37 Describing Smells, New Jewelry Store Concept & HOT TAKE: Martin Rapaport is Wrong

Episode 37 is all over the place… in the best possible way. Brad & Dusty kick things off with the usual bench jeweler chaos before diving nose-first into one of the weirdest topics yet: the smells of the jewelry industry. We attempt to describe a scent that every jeweler instantly recognizes… but can never properly explain.

Then things get completely out of hand when we brainstorm a new jewelry store concept inspired by “Dick’s Last Resort” — where jewelers finally get to say what they’re REALLY thinking to customers. Brutal honesty? Yes.  Sarcastic? Of course! Nothing is off limits.

Eventually, we steer the ship back toward reality and break down comments from Martin Rapaport regarding lab-grown diamonds. We discuss why we (and so many retail jewelers) are tired of being talked down to from the “ivory towers” of the diamond trade.

BONUS: Stick around until the end of the episode to hear the brand new BJ Mandrel single, “One Beautiful Week,” officially releasing May 23rd!

Follow us on Instagram & YouTube @benchjewelermemes

// Want to support the page & podcast?

https://buymeacoffee.com/benchjewelermemes

Transcript

SPEAKER_10 0:05

Good morning, afternoon, slash, evening, Bradford.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Top of the morning to ya.

SPEAKER_10 0:11

How are you doing? I'm good. I'm acting like we haven't spent the last three hours hanging out together.

SPEAKER_11 0:16

Right, and the last five minutes talking on the microphones together.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

That can be heard after the song at the end of this podcast. So we have a Easter egg.

SPEAKER_10 0:26

I think the month of this is a May, May release episode number. I don't remember. Who cares anymore? Nobody cares about numbers. Um But also kind of now that I've got so many of them numbered, I don't want to get away from it. It's time. Maybe we'll see. Um so we have a few little is it'll be a little mishmosh, mishmosh of of things to discuss today. We're we're fresh off the episode with um Stepdaddy Ron. And by the way, coming to you live from Stepdaddy Ron Studios. Bam, we need a song for that. Um we how many I wonder how many songs we can incorporate. Like you guys' podcasts have turned into like seven little little jingles. You're welcome. All right. Um, but we do have, let's see, let's see. It's um it's post Mother's Day. Mm-hmm. That means after Mother's Day. Yep. Uh for BJ Mandrel if he's out there listening. Yeah. For all the moms who needs Brad to explain it to you. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_11 1:27

I did not know I did not say that.

SPEAKER_10 1:29

You had a funny little Mother's Day post.

SPEAKER_11 1:31

You wanna what did it say?

SPEAKER_10 1:34

Um just paraphrase.

SPEAKER_11 1:35

Just saying happy Mother's Day. That's all it said. That was the main thing. That was the that was the biggest font to to uh all the fathers that had to spend a night on a hospital couch, something like that. I don't know, AI made it. Oh, did it? Mm-hmm. Okay. I started trying to do it in Canva and I was like, why am I doing this?

SPEAKER_10 2:00

AI do it. Um I said on Friday when we closed up before Mother's Day, um, I caught home and I told my wife that this might have been because okay, so I'll I'm gonna say this. Typically, I've been on the record of saying um the week leading up to Mother's Day to me is one of the worst weeks of the year. Sure is. But this year it was not that bad. It was not, and I don't know why that is, but I'm grateful for it.

SPEAKER_11 2:31

Starting to notice a theme like we worry about Christmas, it's not that bad. Worry about Mother's Day, it's not that bad. Maybe we just don't sell jewelry anymore. I think that's more the case. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:44

But not it was good. We had a few we had a few little Mother's Day shoppers, and yeah, I don't and it's weird because most people places would be like, Man, Mother's Day was just down this year. But we had actually we had it here's what was the crazy part. Fantastic week. Fantastic start to May. Yep. One of the best weeks, opening weeks to May that we've had in years. It was just nice that most of it, or almost all of it, was not Mother's Day related. Right. I don't know why. It just made me so happy.

SPEAKER_11 3:13

I don't like we sold a few things, but not and not really. Couple little special orders here and there, nothing crazy. And um And we didn't have any like um we really didn't have any like weird requests. Yeah, that that's what I was trying to say. Thank you.

SPEAKER_10 3:30

Yeah, I don't know. It was pretty, pretty chill. I don't know how everybody else's Mother's Day was, but it was pretty chill. Uh-huh. All right, so we addressed Mother's Day. Um, is it too soon for shop talk, Brad? It's never too soon. All right, cue the music because I do not have it on the soundboard and go.

SPEAKER_07 3:50

Let's talk, stop!

unknown 3:51

Woo!

SPEAKER_10 3:52

That was fun. Should I sing? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_11 3:58

The music's already been played.

SPEAKER_10 3:59

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_11 4:00

We just didn't hear it, but we'll hear it. What I meant was should I have sung it while you queued it, and then that would give us the like placeholder for uh the music to be inserted.

SPEAKER_10 4:14

I thought I I love I love that little I do too. But anyway, we're it's uh for us, it's uh Monday morning. We are working, we are closed to the public, we're getting caught up on jobs and special projects. Brad, how is your basket looking? It's all right. Could be better.

SPEAKER_11 4:30

I mean it's pretty full. It it was very full this morning, it's about halfway full. Um, so I don't know if we've discussed I think we've discussed it. Like Ari comes in Tuesday, so we can still get Tuesday is our busiest day, but usually you guys kind of help with the customers. So you almost get two workers. I almost get two full work days. You're lucky unless you take a vacation to the strawberry patch.

SPEAKER_10 4:56

Yeah. No, no more of those. Um, so I noticed we can talk about since we're doing shop talk right now. I noticed your basket. So typically the way I would organize my basket is I put everything in order of due date. And I went to stick something in your basket, and I was like, oh, that's weird. I was like, everything's out of order, and you had said something like you kind of organized it by job type.

SPEAKER_11 5:19

Yeah, that's just explain that's just a Monday thing. Usually it is by date, just so that nothing um catches me off guard. You okay back there?

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_11 5:29

Okay. Um, and so um that way I know exactly when things are due. But on Monday, when um I can kind of rearrange it and kind of put it by jobs, so like all the ring sizings together, all the chain repairs together, etc. That makes sense. Uh but after today it'll go back into chronological order. So it's the Monday thing, huh? It's just a Monday thing. Um, do you have anything due tomorrow for pickup that you haven't done? I do. There's a job. So pretty funny um because Ari took this in. That's funny. So Ari rarely touches the the ultrasonic or the steamer. I mean, she does. She's she was terrified of it when she got here. She was now she's still mostly terrified of the steamer, but pretty cool with the ultrasonic. Um, so she was usually she'll take something in and just put it in one of our baskets. This time she was back there cleaning this silver bracelet and uh we're like, Why are you cleaning this? She's like, This smells horrible. Oh, yeah. And so she took it out. It was in our ultrasonic for an hour. She took it out, and it still smells awful. And so we left it overnight. Dude, I like I didn't smell it, thankfully. Like if there was uh like a teenage, like a high school locker room um mix with a seafood restaurant.

SPEAKER_09 7:00

Oh that's what it smelled like.

SPEAKER_10 7:05

And uh glad I didn't stick my nose in there. She kept she kept trying to get us to smell it, and you did. I was just like, that's okay, I believe you. I've smelled enough things in my life. I don't need to smell something.

SPEAKER_11 7:16

What other things have you smelled, Dusty?

SPEAKER_10 7:18

Baby poop, baby, baby throw up. A lot of and I've opened watches for the last 20 plus years. Oh yeah. I've worked on jewelry for the last 20 years, so I've smelled it all. Gone through our smells. I don't I mean, but that sounds like a new smell combo that maybe I should have. You should have partaken. I don't know. Maybe next time. Next time you guys gotta don't let me miss out.

