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The smart consumer's diamond buying guide.... |
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Diamond Buying Made Easier > Diamond Jewelry StoresDiamond Jewelry StoresDiamond jewelry stores aren't what they used to be! And the number different places were you can buy diamond jewelry today is massive! 
There are lots of places to buy diamond jewelry today.... actually the other day, we just got our bill from the gas company and they had a little flier in with the monthly statement advertising some diamond
jewelry and about 6 weeks ago, the online computer equipment retailer where I buy some of my "toys" just started offering diamond jewelry!
In a previous life, when I was an outside salesman for a diamond jewelry manufacturer in NYC, I traveled around upstate New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania visiting diamond jewelry stores (also over 20 years ago, when I lived in LA, I had a similar job but I traveled the Western US). After visiting hundreds and hundreds of diamond jewelry stores I began to "size up" the quality of a diamond jewelry store that I was entering for the first time. I will share my thoughts of what to look for in a local diamond jewelry store. All diamond jewelry stores are not created equally.... There are two broad categories when I think of a diamond jewelry store- a jewelry merchant and an actual jeweler  The largest group, the jewelry merchant, they will buy finished diamond jewelry from diamond jewelry manufacturers and then sell to the public without "getting their hands dirty" by making diamond jewelry themselves.
They will have a pretty narrow focus of the type of diamond jewelry that they offer, with nothing too different than what other diamond jewelry stores would offer. They will be able to do some servicing of diamond jewelry- ring sizing, setting a stone, simple repairs, etc. They may or may not have a service person in store, if they don't they will send it out to a trade shop to perform the work. I will put many of the national diamond jewelry stores (Zales, Kays, etc.), mall kiosks, wholesale member's clubs (Sam's Club, BJ's, etc.), and a department store's diamond jewelry store into this category. An actual jeweler is much easier to spot....  they are a jeweler
and they are proud of it. When I'd arrive in a new town, I would look in the yellow pages to start sizing up the local diamond jewelry stores.
Common traits of a jeweler include.... a multi-generational businesses, they have in-house repair or manufacturing facilities, they are members of associations (AGS, RJO, JA, their state's jewelers association, etc.), they are a GIA Gemologist or have a Gemologist on staff, they manufacture some or all of their diamond jewelry inventory, and they have a much wider, more diverse, selection of diamond jewelry. A bit of history about diamond jewelry stores.... Many, many years ago, diamond jewelry stores needed to be located in the downtown area. In those days (the pre-shopping mall days), downtown was the place where everybody went to shop, where they went to eat at restaurants, and where they found their entertainment. The diamond jewelry stores had a lot of items for sale besides diamond jewelry. There were watches, clocks, china, crystal, silver, and giftware. In the early 60's, a new type of shopping/entertainment/dining/gathering place started to spring up as the suburban areas began to grow.... it was called the shopping mall. Many of the diamond jewelry stores started to move into these new shopping malls but without their crystal, silver, china, and giftware departments. Now 40 to 50 years later, the jewelers are moving out of the shopping malls because the rents have gotten so high that only the national chain diamond jewelry stores can afford to stay in the mall. Now, jewelers are opening "stand alone" diamond jewelry stores located adjacent to the malls.... it has become a destination with their own parking and they are widening their offerings by bringing back giftware, clocks, etc. They have come full circle from where they started out years ago. - Important Take Away Points -
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