No punchline here. If you want to take the plunge at Albert’s Diamond Jewelers in Schererville, IN, and it’s Valentine’s Day, come on in. They’ll throw a party and call the magistrate. Whatever you’re wearing.

Every time that Albert’s Diamond Jewelers hosts their regionally famous “I Do” Event for Valentine’s Day, something stands out. The last time they hosted weddings in the store, in 2019, a groom played guitar and sang a song he’d written for his bride. One couple brought along a 100-person wedding party for their nuptials. Others have been hitched while decked out in what owner Joshua Halpern describes as outrageous looking tuxes and wedding gowns.

But 2023 was particularly memorable: Not only was it the first year Albert’s had held the event since the pandemic, it was also the first year that Halpern can recall a couple getting married in a costume of any kind, let alone in full dinosaur regalia.

The “I Do” event was inspired by Fred and Donna Halpern, former owners of Albert’s Diamond Jewelers, who renewed their wedding vows for their 30th anniversary 25 years ago at Albert’s original location in East Chicago, IN. They’ve been married 55 years and last renewed their vows on their 50th anniversary; this year they decided to stay at home in Florida.

In past years, as many as 27 couples have participated. This year, three couples tied the knot, and a fourth, who had gotten married at Albert’s 20 years ago, returned to renew their vows and celebrate their anniversary.

Emily Briney and Derek Keilman from Demotte, IN, the couples who showed up in dinosaur costumes, later changed into a tux and wedding dress for more traditional photos.

“They wanted to do something unique,” Halpern says. “They had planned on an elaborate wedding, and when they found out how much everything would cost, they wanted to save the money for a house or a trip.” It was a spur of the moment decision.

“The feedback is always positive, grateful and thankful,” Halpern says. “The judges and magistrates are excited, because they find it more fun than a courtroom.” This year, the weddings were officiated by Magistrate Jeffrey Miller.

Albert’s provided the newlyweds with a cake and flowers courtesy of Strack & Van Til and Denise Floral Designs. They played wedding music, set up a chapel with 100 chairs and a lighted background, treated all of the couples to dinner and provided witnesses. One of the couples also won a honeymoon package. People from the community come to observe, so wedding guests are always on hand.

The store’s marketing team shared a video of the dinosaur couple’s wedding on TikTok and Instagram, inciting an enthusiastic response. Although there is no local TV channel, the event was advertised in newspapers, on social media and radio.

Couples do not have to buy their rings in the store — or anything else — to be eligible to get married there, but the event does build loyalty and foster relationships. “It’s a community type of event that has nothing to do with drumming up business necessarily. We do a lot in our community, and we never do anything with the intent of getting something in return,” Halpern says.

Still, the publicity is a nice side effect. “There is a buzz in the community,” Halpern says. “Anytime you are a household name in your community is positive.”

Another benefit is that when couples sign up for the weddings, they often buy wedding bands. And whatever style of nuptials the couple has in mind, Albert’s will try to accommodate it.

“It’s OK to be goofy because goofy is what people talk about,” Halpern says.

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Presley had been asked to make a list of some of the things that reminded her of her mother.

“It was so funny, some of the things she said at 5: Pepsi, Elvis, reading, baseball games, black and blue (my favorite colors), Zuzu pet racing, (battery operated hamsters we used to race around the house),” Saba says. In effect, a whole litany of childhood memories.

Saba considered what it would mean to moms to have these types of memories in picture form and even better, as jewelry.

“I thought how cool would it be to have kids draw something like this? We’d pick the winners and make their pieces into necklaces.”

Saba consulted with a client, a local art teacher, who loved the idea and asked students in kindergarten through eighth grade to start drawing something that reminded them of their moms. More than 60 kids participated.

“We picked the ones we fell in love with,” Saba says. “We chose drawings that hit us emotionally by making us laugh so hard, or because of how creative they were or how sentimental.”

Originally, they’d planned to have six winners, but they wound up making eight of them.

The winning kids were able to watch their jewelry being made by hand by a bench jeweler in the store. “They got to see the store, see the jewelers’ work area, and they were just as emotional as we were. They were unbelievably in shock that their art had come to life.”