SPEAKER_11 7:41

We tried. Yeah, but you really gotta sell it, you know. Like it's it's the one time. Um, like, well, I I've learned now, especially if you know somebody's like, smell this. I I give it the waff first, like that we learned in high school chemistry um before I go like just full full nose. Full bore.

SPEAKER_10 8:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 8:03

Full nose to full full nosing, as our friend Bourbon Brad would say. Before I do that. That's another topic for another day. Um it's not me when I drink bourbon, it's it's a separate person altogether. It's not my persona when I drink it. Old bourbon Brad, he'll tell you some things. Now, old bitch jeweler Brad, he's pretty reserved. It just reminds me of where we were at never mind.

SPEAKER_10 8:32

There's a good one thing. Because it'll give away because I can't say the name of the town. But um gotcha. You know what I'm talking about. I know. Um, so what I was working on before I just stopped working on it so that I can set up all this, um, so I could set up Stepdaddy Ron Studios for recording. Um so a lady came in and um she has like a I think she already had a pendant or a ring or something, and I don't know how to describe this except it was like bezel set, but it was like rustic bezel set. Does that mean yes, it does. It just kind of looked like like somebody did it in their garage. Which I don't there's no disrespect to that, but it was very organic looking. Yeah. And so it's just not something that that we do a lot of because everything is like, you know, nice, fine jewelry. And um, I mean not everything we work on is, but for this, you know, most of the stuff when we're doing custom work, it's nice and refined. Like, and so I'm just like, listen, lady, I'll I'm gonna order this mounting that'll hold your stone. It's just a is that how you started it? Listen, lady. I said, listen, lady. Listen right now, listen up. They love that. And so basically we agreed, like, she's like, just set it like rustic style. And so I told her, I was like, I'm gonna have to really fight the urge to make this look good. Right. It's hard to make something look rustic. So I ordered a mounting from Steller and I was working on it, and I'm like, I just it's I'm it's just weird to like, does it look finished? And it's because it's how it's supposed to look. I'm not finished with it, so it's a unfinished, finished, non-finished look. Right now, currently. Got you. Currently makes sense. Um other than that, my basket's not too bad. We've been um, I think because Mother's Day was so chill, I feel like we're we stayed on top of everything.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 10:23

Um, update on the um couple of quick things on the um the engraved tins that were featured recently. Featured. Um, we only had a limited quantity. We we ended up having more than what I what I'm gonna say right now, but we're trying to keep a few backups just in case weird stuff happens with shipping. So they're essentially sold. This first batch is sold. I don't know if we're just going to change up the design from time to time and just kind of drop these. We will drop these differently. Um, but for this first round, we just kind of wanted to try something to where you would, you know, donate to the link provided wherever you're listening to this podcast.

SPEAKER_11 11:04

You put that in air quotes, is that why you paused? Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_10 11:07

Okay. Donate. Um, and so that that's just kind of a little trial run for fun, uh, just to kind of see how this goes. We have not shipped them out yet, if you're hearing this, and you um air quote purchased one. Um, but we will be getting those out hopefully this week. We're trying to we're trying to be cheap and use only stellar boxes to ship them in. And so I don't know if we have enough stellar boxes quite yet, but we'll figure it out we'll figure it out. Um, we've been saving all those. Um I mean it's just fitting that few Daddy Stellar would yeah, help us.

SPEAKER_11 11:42

Stellar want to send us some extra boxes. Well if you guys are listening and we know you are just just throw some in, you know.

SPEAKER_10 11:50

Yeah, next time we're in our box of stuff, just throw like five or six extra empty boxes. Thank you very much. Five or six dum dums. Not the mystery ones. Not the mystery ones. I swear I so lame. Don't do it. Don't do it. Um, but yes, the obviously um we are on like a little bit of we're we're doing a little fundraiser campaign. Um so if you are enjoying what you're hearing and and listening to, please click the link in the description below. I don't even know what that means. Listener supported. Um right now the only way that support our show is from from you guys. We are not doing any sponsorships as of this moment.

SPEAKER_11 12:29

Maybe that's how we financially support our podcast is that you can support us in many ways, but the only way to financially support us is that way.

SPEAKER_10 12:38

Yes, you can like, comment, share for free. Talk to your friends, or you can take one extra step and click the link and send us four thousand dollars for all the I'm just joking. Um send us four dollars, forty dollars, four hundred dollars, four thousand dollars, forty thousand dollars. Those are the only options from here on out. Choose wisely, don't pick four.

SPEAKER_11 13:01

Um what were we what was the other stuff? We we had not intended to talk about this, but this blew my mind, and you did share it um on the Instagram. The uh the swim meet, because we were talking about talk to your friends about the podcast. Yeah, tell the people.

SPEAKER_10 13:18

Do I need to well you might have to talk about it so I can find it? I don't really remember all the specifics. All right, so let me go to the I'm going to go to the buy me a coffee. Buy me a coffee. So this person said Oh, is it under that?

SPEAKER_11 13:34

Oh, yeah, it is under that.

SPEAKER_10 13:35

Okay, cool. They they sent they sent us a donation and they said, I met another bench jeweler at our kids' swim meet last weekend, and we spent the whole time talking about the BJM podcast. Mind blown.

SPEAKER_11 13:50

Mind crazy. Absolutely blown.

unknown 13:53

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_11 13:54

Um like that's crazy. I realize another there's seven people that listen to this thing, and imagine they're at the same place at the same time.

SPEAKER_10 14:04

All right, should I I'm gonna some of these um I'll I'll read through the buy me and coffees just quickly because a lot of these are just in um response to the the tens. So um um let's see here. Let's go back to where they first got started. Because some people oh, this one is funny because um it this one is from uh Sukit Tribeck.

SPEAKER_11 14:28

Probably probably just uh somebody from a different country. I'm sure that's all it is.

SPEAKER_10 14:35

Uh air quote, I'll take air quote, I'll take analbum cover. Tried for many years to create an analbum cover but failed. It's one of my regrets. Obviously, that is album cover.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Oh I was like, what are they trying to say?

SPEAKER_10 14:53

Um someone else who got a uh one of the 10 sets said, I heard y'all topping off prongs. Yes. Uh someone said, I'm here for my free altoids. You guys are the best.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Meow.

SPEAKER_10 15:07

Oh god. Our buddy Ron. Um, even though we already sent him a set for his viewing pleasure, he also donated a little bit more. Um I heard I can buy white and yellow gold for only $25, someone said. That's how it works. Tents.

SPEAKER_11 15:27

Tens.

SPEAKER_10 15:29

Oh, okay. Here's one that we have. I don't know if we talked about on the podcast. Uh, Melanie Golden. Sound familiar? Yep. She has a great coloring book. Well, let me finish reading it. Can y'all talk about me? Oh, that's it. That's all she said. Just talk, I'm just joking. And mention how awesome I am. Well, that's debatable. And we don't know you like that. And talk about how cool my coloring book for jewelers is. Asking for dot dot dot myself. Um she has a very funny page.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

We have, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 16:01

We've mentioned it on the Instagram page because she sent Brad and I a couple of bench jeweler coloring books, which are available on Amazon. I cannot remember the price. I'm not going to look at them right now, but maybe she'll comment somewhere and whatever, post a link. I'm sure she'll give you like 80% off if you've heard it from us. Yeah, just type in uh the coupon code BJM80. You'll get 80% off. Um, and if it doesn't work, just DM her and let her know.

SPEAKER_11 16:27

And let her know and and um just pay full price. It's worth every penny.

SPEAKER_10 16:32

Yeah, no, it is cool. I have mentioned it on the Instagram page, and I'll do it briefly here. Uh Melanie Golden, I forgot what her Instagram handle is. Um, but she'll be. I'm sure if you look up Melanie Golden Melanie Jewelry Golden, maybe there's a jewelry in there. I can't remember, but um she's pretty interactive on our page and in our uh YouTube. So if you um think about it, my kids absolutely love that color book. I'm not even joking.

