Headlines

495 US Jewelry Retailers Closed in 2020

That’s far fewer than in 2019.

Published

3 years ago

January 28, 2021

INSTORE Staff

The Jewelers Board of Trade reports that 495 U.S. jewelry retailers stopped doing business in 2020.

That’s down from 723 businesses that closed in 2019.

Of those, 381 fell into the category of “ceased operations,” while 97 were listed as “consolidations (sale/merger)” and 17 were classified as “bankruptcies.”

Meanwhile, 126 jewelry retail businesses opened their doors in the U.S. in 2020. That was down from 193 in 2019.

Counting wholesalers and manufacturers along with retailers, 605 U.S. jewelry businesses closed their doors in 2020. That’s compared with 912 in 2019.

4th Quarter

JBT reported that 74 U.S. jewelry retailers closed their doors in the fourth quarter of 2020.

That number represented a decrease from 259 closings in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The total included 56 retailers in the category of “ceased operations” as well as 17 “consolidations (sale/merger)” and 1 bankruptcy.

The total number of U.S. jewelry businesses that closed, including retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers, was 91. That was a decrease from 316 in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Meanwhile, JBT reported that 34 new retailers opened their doors in the U.S., equal to the number that opened in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The total number of new jewelry businesses, including retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers, was 40. That was down from 43 new businesses in the year-ago quarter.

JBT listed a total of 18,369 jewelry retailers in the U.S. as of the fourth quarter of 2020, down from 18,777 in the same quarter a year ago.

The group listed 24,233 jewelry businesses in all, including retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers. That was down from 24,776 in the fourth quarter of 2019.

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Bob Wesley, owner of Robert C. Wesley Jewelers in Scottsdale, Ariz., was a third-generation jeweler. When it was time to enjoy life on the other side of the counter, he weighed his options. His lease was nearing renewal time and with no succession plan, he decided it was time to call Wilkerson. There was plenty of inventory to sell and at first, says Wesley, he thought he might try to manage a sale himself. But he’s glad he didn’t. “There’s no way I could have done this as well as Wilkerson,” he says. Wilkerson took responsibility for the entire event, with every detail — from advertising to accounting — done, dusted and managed by the Wilkerson team. “It’s the complete package,” he says of the Wilkerson method of helping jewelers to easily go on to the next phase of their lives. “There’s no way any retailer can duplicate what they’ve done.”