National Jeweler publishes a weekly holiday sales roundup every Monday throughout the holiday season. The roundups encompass interviews with independent retailers chosen according to region: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, South Central and West.

 

NORTHEAST

Both traffic and sales were up over Black Friday weekend at Ralph Miller Jewelers & Gallery in Erie, Pa., said owner Daniel Niebauer, noting that nice weather helped boost business.

 

“It was great,” he said. “Last year, we had snow. This year, the weather was much more receptive to shoppers.”

 

He said sales were strong across a number of product categories, including colored gemstone jewelry, bridal and diamond earrings.

 

“We’re optimistic but still being a little conservative,” Niebauer said, when asked if the weekend’s performance was a harbinger of a strong holiday season.

 

At Evan James Ltd. in Brattleboro, Vt., owner Evan James Deutsch said sales on Black Friday were down year-over-year while sales on Saturday topped last year’s performance.

 

He said the store’s “Renovation Celebration,” a storewide, 20 to 40 percent off sale they are running throughout the holiday season before the store closes for a complete overhaul in January, helped draw in customers. And one of those customers spent more than $10,000 on an engagement ring that is intended as a New Year’s surprise.

 

The store also saw quite a few customers looking to sell gold and dropping off repairs, though the overall traffic was slower than expected.

 

“It didn’t really matter because we made the sale we needed to make,” Deutsch said, adding, “We’re optimistic.”

 

SOUTHEAST

This year’s Black Friday weekend was on par with last year at Gause & Son Jewelers, with two stores in Ocala, Fla., said owner Jerry Gause. He notes that Black Friday weekend is never huge for them, as shoppers in his area gravitate toward the big department stores looking for bargains.

 

“We noticed there were quite a few people out shopping and we had our share of people coming in shopping,” he said. “After last week, I am more optimistic than I was two or three weeks ago. I think it’s going to be better than it was last year.”

 

“I think there’s a lot of pent-up buying in people right now.”

 

He said that fashion jewelry, including pieces in sterling silver, will be popular this holiday season, and that most sales will fall in the $5,000 to $10,000 range.

 

“Sterling’s going to be hot still because of the price,” Gause said.

 

Black Friday weekend was busier than last year at Wick and Greene Jewelers in Asheville, N.C., said Eva Greene. The business comes in spite of the fact that the store, unlike many other retailers, does not offer any sales or specials over the weekend.

 

She said they had a number of customers with family in town who came in over the weekend to add to their holiday wish lists.

 

“That helps us on Christmas Eve,” Greene said.

 

MIDWEST

John Anshus, owner of Anshus Jewelers in Menomonie, Wis., reported great sales over the weekend.

 

“We’re very happy with traffic and purchases,” Anshus said, “very satisfied.”

 

Gold sales are strong and sterling silver sales are “very, very strong,” according to the jeweler. Anshus said all inventory in the store seems to be moving quickly, especially Citizen watches, which he attributes to their advertising on television. The only merchandise that has slowed down at the store has been diamonds, which the jeweler said is a product of the economy.

 

“There are 10,000 students a block away, and they’re wondering what’s going to happen in the future,” he said, “They don’t know what’s going on in business. When they make that half-carat or carat purchase, they want to know they have a job.”

 

Anshus added that service work has also been strong for the store, with customers coming in for new mountings and stone settings.

 

“We usually see solid sales in the last two weeks before Christmas, so we anticipate that it’s going to happen again,” he said.

 

Sales were good on Black Friday for Jill Garfinkle, owner of Garfinkles Fine Jewelry in Highland Park, Ill., but the success didn’t carry into the weekend.

 

“Sales Saturday were terrible,” she said, “and Small Business Saturday didn’t do a thing for us.”

 

Garfinkle said she isn’t usually busy the weekend after Thanksgiving, so bringing in more than $5,000 on Friday alone was a boon for the business.

 

“This was good, but I need more good,” the jeweler said, adding that she didn’t know what to expect for the remainder of the season.

 

SOUTH CENTRAL

Friday and Saturday were busy days at Newton’s Jewelers in Fort Smith, Ark.