SPEAKER_11 16:58

Um it's how you're getting them to buy into the business.

SPEAKER_10 17:02

Yeah, I really want to prep them for their future. Indoctrinate them. And the um the coloring pages, there's a ton of them in there. It's not like some little flimsy thing. There's like a crap ton of coloring pages in there, and there's ones with like, you know, stones on all spread all over the place, and there's probably some pages with stones on the floor. I can't remember, but it's pretty cool. Um so anyway, shout out to Melanie because she had to she had to donate twice because she didn't follow the rules.

SPEAKER_11 17:26

So she did participate in our little live premiere on YouTube that we did on Friday afternoon, which we may do in the future.

SPEAKER_10 17:35

We may, depending on timing and how our weeks look. Um and we definitely so we're gonna try to so the way it'll work is let's explain it. Is when we post the so we were doing the YouTube version of the podcast on Saturdays at noon. So I had this wild idea. What if we did it Fridays at like 4 30? Because me and Brad close up around 5 30. That way, and if you do it as a premiere, keep in mind it's not us live in that moment. It's already been pre-recorded. It's just it shows up as a premiere as a live video. And so for that first from 4 30 to whenever it ends, um, you can't like skip ahead or anything. You're we're all listening to it at the same time essentially, but what it does is it opens up like a little chat. And so if you get there before it starts, like if you you know click on it, you know, three or four minutes before, I think um you can hop into a little chat. Go ahead, Brad.

SPEAKER_11 18:30

Yep. And we're there, we are there in the chat live, but the actual the podcast is being recorded. Pre-recorded for your listening pleasure. I love saying that for some reason.

SPEAKER_10 18:40

All right. Um Alex said, uh, hope y'all still have some tins. We did. Alex, you got some. Somebody else sent some and said, Meow.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Meow.

SPEAKER_10 18:50

Somebody said, Um, appreciate what y'all do. Someone else. Those sweet, sweet gold altoids. Somebody sent some and said, doing it for the tins. Um, this person said, Every day when those retirees are lined up before the store opens, dirty watch in hand, I think of you guys. No. Even though I am always late and the other staff are the ones who end up setting up the shop. What a slacker.

SPEAKER_11 19:18

That was us at the mall. No, yeah, for real. I don't think we ever were on time at the mall. No.

SPEAKER_10 19:24

Uh, y'all keep my days going with laughs, but no bench job seemed to be going right. Listening to you guys makes work awesome. Hashtag teamoptiviser.

SPEAKER_11 19:35

Heck yeah. Let's go. One for me. Lame glasses that you pull down like you're in the 80s.

SPEAKER_10 19:45

Now, this person said, Thanks for all you do, and they signed it Drew H. And this is just a teaser. A lot of people are gonna think that sounds familiar, and they're like, Who's Drew H? And hopefully this summer, let's just say we hope to have Drew H on the podcast. That's all I'm gonna say. A little teaser. Little teaser. Uh Melanie's back in the in the buy me a coffee because she did it wrong the first time, or maybe she didn't listen to it. I don't know how this works, but she said, Do altoids still actually exist? They do. They do. And then someone else I just realized um within the last couple days that I have not paid attention to said, I worked it out. Dot dot dot. Love you guys. Don't know what that means. I'm glad they worked it out though. But I am glad that they worked it out. Um, so that's all that that's that's all that. Let's get into what we're gonna talk about. We have rambled quite a bit. Now, first off, before we get too deep in uh we're gonna touch on a lot of things, but I feel like you said that you had a story for me that involved our our clock at our store.

SPEAKER_11 20:48

Have we ever talked about our clock? I think we have. It runs backwards. Yeah, why don't you go ahead and describe it? Yeah, it runs backwards. That was it. And the and the hand everything about it is backwards. Yes, the numbers are backwards, um, everything. It runs backwards. The the word quartz is backwards, it's printed backwards. So everything about it is like super cool. So if you look at it in a mirror, it looks pretty normal.

SPEAKER_10 21:11

It looks but if you look at it straight on, it has become a conversation piece of the story to the point where I'm almost over it.

SPEAKER_11 21:20

Yep. So um a customer, like they are apt to do, came in and mentioned the clock. She was like, Oh, I just noticed your clock. And you know, I was like, Oh yeah, yeah, we've we've had that. She's like, and Dusty has not heard this because he was I think with another customer. Um, so I wanted to get your opinion on this. She said, Oh, you mean you guys have a sense of humor? And I was like, Yeah, sometimes. She was like, Every time I come in here, y'all are so serious. Wow. So what what is your take? Do do we come off as just not having a I mean, I could see that.

SPEAKER_10 22:01

I mean, yeah, depending on that's what and that's what's so interesting about just I think being small business type thing. Like when people walk in here, they might like there's people that walk in and me and you are in the mid ad mid laugh. Right. Like mid-joke, mid sharing a funny reel. And then we have to kind of like get serious to so people don't think we're a joke. But then there's other times where it's like we're just like I'm working on something important or intricate, you are, and they are interrupting, and yes, it's a little maybe come across as too serious because I'm just trying to get to the point so I can get you in and out of here.

SPEAKER_11 22:36

Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, I just thought that was interesting.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

I'm like, if you only knew, we have a podcast that talks about we're gonna talk about you, lady.

SPEAKER_10 22:46

I made a joke with somebody, they were um let me see if I can find it. Um I gotta find this, I gotta find this. Okay. Um, I I shared there's a store um that does, I can't remember the name. I I apologize, but I I can't if I pull it up, I know it's gonna play on here because I got my phone connected for a reason. But I shared a jewelry store their their social media, and I was like, man, they just have some of the best social media content, which I'm going to make my daughter copy them this entire summer. And um another jeweler said, I love their content, it's you know, it's just engaging and funny. And I said, Man, I should probably do these for the actual store for the store. Just because they're fun. And then um, and she said the anonym will come to an end sooner or later. And I said, Well, never. I said, We're gonna go private jeweler, change the store name to Bench Jeweler Media, and it's gonna be the ultimate prank. And um, that would be kind of wild though, like to do everything mostly like online, or we've always joked about if um I is it's a restaurant, is it in Myrtle Beach? Is that the only place it's at?

SPEAKER_11 23:54

Uh, I'm sure if it's at Myrtle, it's at other places, but that's does it even exist down there anymore?

SPEAKER_10 23:58

I don't even know. I have no idea. So it was a place called Dicks, right? Yep. And if you haven't heard of it, I think you just go down there and you eat and they basically make fun of you and like talk. Have you ever been?

SPEAKER_11 24:13

Uh I I went for Really? Yes. Oh my gosh. I went for my um senior uh w you know after you graduate. Um so you explain it then. And so so yeah, they uh they just treat you like crap, basically, and they make you wear funny hats. And if you go in with the mindset that this is just what it is uh and it's just people giving you crap, then it's fine. If if you go in expecting to be waited on uh professionally, then you're gonna be disappointed and probably offended.

SPEAKER_10 24:47

So it sounds like if you have a good sense of you're like, they're gonna make fun of you, they're gonna be sarcastic, you know, etc. And I thought, man, it we should just I want to turn our store into like basically the dicks of of the jewelry industry, to where it's like a well-known thing that when people come in, we just we just make fun of them and like you know what I'm saying? Wouldn't that be fun? Dude, it's like they walk in, it's like, oh, here we go, another walk, and we just say it to their face instead of just thinking it.

SPEAKER_11 25:13

They have several locations. Um, you're looking it up. Yeah, I'm looking looking up. They um mostly in resort towns, um like um Daytona, Fort Lauderdale, Gatlinburg, but also in Indianapolis, uh Las Vegas. There is one in Myrtle Beach, um, several more in Florida, um, and one in San Antonio, Texas.

