RAPAPORT...Steve Quick began his career in 1986 in a stall at 5 N. Wabash Avenue on Chicago’s Jewelers Row. According to the retailer, the location was small — about 280 square feet, with three showcases and a safe — and he had to deal with a “cranky shop owner.” Nevertheless, he rapidly built up a clientele and outgrew the original space as well as the “Jewelers Row mindset.”
After a time, Quick bought a store in the tony Lincoln Park section of town that now includes a 1,700-square-foot showroom, as well as a full basement that serves as workshop and offices. It is located on a corner and has high visibility.
BE SQUAREFor the most part, Quick has an enviable clientele — many are MBAs, affluent and knowledgeable about jewelry and diamonds. However, the latter qualification can present a challenge, as these shoppers know the basics and are familiar with prices. They can’t be persuaded to part with extra dollars for fancy brand names or less-than-top-quality cuts. Also, the store’s close proximity to Jewelers Row mandates a fairly low profit structure. Quick cheerfully says he will sell “anything you’d want to buy,” but generally in diamonds, he chooses colors ranging from E to G and clarity from VS to sometimes SI. Average prices for diamond jewelry begin as low as $500 and range upward to $2,500, not including engagement rings.
Two of Quick’s big sellers are the original Radiant cut, produced by the Radiant Cut Diamond Company, and the Royal Asscher. Both of these patented cuts are popular with customers because, Quick says, they can see the difference. All are sold with certificates, from either the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) or the European Gemological Laboratory (EGL).
ONLINE
Quick’s early internet experience makes an interesting story. As he tells it, a friend had a carpet-cleaning business while working toward his PhD. He liked tinkering with computers and the internet and talked Steve into creating a website. “It was a fluke, a novelty,” says Quick, but it soon started turning big profits. “For a year and a half, I was selling diamonds like crazy,” he says. “For awhile, I thought I was going to be fabulously wealthy.”
The balloon burst, however, when big operators with lots of money entered the business. His small site, DiamondSource.com, was no match for the slickly packaged, sophisticated sites that followed. Today, the site is still operational, but Quick says it has been overshadowed by bigger competitors. Still, it gives his store presence and it’s a great outlet for showing his designs.
A lot of Quick’s sales come from custom designs. Most of the work is done in-house by two fulltime bench jewelers who design jewelry, make wax carvings, set the stones and finish the pieces. Casting is done off-premises.
MAKING IT SPECIAL
Promotions and in-store events are an important part of the retailer’s outreach. “We do everything we can think of to give them a reason to come in,” Quick says. Most of the events take time to develop, he says, and they give the store something to build on. Successful happenings include a spring wedding band event, an October opal show and lots of seasonal parties. For a period of about four years earlier in his career, Quick was commissioned by Macy’s to conduct estate jewelry trunk shows, so it was with great anticipation that he introduced his first estate jewelry fair in his store in 2007.
December 2007’s holiday events, however, were bigger and grander than ever. That was when Steve Quick Jewelers unveiled its half-million-dollar, gold-and-diamond Christmas tree. He says he came up with the idea of the tree more than a year before but it took longer than anticipated to get it completed. “I wanted it to look like a real Christmas tree, like the type you would see on the side of a mountain in natural surroundings with a dusting of snow on its branches,” he says.
The completed seven-inch tree contains about five pounds of reclaimed 18-karat gold, more than 250 carats of brilliant-cut and briolette diamonds and is valued at $500,000. Producing it was a labor of love, Quick says, with all components designed and assembled in-house, with some help and support from a handful of major suppliers. The wax carving alone, done by the store’s in-house bench jewelers, took two weeks.
When Quick approached the principals at GM Casting, a local supplier, they liked the idea of making the tree. They bought a special larger casting machine to accommodate the work but still had to make modifications on it in order to complete the project. Manak Jewels, San Francisco, supplied the diamond briolettes and United Gem Ltd., Chicago, supplied the 4.5-carat, round brilliant-cut diamond set in a platinum star at the tree’s top.
After Christmas, the tree will be auctioned on eBay, with 100 percent of the profits donated to the American Cancer Society (ACS). The retailer has also produced charm-size versions of the tree, priced from $20 to $195, with proceeds to go to the ACS. This respected organization is particularly close to his heart, Quick says, because he’s had friends and family battle the disease and his wife is active on the society’s board.
Quick says he is amazed by how much press the tree has received from local, as well as national, media. He also registered the tree with the Guinness Book of World Records (claim #204422) and at press time was awaiting the final designation and category.
At the time of this writing, Steve Quick was just preparing to unveil the tree at a gala in-store holiday party. He was a bit concerned, however, that its specially designed, museum-quality showcase still had not arrived. Still, Quick was happily anticipating the upcoming auction and planning to hand-deliver the “World’s Most Valuable Christmas Tree” to its new owner.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - January 2008. To subscribe click here.