Saba’s team also showed the finished jewelry pieces to clients, who identified several pieces they’d like to buy. Two of those necklaces — The Crazy Cat and The Flower — will be sold in the store and proceeds donated to local art programs.

Another of the winning pieces is an elephant because the mom adores elephants and had an elephant version of everything, but no elephant necklace.

Another piece was an In-N-Out Burger, the double-double. “We were not sure what the mom would think, but she loved it,” Saba says.

Moms and kids were interested to learn how the jewelry was made and delighted with the results.

“The moms were floored. They were so excited they couldn’t believe it. Of course, there were tears, lots of tears. For our staff, this was our favorite project we ever did. We couldn’t stop getting excited, although at first it was really hard because we didn’t want to let any kids down.” As a result, Saba also let the art teacher know that moms whose kids were not chosen but who wanted to transform their children’s art into pendants would be able to do so at a discounted rate.

Saba is now revisiting her daughter’s childhood art collection in search of something that she’d like to wear as well. And she’s started something of an entry-level custom business around the idea. “I’ve had a lot of calls from people who saw the pendants posted on Facebook and are sending me their kids’ drawings because they want them made,” she says. She’s offering them for $150 in silver and making gold pieces as well.

As for the contest, Saba plans to make it an annual Mother’s Day event and may expand to include a second school next year.

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During a diamond trade-up event in all of Sissy’s locations, for example, sales associates became so invested in helping the shoppers select a mounting that none of them remembered to show any of the 2-carat loose diamonds the shoppers had asked to see.

From the beginning, Sissy’s training program had been based on having new salespeople learn the ropes organically from Bill himself, but as the business acquired more locations, that learning process was slowing down to the point it would take a trainee two years to get up to full speed. In addition to five Arkansas locations, Sissy’s also has a store in Memphis.

“Bill had an amazing training program, but it was based on him being around all the time,” says William Jones IV, who had the good fortune, he says, to be trained his whole life by the best, including his dad, Bill, and his grandmother and company founder Sissy Jones.

When William took over the company’s training program two years ago, he was also stymied by geography, spending as many as eight hours a week simply traveling between locations. So he introduced Sissy’s Log Cabin University, based on a series of online courses that helps associates learn the basics of the company’s culture, sales techniques and even gemology. “We started recording our classes and sending them to a store and it worked extremely well,” William says.

It began as an onboarding program so that new hires would complete six hours of classes before they even started working.

He also began incorporating those improv actors who were secret shoppers into the in-person training program to foster relationship building, conversational skills and to ensure that associates can think on their feet.

The entire training program is based on the concept that the jewelry business is experience-based. Customers walking into one of Sissy’s locations may not understand that in order to see and learn about all those products under glass, they need to build a relationship with someone who can show them around. The sales associate, then, must know how to begin to establish that relationship smoothly and to eradicate any potential tension. That’s why monthly improv
training helps build confidence.

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“What we found out is that when you’re on the sales floor, you can get in uncomfortable situations,” William says. “Improv training is designed to put you in a state where you’re nervous and uncomfortable and you can practice what to do in those situations.” William says that the idea behind the training program is that it’s always better to have 10 returning customers than 10 new customers, so why not ensure every initial encounter leads to a regular client? Price wars aren’t necessary once loyalty is established.

Since introducing the new, formalized training system, Sissy’s has seen what Bill and William describe as remarkable improvements in closing not only engagement ring sales but diamond fashion as well. In order to sell diamond fashion pieces, in particular, sales skills are vital because clients may not have a good idea of what they want.

“I wish I could take credit,” William says. “But all I did was package this. It is what I grew up learning as I grew up in the business. It takes every ounce of training to operate an experience-based store.”

Sissy’s has begun to make their training program available to other stores, which may not have the resources to develop their own in-house training programs.

It’s branded as Jewelers Sales Academy.

“The question I’m asked most,” Bill says, “is why would I share my secrets? But these aren’t secrets. These are things we have forgotten in retail. This is what everybody used to do. It’s all about relationships, going back to the basics of how to treat people and read body language. How to clientele.

“As the tides rise, all boats rise. We want to make the industry a better place for all.”