SPEAKER_10 25:40

Wonder if old Jake Fox has been to that one. You know, I don't know when he's gonna hear this, but on the day of recording, it's Jake Fox's birthday.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Oh, maybe he's going to Dick's for his birthday.

SPEAKER_11 25:55

What? What the do you have something to say about that? Nope. Anyway. What is funny about he might be going to Dick's for his birthday, Dusty?

SPEAKER_10 26:09

Sounds like a fun time for him. Um wouldn't that be kind of a fun concept for a jewelry store? Yeah, just to treat people. Yeah, we give people a treat them. It's like, you know, people come in, it's like, oh, you know, I've got some watch batteries. I always come here. I'm like, oh, you always come here for your watch batteries because you ain't never bought any jewelry loser.

SPEAKER_11 26:32

They'd laugh and we'd laugh.

SPEAKER_10 26:33

Or they like the point. Or they like hand you a nasty ring, and you can just be like, oh my God, this is disgusting. And you put it up on the TV screen for all the other people in the store to see. I'm like, look how nasty this is, everybody.

SPEAKER_11 26:43

Look how this nasty person's nasty ring.

SPEAKER_10 26:47

Yep. And if you could just and that, but but people knew that coming in and they didn't care. Wouldn't that be such a function? Somebody's gonna take this idea. I hope so. I hope so. I hope they well, because we're not gonna do it. We're not gonna do it. If somebody comes, if somebody does this in the next couple years, please, you know, email us at the email that we never use bench dealer meet uh bench dealer meme at gmail. Yep. And we will fly out to your location. Wherever it is, we will help you open that store. Yeah, we want to be involved. Yes. Um, I think that was uh did we get off topic? I don't think oh that we were talking about, yeah. Okay, blah, blah, blah. Um, what else was there to talk about? Um I don't This is kind of other than the main topic. That's I think I wouldn't even call this a main topic. So this morning I was realizing that uh, you know, it was Mother's Day weekend. We had a lot, we had a busy week, not for Mother's Day, and I realized we really didn't have anything planned for today of what we're gonna talk about. And so I opened my phone, and um the first video that popped up this morning was a video of uh Martin Rappaport. And in case people, you know, like maybe I can try to give a brief description of who he is.

SPEAKER_11 27:58

He's the comedian that was on the traders. Is that the same guy?

SPEAKER_10 28:03

No. That's that was that Michael?

SPEAKER_11 28:05

Michael Rappaport. Yeah, this is Martin. Are they brothers? Maybe, probably. Probably. In my head, they will be. But as you read this, I'm picturing Michael Rappaport. Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_10 28:17

Um this well, let's see here. Uh I don't really want to misread this, but I would just say like I was trying to just kind of find a way to briefly summarize him. Michael Rappaport, known as the architect of diamond pricing, Rappaport transformed the industry from a secret of trade into a commoditized market via the wrap list. A lot of people are familiar with that, established in 1978. He is the chairman of the Rappaport group and a primary figure in the Kimberley process. Um, so if you know about wrap prices, I've really never used them or had to use them for most of my career, but I know other businesses highly rely on them and they pay for the the there's a weekly update, I believe, of especially round diamonds. I think other shapes get updated monthly, but it basically is like, hey, here's the standardized pricing for diamonds. And it seems to be people either embrace it or people, I think some of the newer people to the industry are think it's dumb. I'm not here to debate that. And I'm also not here to talk about him as a person or who he is or what he stands for. Um, maybe that's a topic for another day for somebody that knows more about him and what he does than me.

SPEAKER_11 29:24

I think we have discussed him at some other podcasts.

SPEAKER_10 29:28

Well, he's came up a little bit, and I've definitely made fun of some of his Instagram clips and poked fun of. Yes. Um and and I don't know how deeply we want to really want to get into that, but I do want to play like the little clip that sparked like, huh, I wonder if we should just kind of talk about this. And this is not necessarily a dime uh episode about the lab grown and natural, it's just kind of um kind of our take on on some of this stuff because we know he is obviously in uh support of natural diamonds and opposed to lab-grown diamonds. I think that's a pretty fair assessment. Although I did find like some quotes and stuff that it's not that he's him and somebody people like him and Aliyah, I think have come around a little bit and softened their stance a little bit on lab grown. Um should I just play it? Play it. Let's just play it. Okay, let me make sure the volume's up here. Let's see.

SPEAKER_05 30:27

People want to save money. You want to understand what it means by someone who wants to it didn't start at the beginning.

SPEAKER_10 30:34

I hate Instagram so much.

SPEAKER_05 30:35

Natural diamonds are if people want to spend money. You want to understand what it means by someone who wants to spend money? Talk to my wife. Talk to your wife if you're successful in business. She has money. Let's go. Natural diamonds are if people want to spend money. Therefore, people want to save money.

SPEAKER_10 31:01

I'll let it play a little bit. Basically, the concept, what he's trying to say is not. Seems like a likable guy. Yeah. I mean, he's very opinionated, and I get he's got a he's got he's a got a vested interest in his little opinion. A little bit. I get it. And this is where I think why we want to talk about this, because I understand where he's coming from. And I don't even necessarily disagree with everything that he says, but I get irritated from a small business jewelry store owner on some of everyone's takes who sit up, it feels like on their ivory towers telling us how terrible lab growns are and how great natural is. That makes sense. Yeah. And so he made the statement that what natural diamonds are for people who spend money and lab grown are for people who are saving money. And maybe I shouldn't have been mildly irritated by hearing him say that, but I'm like, yeah, that's yes, that's that's why that's why we sell both.

SPEAKER_11 32:02

Yes. Correct.

SPEAKER_10 32:03

And like I said, I think some of these stances have softened a little bit. But I don't know, Brad. I mean, obviously I can ramble about it for a little bit, but I don't see, I don't think, and I'll say these people generically, people who are very vocally opposed to lab ground diamonds. To me, I don't I do see it from store owners, but not that often as you see it from people who are more tied to the wholesale side. Again, I get it, but I don't like being lectured by someone who is not a small business independent jewelry store owner.

SPEAKER_11 32:41

You know, yeah, I think and we've we've talked about this. Um it's like like what do they expect us to do? Yeah, like do they expect us to just you know, like we we don't we're a smaller store. So it's like somebody comes in most jewelry stores are yep. So somebody comes in wanting a lab grown diamond or their budget is you know three grand, like what what are we supposed to do? And and the the girl has already sent over like to the to the boy, like this is this is what I want. And it's always two, three carrots. Exactly. Like, what are you gonna do? Like, that's what I want to understand. It's like, oh no, no, you know what? She really wants a quarter carrot.

SPEAKER_10 33:32

Yeah, trust us on this.

SPEAKER_11 33:34

Yeah. Yep. And and we'll have to compromise a little bit on either the color or the clarity, but you know, you know, you know, she'll love it. Yeah, because it's real.

SPEAKER_10 33:44

Again, and and I know we touch on this, and we'll probably touch on this many times before, but as a jewelry store, and I I want to read something. Um, actually, let me see if I have this. Um this is a long post by Aliyah that I found from a while back. Um let me let can I just let me just read this. Aaliyah posted, and I it it might it's this might be a year too old, but she posted on JHJ. I have changed my mind about lab grown diamonds. Well, more accurately, my dad did. I guess her dad changed her mind. The reason I was so pro-natural was no one else was. You say you want Tabers to do massive free diamond promotions, but none of you are willing to do it. They were there were few voices championing natural diamonds. I felt someone had to do it and I still plan on being that voice. Natural diamonds need to be the goal, the aspiration. When a couple comes in, they should be told natural diamonds are the choice for lasting value. Natural are wonderful. Every kid in Botswana gets free education, 10 million diamonds, uh, 10 million people, sorry, 10 million people are fed, I mean she got some typos, are fed annually because of natural diamonds. Hooray. I read that. I should have read. Hooray! Hooray. But if it is out of budget, labs are a good option. This is how they should be presented. But instead, most salespeople are pushing labs because they are cheaper, or worse, natural naturals are being sold as bad for the planet, which is false. So what has changed? My dad put it this way. Actually, let's pause for let's break down the first half of that. Um I don't do you think salespeople are actually pushing that? I don't I mean, and you know what, maybe, and this is the whole thing. We discuss this all the time. There's so many nuanced conversations and topics. Maybe there are some, but but I have a feeling there's a lot that are not.

