| Using alcohol to disinfect areas |
| 56% |
| Wearing a mask |
| 52% |
| Declining to shake hands |
| 33% |
| Avoiding trade shows |
| 32% |
| Curbside pickup |
| 20% |
| Appointment only |
| 10% |
| Video sales |
| 6% |
| We never did any of these |
| 6% |
| We’re totally back to normal |
| 2% |
| Other |
| 6% |
*“Others” included insisting on masks, plexiglass barriers, shorter hours, and limiting foot traffic.
SOME 57 PERCENT of jewelers said they continue to disinfect surfaces in their stores with alcohol while just over 52 percent said they’re still wearing masks.
A number of respondents (32 percent) said they were still not shaking hands and nearly 32 percent said they were avoiding trade shows and other industry-related events.
“We used an appointment calendar initially to help spread out clients and maintain social distance by avoiding crowding,” said one jeweler who found there were advantages to the pandemic measure: “We’ve found it’s very effective to manage the day’s business even though we no longer need to observe a maximum occupancy.”
Comments by jewelers for the Big Survey revealed that some were all about following practices that customers were comfortable with, while others were returning to pre-pandemic business practices.
“We used some of these measures — masks, sanitizer and curbside [pickups] — for a while but we’re back to business as usual,” said one jeweler.
The 2021 Big Survey was carried out between August and September, attracting almost 700 anonymous responses from owners and managers of independent jewelry stores across the United States and Canada. The full results will be published in the upcoming November issue of INSTORE.