Going to Vegas?

The 4Cs are not the only things that make a piece of diamond jewelry a sales winner. In an ongoing series, Rapaport Diamond Report explores the “3Ws” — what’s selling, what’s not and why — by going straight to the people who really know — jewelry retailers. Each month, we ask a sampling of retailers to comment on the important issues that are facing the industry today. Here is what they had to say when asked: “Are you planning to go to the Las Vegas shows and if so, will you be buying or just looking?”

EILEEN ALEXANIAN, Co-Owner
DIAMONDS ’N DUNES
KITTY HAWK, NORTH CAROLINA
“Yes, I will be there. One of the things I always do at the shows is to reconnect or reinforce some of the relationships I already have. There are certain vendors I only see at the show; it’s my once-a-year time to visit and redo the line.

“And I’ll also check out other companies — someone I think will be good for my area or a line that people are asking about. If anything, it would be items in the price points people want — fashion diamond jewelry less than $1,000 retail, which sells very well, and ‘baby bridal,’ $3,000-and-less complete ring with center stone. And I’ll be looking for displays that can make what I have look better. I’m also going to look for someone who specializes in colored diamonds.”

VICKI CUNNINGHAM, OWNER
CUNNINGHAM FINE JEWELRY
TULSA, OKLAHOMA
“I’m not planning to go to Vegas. We went to the Smart Show for the first time and we joined the Independent Jewelers Organization (IJO) a couple of years ago. By the time I do those two shows, I’ve pretty much done with what I need to do.

“Basically, it’s about filling in a few loose ends for Mother’s Day and graduation, and looking at price-point jewelry, mostly with vendors I already have.”

DAVID NYGAARD, PRESIDENT
DAVID NYGAARD FINE JEWELERS
CHESAPEAKE, VIRGINIA
“I am going. We’re trying to build a stronger supply chain for our retail internet business passionfirediamonds.com, which we launched as an online diamond brand, for loose diamonds and custom engagement rings. For the store, we’re looking for moderately priced fashion-type pieces, fairly low-price pickup — under $200 typically — and for the store website, DavidNygaardFineJewelers.com, modestly priced items that fit within our private label pattern. And we’ll also look for ideas for new semimounts for our bridal.

“In the past, I never bought at the show because I wanted to come home and think about it. Now, what I’m generally doing is going ahead and buying at the show with dollars — write a check and have it shipped. We’re not doing a lot of credit-type deals. So we’re getting ‘cash’ prices.”

ELLEN HAAKE, CO-OWNER
NEWSTAR JEWELERS
JOLIET, ILLINOIS
“We are going to Luxury and Couture rather than the big show. We always go to buy — we do the bulk of our holiday buying in Vegas — however, we’ve bought extremely conservatively the past few years and I don’t think it’s going to change this year. I’m feeling that people have been parting more comfortably with their money in the past six or eight months. I think things are maybe easing up but I’m not getting overly enthusiastic that the ‘good times are here again.’

 “In terms of diamonds, we don’t buy loose goods in Vegas; we’re very comfortable with our diamond sources. But we look for style-forward pieces, new trends and unusual pieces. The days of carrying the big, huge dynamic pieces are gone…we’re just not that kind of store any more; we’re looking for more reasonably priced high-fashion pieces.”

BILL CAMPBELL, OWNER/PRESIDENT
MCCASKILL & COMPANY
DESTIN, FLORIDA
“We are going to Couture and also JCK and we are going to buy. We’re looking for a little bit of everything and price points, too. We like to look at special things, as well.  We’re going to the vendors we already have and also to look to see what we might do in the future. And we might add somebody, depending upon what’s out there.”

MARK COLEMAN, CO-OWNER/PRESIDENT
NELSON COLEMAN JEWELERS
TOWSON, MARYLAND
“Nelson Coleman Jewelers’ partners and general manager are going to Vegas. We’re planning to be out there eight days and do all the shows. We’re very practiced about how we approach the shows. These days, the strength of our business is inventory control, meaning that we make sure that we sustain the level of inventory we need to grow the sales we want, but we are refilling all our best sellers. Our software lets us know what price points and products we need to fill openings in our inventory and that becomes a formula for us.

“We are a big diamond house, we love diamonds — 70 percent of our sales are diamonds — we’re a big Hearts on Fire dealer and Lazare Kaplan — and we’re also a big estate and antique jewelry dealer, so we’ll be visiting the estate show. This is the season of basics, though, and we’re going to be careful not to overstock the high end. We have a high average retail sale but we also are very careful to make sure we have the entry level pieces in the store, too.”

DAVID ABRAMS, PRESIDENT/OWNER
GRAND JEWELERS
ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA
“Yes, I will be at the show this year. A couple of years ago we started to get back into the watch business, because it gives us something to talk about at a lower price point than diamond goods. And it is allowing us to rebuild our customer base and to remarket to those customers and, in remarketing, have a chance to sell the diamonds. We sold a $200 watch to a guy for Christmas and he came into the store in January and I sold him a stone for $10,000. With gold prices so high, we have reallocated dollars into a different category.

“We’re looking for one more watch line. Not anything high end; we’re not a Rolex store. It’s name-recognized brands that have been around forever, Citizen and Bulova, but they perform very nicely. We opened a website last June called grandgems.com and we’re getting pretty good traction on that.

“We do a lot of our own fabricating so I’m always strong on diamonds. But with the way the gold market is going, we’re buying so much off the street and we’re remarketing diamonds back to certain vendors here and overseas on melee and sizes. We want to turn the merchandise back into dollars and make it liquid as soon as possible. The cream we keep for ourselves. If someone comes in and they want better goods, we have them.”

LOUIS GUARINO III, CREATIVE DIRECTOR
LOUIS ANTHONY JEWELERS
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
“Yes we are going to the Vegas shows. Normally what we do is devote the majority of our time to the Couture show because most of the designers that we work with exhibit there.

“Most of our time is spent maintaining relationships we’ve developed over the years, but there’s always the option of someone new…you never know what’s going to catch your eye at the show. We’ll check out what’s new and the different trends in the industry.”

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - May 2011. To subscribe click here.