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Zadok launched @zadoktime in February 2022 after it had become clear that Zadok Jewelers’ main Instagram account, focused on jewelry and diamonds, had an audience that was 90 percent female, and that the guys, particularly the watch collectors, were tuning out. “Watch guys would follow for a while and then stop,” Zadok says. “If we’re showing 95 percent jewelry and diamonds, the guys who are watch aficionados or watch geeks, they didn’t want to see that.”

Zadok Time’s content is often playful and humorous, and it has organically captured the attention of everyone from celebrity watch collectors and professional athletes to executives from prestigious timepiece brands.

Gilad Zadok

Before becoming marketing director of Zadok Jewelers in Houston, Zadok trained in improv and sketch comedy at the Groundings Theater in West Hollywood and attended the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television for a graduate program in feature film producing and screenwriting. He also worked as a production assistant, both as a freelancer and for producers/directors/screenwriters Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz at the Bedford Falls Company in Santa Monica.

The Instagram tone can be humorous but can’t go too far since Zadok is representing not only the family business but also the Zadoks’ watch brand partners.

“When you make a reel, you have to use different audio to get more reach,” he says. “Sometimes they’re funny, and there may be a curse word in there, but I know who my audience is.”

Because Zadok uses his own distinctive voice and point of view, viral possibilities seem limitless.

While attending the March 2022 trade show Watches and Wonders in Geneva, Zadok learned that Bulgari had just released the thinnest mechanical watch ever made. After he posted a photo of it, notifications on his phone went “nuts.” Within a year, that post had garnered 550,131 likes and reached 27.4 million accounts.

“I was born and raised in this business,” he says. “I have a perspective and a lifelong experience with brands. An industry insider perspective. I sit with the CEOS, I sit with the presidents, the head of Cartier North America.” He has conversations and sees products that are well out of the scope of most people’s experience.

His efforts have brought awareness to Zadok’s as an elite watch destination. “People started reaching out and asking if that watch were available, or when are you getting those in, and I’d wind up on the phone talking with watch collectors,” he says. “We see a lot of traffic coming from our website to our Instagram. I constantly hear feedback.”

As director of marketing, Zadok had stepped into a hands-on social media role often enough to know his watch account would be a major commitment. “It’s a machine,” he says. But his background in film and television saves time when he’s editing and creating content. “I have a passion for it and it comes out,” he says. “It’s also storytelling, and with my film background, creativity comes into it. I enjoy myself, and so I can find time for it.”

Zadok works with his parents, Zadok founders Dror and Helene; his wife, Lisa; two brothers, Jonathan and Segev; and sisters-in-law Amy and Michelle. Of the three Zadok brothers, he’s the creative one, he says. “That’s just my brain,” he says. “That’s how I view the world.”

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He’d been wearing a hat with ear flaps, a surgical mask, hiking boots and a coat, none of which was all that unusual for Vermont. But he had unusually red hands. There was also a picture. “We were all on alert,” Dumont says.

Not long after, on Dec. 13, Dumont saw a man who fit the description enter the store, but he was wearing a different hat and coat and his hands were not immediately visible. “I just said to my team be alert and grab your cellphones,” Dumont says.

The sales staff showed him one piece of jewelry at a time. When Dumont could see that his hands were red, she called the police, but they weren’t able to respond based on a suspicion.

“He said he needed to look at the piece closer to the window, near the front of the store. We said that wasn’t allowed, and he just walked out with it,” she says.

It been an excruciatingly tense 11 minutes. “The store was full of people, and then one person after another kept coming in, and we had to go through the motions while this other thing was in the back of our heads.”

They began locking the door, but the next day they let in a man without hat or surgical mask. A closer look revealed he had red hands. The police did respond this time, but he left when they wouldn’t let him hold anything and was at another store within five minutes. “Because he came back without a hat or mask, our video camera got a great image of him.” Police circulated the photo; not only was he arrested, but more jewelry from other stores was recovered than anyone realized had been stolen.

When the Von Bargen piece was returned to Dumont, who had designed it herself, store management decided to raffle it off to benefit the Howard Center’s Church Street Outreach Team, a local organization for mental health.

“As soon as we got it back, we decided we wanted to create some positivity out of a really terrible day,” she says. The stolen piece is an 18K yellow gold medallion on a long chain, with baguette and white brilliant cut diamonds flush set into it, valued at $4,550. Tickets were sold for $50, and limited to 150 to make it more appealing to people, but when the local TV station picked up the news, those tickets sold out in less than 24 hours, raising $7,500.

