it just people don't really have tons, and you know tons and tons and tons of money up here, so they're not considering like a three carat natural versus lab. It's not something I've ever had, like you know, an answer for yet, but it's something I've been kind of considering as I've started to. You know, continue to pay attention to the, to the industry.
Speaker 1:But I think I'd like to kind of wrap this up really quickly, and one thing I always do at the end of a retail roundtable is ask this question, which is what are you working on? And that's like if I know one thing about jewelers and I know one thing about business owners in general is that there's always something that you're working on, and I think maybe I'll just pose that question to you all is like what is the current project that you're um undergoing? Because is it could be cabinets, could be, uh, fixing up the or reorganizing the? Um the vault for the first time forever? Um, what is your current project? Like uh, cole, caleb, matt, kim, anybody?
Speaker 6:for us right now. It's it's succession, um. I mean, that's something that. That's something that Caleb mentioned as well. It's a tough process on everybody's plate. Bob's been in his store for 40 years, so it's hard for him to let it go. I think he's getting there, but that's a conversation we have every day. Steven at IJO has been wonderful to help us with that. Wilkerson's going to be involved, going forward. So that's the biggest thing on our plate right now, um, and it will always be the biggest thing until 2026 hits. So we kind of put everything else as far as projects are concerned on the back side, because nothing really matters until that situation's handled, because Ware's been around for 53, going on 54 years in Bradenton. So that legacy is important to not only our customers but Bob, of course, too. So that's where we're at.
Speaker 1:That's a great one. And, matt and Kim, what about yourselves?
Speaker 3:We're in the process of. Our project right now is basically doubling the area of our bridal Decided to really invest in that this year, so we're basically just doubling the square footage case space of the bridal area and just leaning into that this year. Man.
Speaker 1:Hopefully, that's one of those ones, though, that I've heard. Every jewelry store has to make that plunge, and it seems like or a lot of them make the plunge. It seems like it's the smart and intelligent way to go about it, so good luck to you on that. And what about yourself, caleb?
Speaker 5:So we're kind of wrapping up now the building of our freestanding store, and that's been a two-year project. We're moving to 5,000 square feet. Right now we're in about 2,000 square feet in a strip center with one other shop next to us. So that's every day, that is what we're doing. I'm at the store, then I'm going to the site, then just on the email, on the phone, with people just making sure things are getting done in a timely manner and and running along and, um, well, also trying to manage, you know, the, the day-to-day business at the, at the store that's open now. So hopefully, um, we'll be in by May 1 and, uh, we can start kind of finding our rhythm at our new location. But, um, yeah, so that's what we're doing, it's and it's, it's every day. That is so exciting.
Speaker 6:That's not a small one.
Speaker 5:That's awesome. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:All of those are so like, probably seem to be all encompassing all, like you know, a real focus. But if there's one thing I know, it's that every jeweler and every retailer is working on some type of project. No one's just sitting around kind of counting the dollars. So I really appreciate you all being so candid and sharing your information with us. I'm sure that listeners like I mentioned before we got on this call jewelers. They love listening to other jewelers talk about jewelry. They do, and if I can bring like a mini trade show to other people while they're commuting in the car, that's the best thing I can do. So I really thank you all. I really appreciate your time. Everybody thanks for listening and check out these people's websites. They're all beautiful and we'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Thanks everybody, bye. All right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1:No-transcript. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom slash loop. That's L-O-U-P-E. Thanks. We'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers, bye.
