Good Vibes Only

Huntington Jewelers, Las Vegas, NV

OWNER: Chris and Jenny O. Calleri; URL: huntingtonjewelers.comONLINE PRESENCE: 5,388 Facebook likes; 641 5-Star reviews on Google; OPENED FEATURED LOCATION: 2023; AREA: 2,275 square feet; EMPLOYEES: 4; ARCHITECT AND DESIGN:: Leslie McGwire & Associates, Simpson Coulter Studio, Martin Harris Construction; TOP BRANDS: Robert Procop, Jewels by Star, Uneek, Allison-Kaufman

Chris and Jenny O. Calleri

AT 19 YEARS OLD, Jenny O. Calleri was working at Las Vegas’ best dry cleaner while attending community college and contemplating a career change. “My friends were the maître d’ at Spago, a bellman at MGM, and a valet at the Mirage! I needed a cool job!”

Jewelry came to mind. A search of the phone book led her to apply for a sales job at Kay Jewelers in Las Vegas’ Fashion Show Mall. She knew right away she’d found her calling.

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Curved cases soften a rectangular space, while soft whites and grays also contribute to an open feel with pops of purple and blue throughout the store.

Her bubbly, youthful enthusiasm propelled her, and soon she was the top salesperson in the store, where the most expensive piece she sold was a highly included 2-carat round diamond for $8,000. Next on her resume was an upscale store in the Venetian Hotel, where she sold 26-carat diamonds and 40-carat tanzanites.

“The money that comes into this town is pretty ridiculous,” she says, and not always easy to spot. “I wouldsee these people come from farmland, podunk nowhere, never heard of the town, and they would buy a $50,000 bracelet. I learned there was more than just commercial jewelry.”

The quality of what she sold inspired her to study gems, and she spent more than two years immersed in gemology and business at the GIA in Carlsbad, where she wrote her first business plan. On her return to Las Vegas, she detoured into a career on the supplier side, selling loose diamonds to stores nationwide, where she often worked trunk shows. But Calleri was already taking mental notes for the day she would open her store, often about what NOT to do. She believed she brought more passion to the business than many people who had grown up in it.

“I didn’t realize how many people were in this business through the generations because they felt they had to be,” she says. “If you don’t have passion for what you do, why are you doing it? Here I am, super excited to show you what I have, and your eyes are glazed over.”

She could contrast that experience with the reaction from the stores’ clients at trunk shows. “I’d be in a room with customers who wanted to be there and were mesmerized by the impact of the gems, or who were blown away by having their grandmother’s jewelry transformed.”

So, she returned to retail sales in Las Vegas, off the Strip, and set her sights on ownership. Partnering with her husband, Chris, who has a background in risk management, she bought the local Huntington Jewelers. But even then, she’d need a lot of patience to completely realize her dream. Furnishings and decor were outdated, and the strip mall sorely lacked curb appeal.

“I put a lot of lipstick on that pig because I didn’t have any money,” she says. “All I had was a $5,000 credit line. I sold a piece of jewelry and put the flooring in. I sold a piece of jewelry and moved the safe to the back and covered the wall up. I knew I didn’t want to be in that location.”

COVID slowed down plans to move; at the end of her three-year lease, she signed another, but only after she insisted the landlord paint the pink building and update an obsolete sign. She had brought the business from a $500,000 store to a $1.2 million store in a year, and it continued to grow every year despite a less-than-ideal setting. “But I knew that painting the center and changing the sign was about as good as I would get for the next three years,” she says.

When another jewelry store location became available, she grabbed it and hired interior designer Leslie McGwire to lead a complete redo. “Her creativity and mine are cut from the same cloth,” Calleri says. “Leslie knew how to bring my vision to life.” Calleri said she wanted the design to be “out there” while being luxurious and tasteful. “I’m super unique and unusual in my person and in the jewelry, and I wanted the store’s design to speak volumes.”

“We have a good-vibes-only feel,” Calleri says. “Today’s buyer craves an experience, more interaction, stimulation, and comfort all at the same time.” Appealing to all of the senses,

PHOTO GALLERY (12 IMAGES)