“The Church Street Outreach Team has been a great resource to us throughout the years,” Dumont says. “Whenever we’re confronted with individuals suffering from mental health issues, we call them. They work to keep our community safe.”

Local TV stations continued to follow the story. “All contributions by donors, by folks in the community, are really an investment in our community,” Howard Center’s Denise Vignoe told WCAX TV in Burlington. The Church Street Outreach Team provides resources to downtown merchants, but they also check in on Vermonters struggling with homelessness, substance abuse or mental health issues. They provide things like sleeping bags and tents, which are where the proceeds from the raffle will go.

The store had had a security meeting just weeks before with a police officer who worked in security for a bank. Dumont said it was frightening to be in the store twice with a suspected thief, but that the recent training session had helped reinforce important concepts.

“It was a good reminder that there is literally nothing you can do except get through it,” she says.

“We tend to think if we do X, Y and Z, this won’t happen to us or if we do X, Y and Z, we will be able to stop the person. Knowing there is nothing you can do takes away the pressure. Just get the person out of the store, let them take what they want and support each other after.”

Dumont and a group of local jewelers now keep in touch via text and are considering holding an annual jewelry raffle to benefit local organizations. “Giving back to our community has always been a part of our mission and something we feel fortunate to be able to do,” she says.

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WHEN MATTHEW GROSS first visited San Miguel de Allende in Mexico last year, he fell in love with it, and like many Americans before him, he quickly began to factor it into his retirement plans.

“It’s a pretty magical place,” says Gross, owner of MHG Jewelry Studio in Berkley, MI. “I was ready to sell everything and to move there.”

It also inspired him to imagine what he can do to bolster a fledgling community of local jewelry makers in a scenic city with Spanish-colonial architecture while spending some time away from Michigan’s frigid winters.

Gross is in the process of building a non-profit organization within the U.S. jewelry community to help San Miguel’s jewelers obtain much-needed tools and equipment and to elevate training.

Jesus Villaverde Fuentes teaches both in his home studio, at right, shown with his wife, Alejandra, and his students, and at the Instituto Allende, above.

While San Miguel is a well-known artist’s community, the jewelry trade remains rudimentary, Gross says. “Ninety percent of the jewelry stores are a little hole in the wall, and there’s a showcase and maybe a guy is working on the bench behind it,” he says. “They make it work with whatever they have.”

Jesus Villaverde Fuentes, who leads one effort to teach the jewelry arts in San Miguel, built his kiln out of parts recovered from trash, used a 5-power magnifying glass instead of a microscope and taught himself hand-engraving with a less-than-optimal engraver before meeting Gross last year. “The skills that they’ve learned are very, very basic, which they’ve done very well with, but we have a lot to give,” Gross says. “They need better skills, better equipment. It’s a struggle to make a living. With the right tools, you never know what someone can do.”

To date, Gross has received tool and equipment donations from Tapper’s Fine Jewelry in Michigan, AU Enterprise, Blaine Lewis of the New Approach School for Jewelers in Tennessee, and Charlotte Kearney, VP for product development at Gesswein, among others. He also raised money through a GoFundMe page to ship 500 pounds of equipment from Michigan to San Miguel. The crate also contained gemstones, findings and beads.

The focus of initial efforts has been to provide help to Villaverde, who teaches at the art school jewelry department of San Miguel’s Instituto Allende and has his own teaching studio for children, where he lives with his family and also sells vegetables and fruit.

Matthew Gross, right, is helping to equip instructor Jesus Villaverde Fuentes.

Ultimately, Gross would like to raise $500,000 to $1 million to refurbish the jewelry school, invite U.S. jewelers to teach master classes there, and to create a co-op studio, where graduate students could rent affordable space to launch their businesses.

Already, after Villaverde received the first shipment, progress is being made. Gross used FaceTime to teach him how to use the ultrasonic and the magnetic tumbler he sent. Now Villaverde has a microscope, a rolling mill, push engravers and has taught himself hand-engraving. He sends photos and videos of his progress to Gross, who says, “The skill level has gone way up.”

