Rough weather in parts of the country made the first few
months of 2018 difficult for jewelry stores, which were already seeing slower
traffic. While store owners said higher tickets were making up for the reduced
clientele, they were also concerned that the year to come might be as unstable
and unpredictable as 2017, despite tax cuts and an improved stock market. On
the plus side, most said their numbers were in line with last year, so spring
may yet bring good news.
Cold spell
Although the cold season is barely over, retailers were
still feeling its effects. “January was really, really bad,” said Paul Geiss,
owner of Paulo Geiss Jewelers in Charleston, South Carolina. “We were closed
for about a week due to all the bad weather we had. People just didn’t get out.
But we had a decent Christmas. Then February was just average, and so far,
March has not been bad. It’s picking up a little.”
Even stores that weren’t impacted by the weather were
dealing with a sluggish few months. Lorraine Barker, co-owner of Barker Diamond
Company in Nashville, Tennessee, said her 2018 business had been steady, but
hardly spectacular.
“I know in the national media they’re excited about the tax
cuts, but we don’t really see that,” she said. “It doesn’t always compute.
You’d think that since the stock market is going through the roof, it’d be
good. But it’s expensive to live around here.”
She said she was seeing bigger sales, but she estimated her
traffic was slower. “Our customer is pretty value-minded. I want to be
optimistic, but I’m not really feeling that way.”
‘Dead even with last year’
Andy Brown, co-owner of Waterfall Jewelers — which has two
Michigan stores, in Waterford and White Lake — said 2018 had so far been
comparable to 2017, with slower traffic offset by slightly higher tickets.
“We’re about dead even with last year,” he said. “It’s hard
to draw conclusions anymore. Last year was so up and down. I don’t know what to
expect for us anymore. Christmas was okay, and we were happy with how we
finished the year. But traffic has been very slow. We’re still selling bridal
and diamond engagement rings, but outside of that, fashion purchases aren’t too
strong right now. And my generation — technically, I’m a millennial — are going
for experiences, and getting married later. So bridal is a delayed purchase
now.”
Losing to the internet
Online stores continued to drag customers away from
brick-and-mortar sales, according to Barker. “The internet is always taking a
bigger chunk out of what people are doing. Our bridal is still strong, but the
other sales, the more profitable sales — we just don’t have as many of them. I
mean the incidentals, like the birthday necklaces and the anniversary earrings.
We still have that, but not quite as much, and whether that’s because people
are spending their money on something else, or going to the internet, or going
somewhere else, I don’t know.”
For his part, Geiss said the issue was as much about age as
anything: “We have more millennials in our area now, and they’re tough to deal
with. They shop online, and they don’t care about service. And a lot of them
don’t really buy jewelry. They go on trips instead. They buy engagement
[jewelry], but [otherwise] they spend their money on gadgets, like iPhones.”
Yet Brown stayed upbeat, predicting “another
positive increase this year. Economically, in our area, things are positive.
Traffic is down, but we’re seeing more spending. And color was selling decently
for Christmas, which means people are spending again.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - April 2018. To subscribe click here.