 

“We didn’t anticipate being busy because Black Friday is technically for big box stores and department stores,” owner Kelly Newton said, “but people were out, and we were pretty busy.”

 

Traffic and sales were on par with last year, as the holiday weekend annually brings in out-of-town customers, Newton said-“people we wouldn’t normally see.” Much of the traffic was shoppers, she said, consumers mostly looking and getting ideas or bringing another person in for an opinion on a piece of jewelry.

 

“The shopping is sometimes a lot busier than selling, because customers jump from item to item,” Newton said. “Most of the time, people come back and make a purchase, which is different from years ago when you wouldn’t know if you would see a customer again or not.”

 

The jeweler said he has “guarded optimism” heading into the remainder of the holiday season.

 

“With this economy and the people in Washington, you just never know anymore,” Newton said. “We’re just as nervous as what’s going to happen in the country as our customers. It’s a different world.”

 

Traffic was lighter than normal at Cunningham Jewelers in Tulsa, Okla., according to owner Vicki Cunningham.

 

“Saturday was unusually quiet,” she said, “and it was rainy and cold Friday so most people were in a mall because of the weather. But a lot of people are out shopping and getting ideas.”

 

Cunningham said she saw quite a few customers shopping for engagement rings, and many browsing for their Christmas gifts. Pandora has sold well at the store, with the brand’s limited edition “Midnight Heart” bead charm’s unveiling on Black Friday. “We put them on Facebook and had people racing in to get theirs,” she said, explaining that stores can’t reorder the bead once it’s sold out.

 

“The big box stores make such a hullabaloo over Black Friday, and deals, and opening at midnight and all of these weird hours,” Cunningham said. “I think people are getting to the point where they take that weekend to do those big stores and the malls, knowing they can always get back to local independents.”

 

She said even though most of the big box deals run out daily, “I think those take away from small independents over a weekend like Thanksgiving.”

 

Cunningham has a plan to combat the superstores, however. This coming Thursday, the jeweler will hold her annual Ladies Night, where women gather in the store for a night of shopping. Gift bags are given to the first 100 to arrive, a door prize is given every 30 minutes to a shopper and the grand prize-a Bellarri ring-is also offered to attendees.

 

“We’re in there shoulder-to-shoulder for three hours,” Cunningham said. “I think that’s going to kick us off to a big start.”

 

WEST

Holiday shopping was “typical” at Hart Jewelers in Grants Pass, Ore.

 

“The day after Thanksgiving is really quiet in the morning because everyone’s at the big boxes, and the afternoon gets busy,” owner Tom Hart said, “and that’s what happened.”

 

The store was full of lookers, he said, and a lot of good prospects for high-ticket items. “They mull it around and they come back,” Hart said. Saturday was slow, he said, because of football.

 

Sales have run the gamut at the store. Hart said he saw some unusual requests, like the customers looking at a one-carat diamond for a single earring, and shoppers looking for nice rings.

 

“We’re optimistic going into Christmas, and we’ve got some things down the road we’re contemplating doing,” he said.

 

Business was slow for Cheryl Burchell, goldsmith and owner of Cheryl Burchell Goldsmiths in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She said her usual customers showed up, and there was one new sale, but that was it for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

 

“It’s kind of normal because I’m a free-standing store,” Burchell said, “I’m not in a mall, and I’m getting hammered by the big box stores in my area.”

 

Burchell said she’s competing with a Fred Meyer store, Walmart, Costco and three other jewelry stores, as well as the Internet.

 

“We’re a custom store, so what’s happening is we’re making things out of people’s stones and gold,” she said. “Things aren’t flying out of the cases, and we have well-marked items. But we’re in a part of the country where we’ve been hit.”

 

Burchell said sales tend to pick up in the last days of the holiday shopping season, right before Christmas. Despite this, the jeweler said she isn’t seeing the big custom jobs that usually come through for the holidays.

 

“We’re a family community, but I think people are still hurting from getting hit hard,” Burchell said of the economy. “They pay high real estate here, and if they have kids, they take care of the kids first. I just don’t think people are buying big things for their gals.”

 

She added that she’s still trying to turn people away from selling their gold, by convincing them to have something made out of it instead.

 

“I’m still excited about my trade,” Burchell said.