Gross is bringing other jewelers with him to San Miguel this winter to promote the effort and assess the community’s needs. This time, he plans to stay a month. “I asked friends in the business, and they said count me in,” Gross says.

Changing even one life at a time can have cumulative effects, he believes.

“It will be interesting to know that if Jesus does better financially, then he can give his daughter a better opportunity. Who knows what she’ll do. She might change the world. That’s the exciting thing for me; what will happen when I’m out of the picture.”

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Paul Altieri, CEO, bought the company from Bob Thompson 12 years ago. To avoid confusion, “people just call me Bob,” he says. “It worked out better because everyone in the company answers to Bob. It’s corny, but it’s memorable. If it were Paul’s Watches, it would be all about me.”

Bob’s Watches is an online marketplace where watch enthusiasts can buy, sell and trade pre-owned and vintage timepieces, particularly Rolexes.

Paul Altieri

Expected 2022 revenues are $120 million.

Altieri is one of the nation’s largest private collectors of vintage and modern Rolex watches, a passion born at age 14 when he got a job as a caddy at a private golf club. “The cool guys who were successful and smart wore Rolex,” he says. “A lot of them were good golfers, too. I always said if I make it, someday I’m going to buy a Rolex watch.”

Altieri had worked in jewelry retail, real estate, financial services and the restaurant business. When he turned his entrepreneurial gaze to the Internet about 15 years ago, he explored possible options for ventures that ranged from candy and flowers to women’s shoes and diamonds.

“And we kept coming back to watches,” he says. “It was a very expensive item that could fit in a box and we could ship it anywhere. It was a gigantic industry, it was important and it wasn’t being done right.”

The pre-owned watch market, he says, lacked a solid formula for ensuring consumers received a fair price for their used watch. By disclosing the true market value, including both the “buy” and the “sell” price for each watch, Altieri brought a new level of transparency to the transaction.

Doing it right involves not only pricing it right but authenticating every watch and offering exceptional customer service. “People come to us because they know they can trust us,” he says.

And they’re reliably available. They show up.

“A lot of companies will put up a website and hide contact information,” he says. “They don’t want to be bothered. We don’t feel that way. We get 6,000 phone calls a month and 300 inquires by email every day. Old school meets new school. They still call us or chat with us. It’s not a nuisance.”

Altieri employs 48 people, including 10 sales reps who take those calls and respond promptly to chat, text and email. “We like to get back to people quickly,” he says. “That’s our DNA. Speed. Sometimes they will order a watch today and have it by 10:30 the next morning. It can be that quick.”

Another old-school touch is hosting in-person events at the company’s headquarters in Newport Beach, CA, including an intimate collectors dinner catered by gourmet chef GTG.

Although the business is conducted online, live help is readily available via chat, phone, text or email.

The advent of smartwatches has made a Rolex no less powerful a symbol among a growing demographic of guys ages 28 to 60 ready to spend an average of $11,000 on a timepiece. Narrowing down that demographic further, 34 to 40 is the sweet spot.

“They’ve graduated college, got an MBA, got married, hit a homerun. They’ve done something successful, and they want to memorialize the event. It’s been historically a terrific investment. We call it the disease. Once you get the watch disease, it gets under your skin, and you want more of them,” says Altieri.

Bob’s Watches deals in eight to 10 brands. But Rolex represents 75 percent of the secondary watch market and 29 percent of the primary market.

Altieri ships anywhere FedEx delivers.

“I was kind of late to the Internet game, but I couldn’t believe how powerful a medium it could be,” he says, “And we’re just getting started. The market is enormous, domestically and internationally, and we’re not in the second or third inning yet. We’re excited that we got an early start.”

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He’s always been a proponent of training, working with the Edge Retail Academy and hosting jewelry industry sales-training superstars. He wanted to supplement their astute business advice and motivational powers with a consistent program he could deliver to his staff in small, easily digested bites they could refer to later.

When he discovered trainer Jimmy DeGroot’s video subscription service, he saw it as a way to make training an integral part of weekly staff meetings.

DeGroot, who works with trainer Brad Huisken, records one 10-minute training session each week and charges retailers between $99 and $199 a month, depending on staff size. Woodard has found the concise nature of these training videos, combined with the fact he can easily request or access videos on any topic, to fit well into his staff’s time-crunched schedule.

