SOUTHERN JEWELRY NEWS
Jewelry News • November 2023
“A Newspaper Dedicated to the Southern Jewelry Industry”
Vol 36 No. 11
1
November 2023
Girl Power rocks at Jo & Co. Jewelers
By Wanda Freeman
The owner of Jo & Co. Jewelers was a freshman in college with plans to be a globe-trotting detective when she entered the jewelry business. Sure, she loved her job at Haywood’s Jewelers in Rocky Mount, Va., but the jeweler’s life wasn’t her destiny - or so she assumed. “I double-majored in international studies and Russian with a minor in criminal justice,” Joanna Gruver recalls. “I was going to travel the world.” After she graduated, she even interviewed with the State Department and with NCIS “before there was the TV show.” When the year-long interview process ended without an offer, Gruver turned to her employer and mentor at Haywood’s, Harold Ingram. By this time, she had been working with him for nearly six years. “We were talking about Smith Mountain Lake and the potential for opening a store there, and he said, ‘If you can come up with half the money, I’ll come up with the other half and we’ll open another store.’ … I was 23, and had no money, so I begged and borrowed from friends and family, and in 2004 we opened a store at Smith Mountain Lake.” Although the new store was also named Haywood’s (Westlake), Gruver was a 50-50 partner and operated it independently while Ingram continued running the original
Joanna Gruver, owner of Jo & Co. Jewelers.
Jewelers Look to Modern Tech for a Profitable Future By Diana Jarrett More than at any other time, jewelry retailers tackle every tool to keep their business thriving. Major shifts in buying behaviors have made it necessary for retailers to keep pace with technology, albeit some feel unequipped. Technology is so pervasive throughout our industry that while a retailer may not feel tech savvy, they are actually benefiting from its presence in practical ways. Online -v- In store sales It’s safe to say that many brick and mortar retailers are scrambling to lure back online shoppers, given the enormous advantage of convenience over physical shopping. Still with pricey items like luxury goods, some consumers still prefer the “high touch customer service experience” with its hands-on personal care.
Kristina Buckley Kayel, Managing Director & CMO of The Natural Diamond Council. Tech tools in use now Modern technology offers exciting developments that benefit the jewelry trade. Things like 3D printing have given jewelers a streamlined path to creating custom pieces - which is a robust revenue stream for most jewelry stores.
Even mom and pop retailers today are growing familiar with CAD/CAM technology to aid with designing original pieces for their clientele. And while not every jeweler is so equipped, laser technology is gaining traction in the manufacturing sector. With these technologies, more intricate designs can be produced than can be accomplished manually. When laser technology is applied to gemstone cutting, jewelers find fewer human-produced errors. So much to do But simply keeping track of sales and new inventory, plus marketing is a full time job many retailers say. So not all retailers feel up to speed about the lightening fast pace that technological advancements are making. Insider’s insight Kristina Buckley Kayel, Managing Director & CMO of The Natural Diamond Council Please see Tech page 14
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Mid-America Jewelry News
Established 1988
store in Rocky Mount. Ingram’s daughter Bernice worked between the two stores. Whereas Rocky Mount serves many lifelong residents, Smith Mountain Lake is home to both lifelong locals and well-traveled customers who moved there to access beautiful lakes and golf courses. “The two stores are pretty different,” Gruver says. With the latter clientele, Gruver finds her store does more custom work, and “probably more fashion looks, rather than traditional bread-and-butter jewelry.” In 2014, ten years after opening, the store under Gruver’s guidance and her team’s hard work outgrew its space and relocated to a larger spot in the same shopping center, the Westlake Town Center. From there, she enjoyed growth of a different sort: In 2022, she and Ingram agreed it was time for her to strike out on her own, and she bought his share of the store. And finally, this summer came the rebranding: The new name, Jo & Co. Jewelers, debuted officially on July 1. “It’s been very well-received,” Gruver says. The branding includes a stylish new sign and logo that looks like a vivacious signature written with a fine-tipped marker, a theme that repeats itself in sections of the store Please see Jo & Co page 2 website.
Jewelry Sales Training from a Living Legend At 96, jewelry sales trainer Leonard Zell is comfortably retired in the picturesque state of Oregon. With his AOL account and LinkedIn page still active, Leonard continues to answer the occasional email and phone call from retail jewelers looking for some sales advice. Leonard started his jewelry sales training consultancy business in January 1991. That’s more than three decades of helping jewelry store owners and their staff sell more jewelry. Prior to that he worked for Zale Corporation and before that he worked at his family’s jewelry stores in Portland, Oregon. Leonard has been selling jewelry and jewelry sales training for roughly 80 years. By most measures that makes for a living legend in jewelry retail sales. Early in life Leonard benefitted from working in his family’s jewelry store. As the family story goes, in 1912 Leonard’s father and his four uncles left Russia. As the European country continued to Leonard Zell move away from monarchy rule, the remainder of the family left five years later when the socialist revolution was in its infancy (February 1917). “When my father and my uncles arrived in America they had zero experience in jewelry retail,” says Leonard. “With family already here my father and his brothers Please see Zell page 24 By Paul Holewa