In the End

A 6-YEAR-OLD, revealed to our in-store Santa that her mother wanted diamond earrings for Christmas. Attempts to contact her spouse were fruitless; yet our jeweler just couldn’t stand seeing the child’s request to Santa go unfulfilled. He secretly made a pair of diamond hoop earrings, and delivered them to their home dressed like Santa on Christmas Eve. Bewildered, the couple and child entered our store to return the earrings, and looking the child in the eye, I handed them back and told her, “These kind of earrings are made in one place in the whole world … The North Pole.” — Nagi Osta, NAGI Jewelers, Stamford, CT

This story is from the December 2011 edition of INSTORE

 

BIG SALE

A WOMAN was taking her time browsing through everything at a jewelry store sales event, and said to the sales associate, “My husband is going to be very angry I stopped at a jewelry store.”

“I’m sure he’ll understand when you tell him about all the beautiful things at bargain prices you found,” the sales associate replied.

“Normally, yes,” she said. “But he just broke his leg, and he’s waiting for me to take him to the hospital to have it set.”

Second-generation jeweler Emily Spath Clark was literally born into the jewelry business. After she graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in business marketing she was offered the role of vice president of operations at the family-owned and operated Spath Jewelers of Bartow and Valrico, FL. Emily and her family follow the mottos “With God all things are possible,” and “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” A sense of humor helps in retail, too. “You see so many different personalities,” she says. “When you have a good attitude, it comes across to others and it radiates back to you.”

This story originally appeared in the November 2011 edition of INSTORE.

SOME TIME AGO, we did a battery and water-seal on a customer’s watch. I don’t recall the particulars, but something happened to displease her, so we refunded her money and sent her a letter of apology offering her 15 percent off her next purchase from our store. Sure enough, she came in recently looking to purchase a watch. When she finally made her selection, she reminded us of our letter and claimed that it offered her 20 percent off. Good thing I was able to produce a copy of the letter, 12 years later, to show her that she was entitled to 15 percent off! With customers like that, coming in once every 12 years, we’d all be out of business! — GINA WALLACH, WALLACH JEWELRY DESIGNS, LARCHMONT, NY

This story is from the October 2011 edition of INSTORE

 

LOVE FOR SALE

AN OUT-OF-WORK newlywed took a temporary job in jewelry sales. After three days of intensive training, the sales manager told him to go home and practice his pitch on his wife. The next morning, the manager asked the novice how he made out. “Well,” the man began, “I did what you said, and after I finished, I asked her if she would buy the ring from me. She said ‘Yes.’ Then I asked her why. She replied, ‘Because I love you.”

“When you sell diamonds, you become a friend, a confidant, even a psychologist!” says MJ Chanski, manager of Hannoush Jewelers in Rutland, VT. Chanski has bachelor’s degrees in professional writing and publications and in management, but she claims that neither has taught her as much as 12 years in the hospitality industry did. “The ability to read your customers and anticipate their needs in the first few moments is nothing you can learn in a book.” In her spare time, she takes GIA courses online, loves her boyfriend, Bob, and takes care her “children,” a boxer named Vito and an American bulldog named Ellie Mae.

This story originally appeared in the September 2011 edition of INSTORE.