Woodard and store manager Blair Rogers plan weekly discussions with the staff of 15 around the videos. “The thing that is so helpful is that there are times you need a person other than yourself advising your team,” he says. “Jimmy is just so genuine and doesn’t seem to be overly pushy.”

JImmy DeGroot adds music to the message.

DeGroot, a former retail jeweler, hadn’t planned to launch a video training business. After leaving retail, he became a partner in a video production studio and invested $100,000 in video equipment.

A decade ago, Brian Rasmussen of Bay Area Diamond Co. in Green Bay, WI, asked DeGroot if he would visit his store for sales training. Looking around at his video equipment, DeGroot instead suggested recording a short video for the team every week focusing on one topic.

“They can work on that one item per week, and by the end of the year, they will have concentrated on 52 best practices for sales.”

From that spark of inspiration, the Jewelry Store Training Institute (trainretail.com) was conceived, which DeGroot has since expanded into other areas of retail. Membership includes access to 540 10-minute training videos that can be viewed as needed. Each year, beginning
Nov. 1, new releases are holiday themed.

There’s a basic training series for new hires that includes how to take in a repair, dress properly and show up for work on time, among other relevant themes.

It’s something anyone can easily absorb, no matter their personality or learning style, DeGroot says. “I’m a hyperactive person anyway,” DeGroot says, “So sitting in a room for more than 15 minutes, I get antsy and retention goes way down. The modality of people sitting in a conference room for hours and getting a tsunami of information just does not work for everyone.”

DeGroot says his method has worked for retailers who want to supplement current initiatives as well as those who don’t believe they have the time, money or energy for training. DeGroot cautions that whether retailers choose his program or that of another trainer, now is not the time to ignore education.

Since moving into his 4,800 square-foot destination store in 2019, Woodard’s business has leaped by 40 percent and he’s seen about 100 new customers in the store every month. He gives DeGroot credit for at least half of that growth, both as a trainer and “sounding board.”

“I would give Jimmy high marks for getting me to where I am today,” Woodard says. “It was a big decision to come out of the mall and go into a freestanding building or stay where I was.

I consider Jimmy to be key in helping me make some critical business decisions.”

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That’s the thing. Piercing parties are attracting a new, younger, edgier, more unpredictable clientele to Either Ore and to other Aurelie Gi clients, including Stratton Jewelry in Huntsville, AL. At Either Ore Jewelers, clients reserve their spot with a deposit but pay only for the jewelry; there’s no piercing fee. “This whole new network of clients, you can’t put a price on that,” Masciangelo says. “Charging a piercing fee doesn’t make sense.”

Stratton Hobbs is a fan.

Stratton Hobbs, owner of Stratton Jewelry, says piercing parties are tailor-made for independent jewelry stores, which have the opportunity to elevate the experience as well as the jewelry itself.

“If you’re trying to grab that younger generation, this is the way to do it,” she says. “They can bring their girlfriends or their moms and have a fun day out. Moms love it. It makes them feel young and trendy, and they get to do something fun with their daughter that’s going to last forever. And that’s what jewelry is all about.”

While Masciangelo is surprised by what her new clients are buying, her mom, Donna Firestone, owner of the family business, is shocked by how easy it has been to sell out these events on Instagram, a free marketing medium, after she spent much of her career spending thousands on traditional print advertising. “It blows her mind,” Masciangelo says. “I posted it and we were booked up within an hour.”

The jewelry brand Aurelie Gi brought the piercing parties to Stratton Jewelry, Either Ore Jewelers and other select clients in 2021 after they introduced the concept at the Atlanta Jewelry Show in 2020.

Katherine Whitacre, U.S. sales director for Chic Pistachio, parent company of Aurelie Gi and Ania Haie, says the brand developed a line of earrings for new piercings after she recognized a need, not only in the market, but for herself, for stylish, 14K gold pieces, since they must be worn for months until the ear heals. “There’s a trend for multiple earrings and the curated ear, and that starts with a piercing,” she says. “I personally didn’t have many options for earrings. I want diamonds. I want something pretty, not a titanium stud.”

