THIS YEAR’S BOOM holiday season shows no sign of abating. That is the broad consensus of jewelers who answered our latest 2021 Holiday Season Mini Survey just four days before Christmas.
Said Jennifer Hornik Johnson of Miller’s Jewelry in Bozeman, MT: “I’m completely blown away by the business we’re doing – and [by] our stellar team this year,” in what was a representative comment from respondents to the survey.
“In our area business is booming and it shows in our sales. Record year and hopefully a record Christmas,” said Joe Thacker of Thacker Jewelry in Lubbock, TX.
“This is our bestest year so far in almost 40 years of biz,” said Brenda Newman of The Jewelry Source in El Segundo, CA.
An encouraging 79% of the respondents to the survey, which was conducted on Wednesday, said their sales were on track to be “Better” or “Much Better” than last year’s historically strong holiday season. Twenty percent described their season as “Terrific”, 41% said it was better than expected and 31% said it was in line with their mostly high expectations. Less than 10% were disappointed.
Asked about best-selling products, more than half the jewelers listed “diamonds” with “lab-grown diamond studs” getting numerous mentions. But a number of respondents also commented that sales were generally good “across the board,” with several saying simply, “Everything!”
“Sales have been across the board from watches to diamonds to you name it. Every category has sold well and lots of it,” said Bob Richards, owner of Bob Richards Jewelers, Germantown, TN.
Some jewelers cautioned that the rapidly emerging new variant of COVID-19, Omicron, was a concern looking ahead and said they were glad that it had so far not stifled the holiday shopping buzz.
“We’re happy that Omicron held off long enough to get through the season mostly unscathed but are apprehensive about the coming couple of months,” said Jon Walp of Long Jewelers in Virginia Beach, VA.
A common theme running through jewelers’ comments this year was that the buildup to the holiday season had been steady, rather than panic stations in the countdown to Christmas.
As Marc Majors of Sam L. Majors in Midland, TX, put it, “We’ve seen a steadier and earlier crowd this year, which is nice because we’re not getting overrun by the last-minute rush.”
Some jewelers put this down to the fact that so many shoppers have been cooped up at home and not spending during the pandemic.
“I think because of COVID people didn’t go out to eat or go on vacation so everyone has extra money. We’re killing it, up about 50 percent, last year was the biggest year in the history of my company and our year-end isn’t until March 31 – we hit last year’s numbers in November, another record year,” said Howard Jacobs of Toodies Fine Jewelry, Quincy, MA.
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Such was the demand from customers, some jewelers indicated they barely had time to fill out our short survey.
Said Connie Rovigo of Cavalla Fine Jewelry & Gifts in Red Hook, NY: “Gotta run!!! They’re banging on the door!!”
The third 2021 INSTORE Holiday Season Mini Survey was taken on Wednesday by more than 120 independent jewelers who are part of our Brain Squad readers group. We will send out a final survey to wrap up the season next week. Look out for the results – 2021 appears set to go down as one for the record books.