[Jewelry making - Article 01223] - Re: [Orchid] Hagglers at your jewelry booth

[daniel spirer]

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>     Have I misinterpreted your statement" 

    Yes you have. Trust me, I am the first person to tell everyone on
    this group to raise their prices (and I have in the past,
    repeatedly). Somewhat unilaterally every single one of you
    undercharges for your work and I think all benchworkers are
    underpaid (I don't know a single rich jeweler--at least one who makes
    their own work---so something is really wrong here). I don't have a
    problem with people charging whatever they want. I have a problem
    with raising your prices just so that it seems like you are giving a
    discount to people. Again, this is like the department stores that
    continually advertise "sale" prices, but the goods are never actually
    shown at full prices. In those cases it is not only unethical but
    also illegal. Now if you're not advertising the fact that you're
    actually running a sale by discounting everything most of the time
    then you may not be crossing the line, but where do you draw the
    line? The jewelry business as a whole is an ethics based business.
    Anything done to impact that in a negative way hurts all jewelers. 

    Quite honestly if some of you like to haggle with customers that's
    fine with me. But you shouldn't set it up so you charge anyone who
    doesn't haggle a higher price simply because they won't ask (if you
    were going to be fair you would quietly tell the customer at the end
    of the transaction that you gave them a discount). That's unfair.
    Plus it then raises the question of how you value your own work. If
    you're doing insurance valuations for your customers so that they can
    insure it do you show the "real" price, the price they paid, or some
    imagined inflated price? And this brings up the question too of how
    much is your work really worth? Isn't it degrading to have something
    you feel is priced fairly be demeaned by someone who just wants to
    negotiate a better price (aren't they saying your work isn't worth
    it)? Of course since most of you undervalue your labor it's no real
    surprise, but sometimes it is simply time to say no. And to stick to
    your guns. As I said in today's post I am not against discounting on
    higher profit items to regular customers. But I have never given a
    discount to a first time buyer who I don't know. To me it's the
    surest way to say I'm charging you too much to begin with and I'm not
    really worth it, so sure whatever the heck you want to pay me is fine
    (plus you're then stuck giving them the same discount every time). 

    And then there's this for the majority of you who aren't in my price
    range (my average sale is $2000): How much time do you spend with
    these people haggling over a $50 pair of earrings? Do you spend 10
    minutes? 15 minutes? 20 minutes? Let's say you're quick and you spend
    10 minutes. Let's say it's on a pair of handmade sterling earrings
    that took you 20 minutes to make and has $10 in material cost and $20
    in overhead costs (you know, tools, supplies, show fees or rent,
    electricity, phone, etc.) So you're making $20 on the earrings but
    you've already spent 20 minutes making them. With the extra 10
    minutes of haggling time you've got 30 minutes into them. But then
    you're going to discount them. What do you give off? Let's say it's
    $5. Now you're down to $15 that you made. Wow. You made $15 for 30
    minutes of your time (forget about all the show set up time, material
    ordering time, cleaning your workshop time, etc.---you can just
    pretend that doesn't exist). $30 an hour. My car mechanic gets $80 an
    hour (and he bills out a full 40 hour week). Verizon gets $120 an
    hour to have a guy come in your house and run a phone wire from one
    room to the next (regardless of how long it takes you pay for at
    least an hour) and if they have to run two lines they get double
    that. My lawyer gets $450/hour. My older son's boyfriend's time, as a
    lawyer in New York, is billed out at $750/hour and he's nowhere near
    making partner yet (although he's really, really good at what he
    does) and they bill out every 5 minutes of time spent
    talking--whether it's on the phone or in person and whether you're
    talking business or personal life. 

    My 16 year old kid with no experience at anything other than being
    an ornery teenager earns $9.50 an hour when he works in a bakery and
    up to $15 an hour (with tips) when he works in a pizza parlor.
    Starbucks starts at $8.50 an hour (plus a small amount in tips) but
    they give you full medical benefits. Who's paying your medical
    benefits??? Certainly not that guy asking you for a discount. But
    hey, you're certainly helping him pay for his health insurance by not
    charging him a full and reasonable price for your product. 

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