SPEAKER_11 35:39

I mean, maybe like I can't imagine somebody just you know walking in with a $15,000 budget and a salesperson's like, you know what? No, and what you want is a lab grown for three grand.

SPEAKER_10 35:53

Because for me, the reason when they first started getting popular a few years ago, the reason it came up when it started to come up here is when people came in with unreasonable expectations. Hey, I really want one and a half carat. Okay, well, what kind of budget are we looking at? Oh, I really want to keep it under five thousand. And so you're you have a couple different ways to go as a salesperson. Hey, well, maybe, but it's gonna be, you know, really low clarity and color, we're gonna have to sacrifice a lot. And I think that's a fine conversation to have, but for the first time, we were able to go, well, I'll tell you what, it's that's gonna be it's gonna be pretty hard to find a nice diamond that you're proud of in that budget at that size stone. But we do have these new things called lab grown diamonds, and we can probably get you there or closer to what you want. It was never like, oh yes, we have this new hot product and we're gonna push it down everybody's throats and and convince them that natural is bad. Right. But mostly it's like it's a for for us, it just comes up because when people come in, they start talking, you know, it's it's now it's a natural question. Like, hey, you guys thinking uh natural question? Um hey, are you guys thinking lab or natural? Because I j especially if it's a young couple, it's a fair question. Yeah, it is a reality, it's not like it's a secret that they don't know about, they've probably already looked into it, thought about it. And so when they walk in the door and they're like, Yeah, it surely wants like a two carat, and probably just want to go lab grown. Okay, well, all right. So now my job as a salesman is to get the sale. Yeah, right. It my job is to not say, Oh, hmm.

SPEAKER_11 37:35

You know what I think is funny is in our store, the the only time I get pushback on if um on natural versus lab grown are in necklaces or earrings, yeah, or or bands when um, you know, not necessarily bands, but yeah, just necklaces and and earrings is like or bracelets. It's like why why are these lap grown?

SPEAKER_10 38:05

Yep. Yeah, when it comes to gatoring, people walk in the door kind of already knowing what they want. Yep. And that's just the world that we live in now. The the the internet exists, and and that's why I get irritated with people, and there's some I don't know if these other videos are gonna do a good job of kind of just talking about like margins and stuff. Um But like he doesn't have a problem with, and I watched a few videos trying to just kind of do a little bit of research of talking about this whole value thing, and uh I'm paraphrasing, I'm not quoting him, but essentially it's like you know, natural diamonds hold their value, but it basically the caveat is yeah, if you can buy it close to the resale price, and it's like well that's such a right. I mean, obviously, and and he can he makes it sound like a lot of these are um like it's just like labs are just a straight up scamp. Again, he's not saying that, but it it feels that that way where you feel like if you were watching that and you're a young woman or young couple and you're like trying to figure this out and figure out budget and you ran across this, it you you kind of feel less then because it's like oh I can't really I can't really afford and you that actually let me finish reading what Aliyah wrote because I think it kind of gets into that. Um, let's see. So she said, um so what has changed. Her dad put it this way when he got into this business, an engagement ring was a a quarter carat and it cost a few hundred dollars. But in recent years, size is everything and it has become too expensive for many. My dad thinks for the lower end of the market it's great. She can have that two carat oval she always dreamed of, and the jeweler makes money and the man is happy too. Also, my dad swears that it brings customers in to find jewelry stores that otherwise might have been intimidated. I agree. Yet another reason my father liked them. People spend more on the mountings. A $2,500 mount is no longer such a big deal if your center stone costs much less. I'm sorry if my views ever felt oppressive. I never told you not to sell them in your stores, just not to sell them on JHJ. And I still think selling them on JHJ opens the floodgates to hundreds of tech guys selling factory diamonds, flooding the feed, and no one wants that. Plus, there is no shortage of places to buy labs, you can ask resource labs on JHJ. Okay, blah blah blah. That's just her kind of sharing her opinion. And I think her data is correct. Yep, I think so. And I I know one of the things I've heard um Martin Raffaport say was um like when these people um I hate that I'm like just par paraphrasing stuff, and I don't even know where where I was going with that, but um implying that like you know, these these people are gonna regret these purchases and they're gonna feel like they got screwed. Um again, not a direct quote.

SPEAKER_11 40:52

One thing that um I have found interesting um because I kind of wondered, um you know, it it's been long held that if you sell a a couple and engagement ring, then that opens them up for the anniversary bands and the Christmas presents and the birthday. You're basically their jeweler from now on. And I always wondered, like, how's that work with lab grown? Are they gonna, is it just a commodity? Are they just looking for the the lowest price? And honestly, we've had so many people, uh, so many couples, we are still their jeweler. It's like, you know, they they came in for the lab grown engagement ring five years ago, and now they have bought Christmas presents, they've bought birthday presents, and so nothing's really changed. Like that that relationship is still there, and it was created by the engagement ring that they would not have probably come in for had lab grown not had we just been like, oh no, we don't sell those.

SPEAKER_10 41:57

Yeah. And I mean, a lot of it like and some of the things I've um I've I've interpreted from people like Martin and Aliah is that um it's bringing down our sales. It's like, oh, well, there's so much, such a smaller price point, and now you're missing out on all these big sales. And I don't know a nice way to say that's not true. Right. Well, sorry, yes, the average sale is lower. Yeah. But once Lab Grown got so popular, we started selling more engagement rings than ever. Yeah. And again, I'm not pro either one. I love both. I love selling both. I don't care. The issue is I have a business to run and a family to provide for. So to me, um, we're young couples coming in, they don't feel like they have to settle. They're they're getting designs, and now that's opening the door to cut more custom work than we've ever done before. Yep. And so, and now gold is high, so we're um, you know, we're still getting up there in price point, so we're almost every ring now, is like three to five thousand. Where before we might sell just a couple engaged rings a month, and yeah, maybe and and they were you know, maybe five to eight thousand. But now we're instead of doing a couple a month, we're doing like you know, seven a month or ten a month or whatever it is. And the margins are better, and I think that's what I was getting at. Like, Martin implies like to him, it's terrifically normal for a a consumer, a retail customer, to only pay ten to twenty percent over wholesale.

SPEAKER_11 43:32

Right.

SPEAKER_10 43:33

And I'm like, yeah, that is great for Martin, and it's great for um, I guess it's not great for him because he's not selling diamonds, but it's great for wholesalers and it's great for customers, yeah. I I'm I'm sure it is. Yeah. But as time has gone on, because we all hear the stories from like back in the day when if you're like second, third, fourth generation jeweler, yeah, like they would mark up diamonds like you know, five times, triple, five, whatever. And over the course of The last 20 years, those margins went from like maybe they're getting key to like half of that to okay, now we're marking it up 50%, now we're marking it up 30%, now we're marking it up 20%, and now sometimes you feel like you're just a diamond broker and you're like, Man, I hope I can make 10-15% on this diamond. And we're just supposed to be like fine with that.

SPEAKER_11 44:20

Yep. And we're supposed to bring in three stones for people to compare and contrast, and we're spending an hour with them. An hour with them, and then we're having to to pay for insurance one way or the other, or both. And then they just go to two other jewelry stores to do the same thing. Yep. And and so even if we sell them, that has now eaten into our margin that's already been reduced. And what I don't understand is why he has uh, you know, like telling, like when you're talking to jewelry store owners and you're like, you know what? When you you know selling lab growns, that's going to reduce the amount of um you know per transaction sale. Like, no kidding. Like what jewelry store owner doesn't realize that natural diamonds are more expensive than lab grown sales, like obviously. Yeah. Like that does that's not even that's not the point. Yeah, we're not idiots. Right.

