[Jewelry making - Article 00412] - Re: [Orchid] Bench jewellers working for the trade

[Jon Michael Fuja]

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    Back in 1980, I did trade work for three large mall stores, and it
    took me about two years to realize it was a break-even business at
    best. The need to stock settings, clasps, a wide variety of colored
    stones for replacements, and wire and sizing stock are just part of
    the "hidden" costs that are not recoverable. 

    Payroll must be covered every week, but if their sales slow down,
    you are left waiting on your monthly checks. Even basic ring sizing
    can be a problem if your customers get some "promotional" stock with
    shanks that measure 0.5 millimeters in thickness. Half of these will
    surely come back with breaks in the sizing lines, and they expect you
    to repair them at no charge. 

    Chain repairs should be your "bread and butter", but hollow ropes
    will always break again in another area, and once you touch them,
    they become your headache forever. We resorted in measuring shank
    widths and thicknesses on each sizing both before and after we sized
    them, just to avoid the do-overs, but the arguing was just not worth
    the effort. 

    Today we do repairs only for our own store, quality is almost never
    an issue, and I sleep much better at night. 

Jon Michael Fuja
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