The earring line is designed to be used with needle piercing, which is safer, less traumatic and more accurate than “gun” piercing. The process also takes more time, allowing the store owner and piercer to develop a relationship with the customer that goes beyond the usual earring sale. “With gun piercing, they’re using a $20 to $40 base metal or stainless steel earring, and the earrings are not super cute,” says Alisa Bunger, Chic Pistachio’s VP of sales and operations. “By using the needle piercing, stores are seeing much higher sales. People do multiple piercings. We’re talking about earrings that are $100 to $300 retail. That’s a much larger sale overall.”

(Left) Piercing parties at Either Ore and (right) Stratton Jewelry.

It’s turned out to be an excellent repeat business for many retailers, Bunger says. “Everyone’s looking to find ways to bring in the Gen Z customer base. They find they have people who get addicted and want to have more.”

By popular demand, Hobbs continues to host both piercing parties (for ears and noses) and the equally popular events for “zapping” permanent 14K gold bracelets onto wrists.

With 20 piercings of her own, Hobbs is one who embraces the trend. “The piercing parties, no one is doing that around here. It’s very important to me to mix the edginess of piercings with fine jewelry because that is literally who I am. Women who want piercings may not want to go to a tattoo shop or get an earring from Spencer’s. They want a nice piece of jewelry.”

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When company president Joe Corey took the issue to Day’s customers, support for the proposal was nearly universal. Customers were asked, “Would you support Day’s jewelers closing on Sundays, and if we did close would you shop elsewhere?” Of 1,000 responses, 92 percent vowed to stay loyal.

Customers appreciated being asked and were impressed that Day’s cared to make work-life balance a priority.

Day’s Jewelers employs 140 with eight stores in Maine and New Hampshire. At some locations, leases required them to be open seven days, but the company was able to obtain exceptions to that rule.

TOP: New Day’s employees gather to discover the history of the company and enjoy a day filled with activities. BOTTOM: South Portland team members gather for a group photo.

Because the company is employee-owned, Day’s distributed a financial analysis to ensure everyone realized that closing Sundays could affect revenues. Eighty percent of employees still voted to close. And since the change went into effect in July, revenues have risen, due perhaps to positive publicity about the decision. It’s also simplified scheduling since six day weeks are more flexible.

Day’s has long made a point of regularly soliciting feedback from staff. One method is to encourage the use of both virtual and physical suggestion boxes.

Employees also complete an extensive survey each year as part of the entry process for the “Best Places to Work in Maine” contest. For seven years, Day’s has been deemed one of the best places to work in Maine based on employee responses to questions about company culture, leadership, their level of satisfaction and a variety of HR-related criteria. Best Places to Work recognizes 100 businesses each year who go above and beyond to give their employees the best possible work environment and experience.

Day’s surveys its employees internally, too, to discover what drives them, what makes them happy, and what might tempt them to leave. “Since our employees are the company’s greatest asset, it’s very important for us to ensure we do everything we can to support their needs while also keeping our customers’ confidence and trust in us,” Corey says.

Day’s will open on Sundays during December, and staff may work occasionally on Sundays for special events, inventory management or team building.
Elisabeth Hebert, Augusta, ME, store manager, says the new schedule has allowed her team to gather outside of the store. “We’ve added some new faces to our Augusta store, and for that reason, we recently chose a Sunday for my entire team to take the day to go axe-throwing for a team outing,” she says. “It was nice to just let loose, have some fun and get to know each other on a more personal level in a relaxed environment. Enriching our bond will only make us a stronger team. When we’re in sync, we are better able to serve our customers.”

Day’s Nashua, NH, store was named one of America’s Coolest Stores in 2019 by INSTORE.

Day’s became employee owned last year through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan as a way for Joe’s parents, Jeff and Kathy Corey, to transition into retirement without liquidating the business or disrupting the company culture. “The ESOP model fit with our culture, so it was a good decision for us,” Joe Corey says. “Our company has always been very autonomous, very employee-centric, giving people the responsibility to make decisions.”

To build on that ownership culture, Day’s has formed an ESOP communications committee that consists of both management and non-management staff.

“The more they feel they are owners in the company and really participating, the more vested they will be,” Joe Corey says. “No matter what your position is, you can still have a voice in this.”

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