SPEAKER_10 45:21

And that's really and that's what I feel like when uh the some of these people that are on their high horse talk like like we're idiots. Yeah. It's like we haven't figured this out. And I'm like, no, no, no, you don't understand. Like we're down here face to you, none of the people that have these lofty opinions are dealing with the retail customer face to face. Right. I don't I I I'm just gonna go on a limb and assume that's the case. Because when people are walking in and you're trying to pay the bills and you're trying to make a living and you're trying to provide for your family and pay the rent and pay the employees and all that, you this is this is everything we do in this industry. It's like, hey, what's the new trend so that we can, you know, sell it before it's gone, before there's a new trend. And if lab grown diamonds are the trendy thing, like we're all gonna sell them. Now, I will agree, and I know in every facet of business, this is not exclusive to the jewelry industry. There are people that do crazy markups on stuff. Mm-hmm. Yep. And even the online ones, like the the the markup they have on some of these lab grown diamonds is insane. And I think there are probably a few stores out there, maybe more than I think, I don't know, that do these crazy markups. And shame on them. I can get behind that. Shame on them if they paid $200 for a you know, one and a half carat lab grown, and now they're selling it for $5,000. Yes, they should be ashamed. But when we sell when we sell like our gold and silver, most stores we don't mark up gold jewelry the same as silver. No. We might do key, a little over key, two and a half on gold, but pretty much everybody's doing triple if sometimes, in some cases, I would imagine quadruple on silver because it's a lower price point.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

Right.

SPEAKER_10 46:59

So there's no reason, there's no morally or ethically, like we're not doing anything wrong by going like I want to charge you know triple key or quadruple key on these lab home diamonds. Right. And just like with the natural diamonds, the prices are out there, the internet's everywhere, and people are doing their own research. But for one, like you mentioned, Brad, when these couples come in, now we don't have to bring in five stones, four stones, three stones. I mean, we can, but it's like, hey, it's it's D E color and it's V V S1 or V V S two. Like what you know, what you want? They look the same, they're the same price. And so now it's like all the focus has shifted from where it used to be like we gotta, you know, show this guy three diamonds and he can't decide, and he wants to see it outside and think about it and come back. And can I see that little that little um you know flaw that's in the middle, or this one I can't see it? This one just it's the same color, but it looks a little warmer. And I don't know, you think we could get one another one in that's just slightly bigger, but one step lower color grade. Yep. And now we spend all the time, which is way more exciting for me, is to say, hey, all right, cool, we got your two-care oval, perfect. Um, yeah, it's D V V S1, awesome. No need to discuss that anymore. The decision's been made, sight unseen, most likely. Yep. If they really want to see it, cool, here it is. Looks beautiful. All right, now let's spend some time talking about the ring that you're gonna wear for the rest of your life. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_10 48:23

I think it's been great. It's just it's just shifted. And so for us on the retail level, who were face to face with a customer, I'm sorry, but if if you're a wholesaler and you're listening to this, that's what we're facing. That's what we're dealing with.

SPEAKER_11 48:35

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_10 48:37

And so I don't see it as we're shooting ourselves in the foot, like people act like it is.

SPEAKER_11 48:42

But I think I think most wholesale, especially the ones we deal with, understand that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 48:47

I I think a lot of them understand it for sure. Um, because they're talking to people like us, and they're hearing and they're asking, and and they get it too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 48:57

Um it's just the people that and I'm not talking about anybody's uh you just hear a lot of this from people who aren't hear a lot of it just from you know, TikTok or Instagram or whatever, just people running their mouth. And they're not really if they are in the industry, it's at such a high level that it's it's like you said, they're not dealing with customers and they're not even dealing with the people that deal with customers. So they're like so far removed from what is happening.

SPEAKER_10 49:29

So if I'm paraphrasing one of the kind of arguments, is that um jewelers who are selling lab grown lab-grown diamonds, they're trading long-term trust for short-term margins.

SPEAKER_11 49:40

Um yes, if you are presenting it in a certain way, then absolutely. If you are presenting it in a way that I would say 99.9% of us are, then no. Like if you think people are like you said, people already know that's the direction they're going to go in.

SPEAKER_10 50:00

So I remember having in uh, you know, rewind the take three or four years ago when they started taking off. I remember telling people all the time, I'm like, you know, hey, this is new, everybody's excited about it, people are buying it. And I'm like, you know, it is yes, this is, you know, instead of back then it was, you know, instead of 5,000, you get the lab groom for the lab groom version for $2,500. And I remember saying, hey, this is the price right now. In a year or two years or 10 years, I don't know. The the same diamond that you're buying for $2,500 might be worth a thousand in a year, or it might be in 10 years, it might be worth $500. I don't know. And being able to have that conversation of honestly, I don't know where the prices are going because I didn't know. And now we're, you know, I'd say we're arguably close to rock bottom for just the price to grow them and to cut them and all that good stuff. But and people understood that. Now I know customers forget. I get that, and maybe it will be a problem at some point in time. But I know I said what I had to say, not to make the sale, but to make sure that morally I'm explaining how this works. Yep. It it reminded me of um, I wrote a note, it reminded me of dude. I remember going, um, it was when me and my wife bought our first house, or maybe it was when we had an apartment, I don't remember. But we wanted to go get, and this was, you know, early 2000s. Um we wanted to go get like a flat screen TV and a Blu-ray player. Oh yeah. And and you'd go to, you know, Circuit City or whatever, and or you know, I about said the place that's local here, but and you go and you're looking and you're like Bespa. Yeah. Um and so you know, we get our 37-inch flat screen TV and a Blu-ray player, and it was like, you know, fifteen hundred dollars. Yep. And we didn't even question it. Nor did the salespeople say, Hey, just so you know, all right, about 10 years you can get this for about 300 bucks. Right. Yep. They didn't, even if they did know, if I asked, you know, all their answer would be it's like, yeah, I mean, I don't know. Once these things blow up, they might get cheaper, because that's how everything works except natural diamonds or something. Imagine that. But it's like, you know, and I remember, you know, I laugh now, I look back and be like, man, we spent like $1,500 on like now. If I spent $1,500 I already get like a sound like my daughter talking. Now if I spent $1,500, it's like, what size TV could I get now? Like an 80-inch or something? Right, exactly. And it's like I don't even need no Blu-ray player, I can just, you know, plug in my Roku and it's like good to go. And it's like to me, it's the I know it's not the same. It's the same as far as like finances, paper, and like expectations go, but I get uh a ring is um something that is you're not just gonna like upgrade it in five years when you move. Right. But I think that that can sell the that sells the lab grown in either direction the way you look at it, because hey, you're coming in, you picked out a stone, you wanted a big two carat, even though you couldn't afford a two-carat natural, obviously, and you designed this ring and we did a custom ring for you. Okay, so now fast forward, this is kind of the funny part. Fast forward, the mounting is now twice the price as it was three years ago, but the diamond is a quarter the price. So really the pricing isn't that much different. Yeah, but ultimately, what is it? It's a symbol of your love and dedication to one another, that you both spent time together. It's that burp stage of the podcast. I was like, when should I mention this? And um, and so I would imagine I I can only speak from personal experience, but my wife has never, you know, looked at her ring and just been like, Man, I can't believe this has lost so much value over the years. She hasn't. And she looks at it and goes like, Man, I remember when I designed this. I rem I remember being part of the process. I remember, you know, at our 10-year anniversary.

SPEAKER_05 54:00

Oh snap.

