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Vincent Agor
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My grandfather owned and operated Max’s Jewelry Co. for 54
years in Hamtramck, Michigan,” says Ellen Hertz, explaining the origin of the
name, Max’s, for the retail store she opened six years ago in St. Louis Park,
Minnesota. “I always loved being around his store. He owned it until I was in
my teens, so the jewelry business is in my DNA.”
Hertz’s first professional career was as a project manager
for a software development company and it lasted 20 years. As part of that job,
she traveled a great deal, often spending weeks at a time in a single city. She
would always explore those cities, especially their local retail shops, where
she would mentally note what she liked and didn’t like about the various stores
and file her ideas away for a future time.
“I always knew I wanted to own my own store and do something
with jewelry,” she recalls. “Whenever I traveled, I attended American Craft
Council and other upscale craft shows. If there was a nice art fair in a city,
I would go.” She describes her personal aesthetic as “contemporary,
architectural.”
But jewelry was not her only special interest. A
self-confessed “chocolate snob,” Hertz says throughout her corporate career,
she never left her office without some gourmet chocolate in her briefcase. In
October 2004, when she was spending some leisure time shopping on Chicago’s
Michigan Avenue, Hertz happened onto one of the newly developing trends — a
chocolate bar — and thought “Why not put the two ideas together?” in a store of
her own. She realized that many of the business skills she had developed as a
project manager would be handy in the new venture.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
To find the right location for her store, Hertz sought
advice from a real estate broker and spent lots of time driving around “likely
areas of Minneapolis,” her hometown, to find the right fit. The venue she chose
was a new, multiuse development, Excelsior & Grand, which included
residential and retail space and restaurants. Located in the nearby Minneapolis
suburb of St. Louis Park, it was exactly what she was looking for, “a nice area
where people wanted to come.”
In May of 2006, Hertz opened her combination jewelry,
giftware and chocolate boutique in a 1,500-square-foot space in the
development’s retail complex. The complex has had its share of openings and
vacancies over the past two years. In February 2011, one of those openings
resulted in a change of venue for Max’s. When the landlord needed her space to
accommodate a pharmacy, Hertz made the move to a larger, 1,900-square-foot
store three doors from a highly trafficked Starbucks coffee shop.
Hertz set up the new store pretty much as she had the original,
with a chocolate display at the front, and two other walls displaying
chocolates and chocolate gift items. The jewelry and art glass giftware are
interspersed around the store and one can’t miss those items when shopping for
a snack. “If you’re here for chocolate, we’re going to ask you to see some
jewelry,” the owner explains.
Max’s jewelry assortment includes smaller, artisan designers
rather than big brands and the items are one of a kind. Due to space
limitations, not every designer can be housed in an individual showcase, so
cases typically include the collections of several designers. If a designer
provides a nameplate, it is used to designate that artist’s jewelry. While
Hertz usually tries to keep all of a designer’s styles together, she says
she’ll sometimes “mix it up, if I’m doing a color story or a ring story.”
Besides the chocolate, Max’s is an unusual jewelry store in
a number of ways. For example, Hertz has no in-house designer on staff and does
no custom work. Instead, she relies on her suppliers — including as many as 40
individual designers — to provide additional pieces requested by her clients.
She is also emphatic that all jewelry is designed and produced by her
handpicked suppliers, not farmed out to be manufactured overseas.
For the most part, the featured designers are discovered at
craft fairs and industry trade shows. Among the featured names Hertz stocks are
Todd Reed, Stephanie Albertson, Erica Molinari, Pamela Froman, Jamie Joseph,
Vicente Agor and Anne Sportun. Their styles range from alternative metal
designs with titanium and blackened steel to diamond, gemstone and gold pieces.
Hertz says her clients run the spectrum from individuals at the beginning of
their careers without a lot of money to established shoppers “who will pick up
a nice little $10,000 ring.”
NONTRADITIONAL DIAMONDS
“Diamonds are very important to us but not in the
traditional sense,” Hertz says. “We carry no really traditional diamond
jewelry, but instead feature rose cuts, natural colors and raw diamonds.” To
her surprise, bridal business has become “very large.”
“Bridal wasn’t on my radar in the beginning,” Hertz says.
“We sort of stumbled on it.” What started the trend was offering young couples
wedding and engagement rings that were unlike what they saw in other jewelry
stores. The business “grew organically,” says Hertz, usually spread by word of
mouth when one young couple admired the rings chosen by another. Bridal rings
often feature rose and rough diamonds set in gold or industrial metals.
However, in recent months, Hertz says she has begun offering
more white diamond jewelry that is suitable for bridal. Styles include classic
prong settings, bezels and some halo treatments. Max’s does not offer loose
diamonds and most rings are purchased with diamonds in the setting. While Hertz
says she allows her designers latitude in the quality of small diamonds in pavé
or cluster settings, she usually opts for higher qualities in designs featuring
individual stones. Hertz’s staff includes a fulltime manager, an assistant
manager and a six-person sales team. Of the managerial staff, one is
bench-certified and the other a graduate gemologist.
GIVING BACK
Max’s event schedule consists of about ten annual trunk
shows, a daily chocolate tasting and charity events that benefit a variety of
causes, from the CASA program for children and Habitat for Humanity to the one
especially dear to the owner’s heart: the transplant division of the University
of Minnesota Medical School. This latter organization is especially significant
because Hertz’s brother is a transplant doctor and one of her top-selling
designers, Vicente Agor, is a double transplant recipient. A portion of the
proceeds from all sales of Agor’s jewelry goes to benefit the transplant
assistance fund at the hospital.
Besides being surrounded by elegant art glass, designer
jewelry and a large selection of gourmet chocolate, what is the best aspect of
this retailer’s job? “Helping customers find that right piece,” says Hertz.
“But even better than watching them walk out with the Max’s bag is having them
walk in again wearing something they bought here and being excited about it.
It’s perfect and I love it.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - September 2012. To subscribe click here.