When Harris Botnick was a film student at the University of
Alabama, the only thing he knew about jewelry was that his mother wore it. Yet
for reasons still inexplicable, he chose to do a video of a jewelry store heist
as his senior project.
A “super nice” local jeweler in Tuscaloosa agreed to the use
of his store, recalls Botnick, now a partner in Georgia-based retailer
Worthmore Jewelers. Botnick enlisted his fraternity brothers to play the
“criminals.”
“I probably seemed honest and desperate,” he says, looking
back. “But if someone asked me [to film a heist in my store] now, I would
immediately contact the police.”
While his adviser praised the “realistic” video, Botnick
opted not to pursue a career in film and followed his wife, Geri Botnick, into
retailing. He began working at a family-owned jewelry store, where the owner
encouraged him to study diamonds so he could do “anything in the industry.”
Botnick took his advice and completed his studies at the Gemological Institute
of America (GIA) in 1988.
After several years managing a mall store, Botnick, with
Geri’s encouragement, decided to strike out on his own. Along with another
partner, Joan Wasser, the three opened Worthmore in 1993 in midtown Atlanta, a
location they specifically chose for its diversity in race, religion and sexual
orientation.
“From the start, we always wanted to stand out from the
crowd,” says Botnick, explaining his retail philosophy of selling to “all
groups of people.” His mall experience molded this approach.
“I noticed that some people were not very welcome because of
their backgrounds — whether race or sexual orientation,” he recalls. “Men came
in to look at wedding bands and were asked what their ‘girlfriends’ liked, and
we never saw them again.”
In his stores, Botnick stresses, “no matter what you wear or
what you look like, you are going to get the same great product and service as
the person next to you.”
Worthmore took “a different approach from day one, focusing
on manufacturers’ overstocks and buying closeouts,” he continues. And when the
company eventually shifted gears, he says, it still took an alternative path.
“All jewelers were after bridal, so we went after fashion,”
Botnick explains. However, in a testament to his desire to meet customer
demand, the number one category in both his Atlanta and Decatur, Georgia,
stores today is bridal. Gabriel & Co. is Botnick’s top bridal vendor,
followed by Fana.
Diamonds lead the fashion category, then silver and watches,
and finally colored stones. Liven, Aero Diamonds and Jordan Scott are among
Botnick’s top fashion vendors. He cites the strength of black diamonds,
salt-and-pepper diamonds, and rough-cut and rose-cut diamonds with a vintage
feel. He also carries lab-grown diamonds, pointing out that “we need to have
what our customers want.”
As expected, he took an out-of-the-box approach to the
stores’ ambience as well.
“Atlanta is very traditional, a ‘dark wood town,’ so I went
the opposite way, taking over a 2,500-square-foot warehouse space, which 24
years ago was not the norm for a jewelry store. We stripped everything down and
painted the concrete floors and put crazy art on the walls.”
The 1,700-square-foot Decatur store opened in 2008 as a
partnership between the Worthmore founders and gemologist Peggy Rainbow.
Located in an area with the vibe of New York’s SoHo, the space was originally
an art gallery — and in fact, Botnick recalls, as they were setting up, people
kept asking about the new art gallery, which sparked the idea of selling
artwork.
“This is the perfect addition to what we already do,” he
says. “It enhanced our story that jewelry is art.”
Character is key to Botnick’s business as well. He chooses
his designers not just for the quality of their work — including “designs not
seen in the South” — but also for being “nice people with the right values.” He
notes that his staff members, who reflect the diversity of society, help with
the buying decisions, strengthening the relationship aspect of the company.
“People who need snob appeal are not necessarily going to
like us,” he says. “When people walk into our stores, they see something they
can relate to, which more than anything else is the story that sets us apart in
the market. We’re not what people expect. We have people with blue hair, tattoos,
piercings, and yes, people in traditional business attire. We’re really what
life is.”
Image: Worthmore Jewelers' worthmorejewelers.comArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - August 2017. To subscribe click here.