SPEAKER_10 54:03

She doesn't know that she I guess I disconnect. She knows we're recording right now. My goodness. That was Heather, my wife, calling in. Should I have answered? No, we can edit it out. Hold on. I'm gonna call her back.

SPEAKER_11 54:17

Let's do it. I'm gonna take my headphones off. No, put it on, put it on. Okay. Somebody's at our door, by the way.

SPEAKER_09 54:22

I don't care. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 54:28

Hey babe.

SPEAKER_10 54:29

All right, before you start talking, we are in the middle of recording a podcast when you called. So whatever you say will be on the podcast. Go ahead. What you got?

SPEAKER_01 54:38

It will be on the podcast.

SPEAKER_10 54:40

Yep. Go ahead. What you need?

SPEAKER_01 54:45

Husband duties.

SPEAKER_10 54:46

Uh-oh. Let's hear it.

SPEAKER_01 54:48

Um, I need you to pick up groceries on the way home from Food Lion, please.

SPEAKER_10 54:52

Boom. Could have been a text.

SPEAKER_11 54:54

Oh, but you won't be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

I'm driving.

SPEAKER_10 54:57

I know, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 54:58

And yeah, thanks a lot. Thanks, Brad. Okay.

SPEAKER_11 55:02

Happy Mother's Day, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 55:04

Thank you. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_11 55:06

All right, send me the link. I'll pick them up.

SPEAKER_01 55:09

All right. I heard you. Okay. Love you, bye.

SPEAKER_11 55:12

Love you too, Bobby. Love you too.

SPEAKER_10 55:20

All right. That's great. You know what? She probably knew I was on a rant and just probably needs to shut up.

SPEAKER_11 55:28

My husband, I can tell he's not very happy right now.

SPEAKER_10 55:32

But it's weird that we were talking about her and then she called. That is weird. That is definitely weird.

SPEAKER_11 55:38

We should ask her about what she thinks about with her ring.

SPEAKER_10 55:41

She would call her back. No, but but that you know, she looks at her ring and is like, this is a symbol of our marriage. This is something that I helped create. She does not, and I know this is not every woman, but she does not care if it cost fifty dollars or fifty thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_11 56:00

Yeah, that's definitely. I mean, my wife's not like that either. Um, but yeah, there there's quite a few out there that are.

SPEAKER_10 56:07

But most women, even the ones that come in the store, they're just, you know. Yeah, no, exactly. A lot of times they're just like, ah, you know, my style's changed, so I kind of want a different style. Yep. Yep. It's they're they're never just like, man, I just can't believe this has lost so much value. Right. We've been married for 20 years, and I just I didn't expect to lose this much value. Right. Like the only people who are bummed and irritated are the ones who like bought it and then two years later got a divorce. And they're like, you can't sell this. We paid like $2,000 for it.

SPEAKER_03 56:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_10 56:36

And I'm like, yeah, that's that's yep, loss is part of a divorce. I don't know what to tell you. Like stuff's crap happens. This is not like a marriage podcast, so it's it's a whole nother thing. It was there for like two minutes. For two minutes it was. But when it's just, I just don't I don't know. I get irritated when I just hear these things. That's all I'm saying. Couple comes in, young couple, they're in love, they're excited. She's already picked out a design, it holds a three carat. They don't have 50 grand to spend on engagement ring. Okay, who cares? I'm not lying to them, I'll not rip them off. If you're lying to customers and ripping them off, then yes, you should be ashamed of yourself. But if you're like, yeah, hey, the current pricing of these or I can get you one three carat for, you know, whatever your margins wants to be, I can get you one for $1,500. I don't know if that's too low or too high for you. You're at your store, but if you're marking it up to like $3,000 or $10,000, then you're an idiot. And that is dishonest. And if you're just like, yeah, yeah, we have these lab grounds, you've done your research, let me answer any questions you have. Um, good thing now is in 2026 selling these is we're pretty close to rock bottom, so the prices aren't going to change very much. These are all conversations that should have happened two or three, four, or five years ago. Yes. You should have had them back then. And if you were dishonest back then and you set yourself up, then yes.

SPEAKER_11 58:00

I'm not sure. But I think most people were very honest the whole the entire time.

SPEAKER_10 58:05

I would say and I know people, I know clients forget stuff that you tell them. I fully get that.

SPEAKER_03 58:10

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_10 58:11

Yep. But but they forget that no matter what. Yes. Because the same conversation could be had if they bought a natural diamond. Yep. What if they had come in five years ago and were like, oh, you uh well if they're only half the price, let me just get a natural and I'll pay 30 grand for it. All right, cool. And what if they said, hey, let's say I get divorced in five years, how much are you gonna buy this diamond back for from me for? What are you gonna say? Right, exactly. You're gonna tell them, oh yeah, I'll buy it back at like 30,000. No, you won't. Nope. Nobody will. Correct. You'd be lucky if you tell them you'll buy it back at half the price. And then they're gonna and what are they gonna say to that? Wait a minute. So if I get divorced in the next five years and want to sell this back to you, I'm only getting 15.

SPEAKER_03 58:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 58:58

That's how almost everything that you purchase in life works. Almost everything. Yes. Anyway.

SPEAKER_09 59:08

Let me step down, step down off my hobby.

SPEAKER_10 59:10

Are you done? Jeez. Somebody call me. Stop me. I don't know. You know what I'm saying? It's just it's just all it's all. We get you. We get you, mate. It's okay. There was another one. Um you just want to play another dumb video? Yes, let's play another one. Let's just see what this one says.

SPEAKER_00 59:27

I think the biggest misconception, you hit on it just there, is to do with ethics or sustainability. One of them could be synthetic diamonds are better for our environment because they're made, not mined. No mining involved in these products, and it's just like, oh, hold on. Okay, there's no mining when you push the button to create a synthetic diamond, but what happens before? So at the very beginning, you've got all of the raw minerals that you have to acquire before you can actually make anything.

SPEAKER_04 59:55

The argument that synthetic diamonds are more ethical than natural diamonds is absolutely false. First of all, take a look at Botswana. Natural diamonds, hospitals, schools, clean water, throats. Tell me, when's the last time a synthetic diamond built a hospital? Not all natural diamonds, and not all synthetic diamonds are ethical, are correct. But natural diamonds make the world a better place for countries like Botswana. And they're a million times better than any of those synthetic diamonds. Another issue is, oh, you really think that synthetic diamonds are so much better? What about the one million people in Africa that are artisanal diggers? You'd like them to start? Is that your ethics? So you gotta be careful over here. Synthetic diamonds are pretty much a fraudulent product that they're selling against natural diamonds. So they're saying, oh, natural diamonds $10,000, I'll sell you this for $8,000, they buy it for $80. So no, no, no.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:45

Well, if you're talking I'll go ahead and cut him off there, because it's like uh he gets me because some uh things he says, I'm like, yeah, I I some things are very true. I agree. And then he kind of like just goes back and forth to like, okay, nobody's buying an $80 lab going and selling it for $8,000. It's just not happening. Right. And if it is happening, again, honestly, those people should be taken to court and sued. Whatever.

