[Jewelry making - Article 00375] - Re: [Orchid] What to do about competition spying?

[Daniel R. Spirer]

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Karen,

    Believe me, you couldn't pay me to shop at Wal Mart. IMHO they are
    one of the worst companies in the world. 

    However, small independent jewelers who make their own jewelry
    should not be impacted by the chain stores as long as they can market
    themselves correctly and stay ahead of the curve. Pricing is not an
    issue. Let me repeat that. Pricing is not an issue. Price only
    becomes an issue when you are selling the same thing as everyone else
    is. If someone can go across the street and buy the same Rolex as
    you're selling for $100 less then pricing is an issue. But if you're
    making something no one else has, or making it in a way far superior
    to everyone else, and you market it properly, pricing is not an
    issue. 

    You know, along with some of my more fun stuff I have to sell stuff
    that is a little more traditional too. I sell a series of
    "anniversary" type bands with diamonds bead set in them. So, you
    think, someone could get that anywhere. You're right. But what I put
    into mine (even when they are down at the.02 ct. range) are ideal cut
    diamonds, and all of them are D-E-F color and VS or VVS clarity. Now
    where else are they going to find that? Maybe Tiffany's, but they
    certainly aren't going to be any cheaper than me. 

    There has also been a thread in the last few days about a jeweler
    who gained the trust of a radio announcer who is promoting his store
    all over the place. That's the other thing that small jewelers can
    offer: trust. You can't get that in a chain store with a bunch of
    salespeople who have no interest in your future. People do recognize
    these differences in businesses. 

    Your original comments were about companies stealing designs and
    driving people out of business. You can't blame Wal Mart, or their
    ilk, for that. They just buy and sell. No creativity involved. If
    you're an even halfway decent jeweler/designer and you don't let
    yourself get too stagnant in designing, the only reason you should go
    out of business is because you don't know how to run the business. I
    remember back during one of the really bad periods in Detroit (can't
    remember when, but it was during one of the general national economic
    downturns that had impacted the automobile industry dramatically),
    that there was a jeweler there who was buying every piece of Berndt
    Munsteiner's carved gems that he could get his hands on and selling
    them like there was no tomorrow. Here was a guy, in the middle of a
    completely depressed economic area, who was selling carved amethysts
    for thousands of dollars every day Why? Because he differentiated
    himself, believed in what he was selling and got out and hustled.
    That is what it takes. Do that and you'll thrive. (For those of you
    unfamiliar with his work, Munsteiner carved a lot of really cheap,
    generic material into beautiful creations and sold them for an
    extremely hefty price--he kind of started the whole carved gemstone
    market---and incidentally despite being copied by large Asian
    producers, managed to keep ahead of the curve and stay in the
    business all of his life). 

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
www.spirerjewelers.com
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