SPEAKER_11 1:01:06

It's it's um hold on. Let me get some water, Dusty. Go for it. Go go ahead and talk. Actually, you want me to drink right in front of the mic? Yeah, okay, I do it all the time. Watch. It's um, I think they call it a straw man argument, right? It's like that's not like you're you're making the case for something that doesn't exist. It's like nobody you're trying to create lab grown as the enemy uh based on they're buying it for 80 and selling it for 8,000. That doesn't exist. Nobody's doing that.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:43

I mean, why don't tomorrow uh the next week's wrap list, why don't he just cut all the uh natural diamond prices by a quarter? Yeah, just do that.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

Right.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:57

And so yeah, I agree. I agree. I am on that side of yeah, there are good things that come from natural diamonds, exactly. And I'm also not in that whole boat of you know, um lab grown or like this green type, you know, product because I know their factories and materials have to go in. Like I'm not stupid, and I don't think a lot of jewelry store owners are stupid, or jewelers in general are that stupid, but it's a in in some slight way, it always feels like they're telling us how how the world works. And then we're stupid. And we're the ones down here in the world figuring it out in real time.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:35

Guess what happens? Wow. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:40

Um, last little video. I forgot why I saved this one. Let's play it.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:46

I think synthetics are great, I think cubics are cunning is great, I think all kinds of things are great. Stay within that's a role. I don't know. I think the toilet paper business is pretty big, too. But I don't think people in jewelry stores should be selling toilet paper and pink pumples or any other kinds of stuff. It's good. But we're in the real diamond business for real people, real love, real commitment, real stuff. Everybody wants to make a real commitment to somebody else. Stop selling people a bunch of customers. Stand by your products, stand by your values, stand by who you are, know who you I'll just cut him off.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:20

That's annoying. Again, it's the it's like some of the things he says, I'm like, Yeah, I understand what you're saying. I'm with you. And then it's like it just does this little shift of so now if you're not buying your significant other a quote unquote real diamond, it's not real love.

SPEAKER_11 1:03:36

Yep, right.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:37

So yeah, that sounds very convenient to say from your what I've been calling your ivory tower.

SPEAKER_11 1:03:45

Yep. And it's not it's not an obvious honest conversation that he's trying to have. It's just like I said, it's a straw man argument, and then it's um belittling, and it's gaslighting, it's all the things. And it's not like I think as a jewelry store owner across the board, we can have discussions that are frank and and honest, and everybody gets it. Like everybody can tell natural and everybody can tell live grown, and everybody understands the reasons, and it's just these guys that they're basically it's like people you see on cable news or sports radio, it's like I gotta have the hot take because that's what gets the clicks. Maybe. Um I hope this gets clicks this episode. We have some hot takes, I tell you. And uh I just it man, I can't stand to hear people talk like that.

SPEAKER_10 1:04:44

Well, okay, so on one hand, as the Jordan industry, we all agree this in general, this is a luxury item. But the industry has done such a good job of of convincing everyone that we all need a luxury item to show our love. So on one hand, like just let's just count it, count our wins, consider you know, consider the wins. Even if someone, if a couple comes in here that has little to no money, they have been convinced in their lifetime that they need to come buy a diamond ring. Right. Or a gemstone ring. Yep. And so they find themselves in a jewelry store, even though they wouldn't really what you would consider having luxury money. Correct. So in one way, we've won. We have people coming in from all walks of life to celebrate their love and their commitment in a jewelry store. They want to come make a purchase. And so if their budget is a thousand dollars, the industry, people like Martin have convinced people that this is what they want. So now they are they're here. You got great job. It's a win. But now what are we supposed to do when there was no other option except to say, Hey, we can get you this um quarter carrot and a little thin solitaire. And we'll get you out of here for a thousand bucks. And now they know, hey, what if I want one print and out because of the price of gold, they can't even get a mounting for a thousand dollars. So we should have a whole new set of problems. And it's still a luxury item that is still pushing people to the to spend money on something that is a little painful to purchase. I think Amazon just pulled up. Oh sweet um you want to go grab that real quick because I think it's our um oh they laid it at the door. Never mind. They laid it at the door. You don't have to do it, Brett. Oh, he's gone. Yeah, we'll get it on the way out. Um I don't know. I d I don't think we really um answered any questions here. We just thought provoking conversation I guess what we did the whole time. Um yeah it's weird like the people who again I'll I I I don't want to lump people in there but like Aliyah and Martin, I get their stance. I understand it. I actually agree with them to a certain extent but it's just when that little shift in turn happens to imply that that we shouldn't or or or or else I shouldn't say or else our customers are gonna we're gonna lose our customers because they're not gonna trust us anymore. Right. I I just it bothers me so much. It was actually nice to read something like Aaliyah like kind of admit that you know her dad was able to talk something to or you know anyway.

SPEAKER_11 1:07:33

Aliyah hopefully we'll be on in the summertime animal player that clip Yeah I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_10 1:07:39

I mean it'll it'll be uh yeah if we get her on it'll be a fun conversation. I'm not I don't I know I can I can get ear it's this is where we are in the world. I can be irritated and disagree with people without hating them or disliking them. Oh no yeah absolutely and I think that's where we got to get back to as a world in general. Man we this podcaster just we are just going around the world today boys. But and it's why you know I know we are Instagram friends and Facebook friends from people from all walks of life with different opinions on different things. And that's why here on this podcast and on our on our feeds we don't we're it's not like we're trying to like not take stances on things. It's just hey we're we're here as a community to like have fun, to laugh to help each other when we can and you know that's what that's what I'm trying to take a stance.

SPEAKER_11 1:08:29

I I'm so tired of these mystery dum dumb stellar people have spoken down.

SPEAKER_10 1:08:35

We're tired of it. They need a person to pick those out and trash them. I would rather you send me a flavor that I don't like and I open it I'm like I don't like that flavor I can throw it away instead of a a a stupid mystery dum dum that I'm like well let me open it and see if it's a flavor I hate. Let me lick it and I hope it's nasty so annoying right stupid.

SPEAKER_11 1:09:01

Hopefully nobody's still listening at this point. We gotta get off here. Apparently I have to go pick up some great and take my son to drum practice.

SPEAKER_10 1:09:09

Yay all right Brad it's been fun um I don't know what we accomplished in this episode but we talked for over an hour that's all that we get paid the same regardless.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:19

Exactly all right well thanks everybody for listening we'll see you next time on Ben ShulerMe's podcast 364 days down the diamonds in the quad down Christmas Eve I said stones do you get his rings something else Valentine's start every holidays and else close up stopping the walk away circle the one a week in it and then one week starts today people to die but the oldest color and the coolest cold and floor these are that we've got to be a little bit well to the break beautiful come down to the next one I wish I had a nitty pot at work to get everything out let me get my head my headphones outright remember keep your mouth closed jerk or needle natty pot natty pot we should have one here have you ever tried ones that are not like we have the standard natty pot the old school gravity have you tried any of the like sucking ones the ones that really suck no I wonder how they work though.

SPEAKER_10 1:14:48

I did every week with your nose let me see I didn't even grab that sheet of notes I don't think we're gonna maybe we can get sponsored by like a ear nose and throat doctor and uh if they can clear you up you can I think I'm provided testimony I think what it is is um yeah um when you get like a stuffy nose but you're also simultaneously taking like allergy medicine I'm wondering if it like bugs it down. Yeah you know I don't know you know maybe maybe interesting there's a if there's any doctors listening which I'm sure we're big in the medical community.

SPEAKER_11 1:15:31

Alright do we know what we're gonna talk about I guess I guess I took some little notes you got some little notes what's weird is if somebody I guess we're gonna put this at the end of the podcast so if somebody listens to this they'll know what we talked about before we actually know what we're talking about at this point in history.

SPEAKER_10 1:15:52

So you you have a story about that I that I haven't heard yet about a clock about the clock I don't know how we're gonna transition to some of this but how are we gonna open post Mother's Day catch up yeah we'll just talk about Mother's Day and then we'll talk about uh the the buy me uh buy me a beer I don't have um I don't have the little shop talk theme saved to the soundboard yet but we're gonna hew it I think about it right before we start to record I don't have time to do it all right and then we'll do buy me a beer and then we'll do you want to talk about the tins? Oh my gosh yeah they're pretty much gone they're sold out sold out we'll do more okay are we ready? Yep all right you wanna count us down and clap we don't have to always do it oh always oh I was gonna count up can we count up let's just keep counting one two dude I'm looking at a watch repair over here already typed it up it's for a Skagen Denmark watch but it says S X A G E N. God, how stupid. I'm just kidding. Alright you ready? Three two one action