In the Loupe
In the Loupe
Retailer Roundtable: Doing Things Differently This Holiday Season
Michael is joined by three independent jewelers who share how they protect margins, create memorable offers, and keep teams sharp during the busiest weeks of the year.
We discuss gold pricing, VIP outreach, gift guides, and why the week after Christmas can outsell Black Friday.
Guests:
Vincent Spilotro from Arezzo Jewelers
Anna Barnett from Barnett Jewelers
Lee Elgin from Elgin's Fine Jewelry
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Welcome to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop. This week I have a retailer roundtable, and this is a popular series where I have uh retail jewelers on to discuss what their store is looking like, how they're preparing for the holidays, and uh what they're thinking about going into the most important time of the year. I have on Vincent Spilacho from Arezzo Jewelers, Anna Barnett from Barnett Jewelers, and Lee Elgin from Elgin Find Jewelry. And we're talking all about how they're prepping for the holidays and if they're running sales. It's a really interesting conversation because they seem to be learning from each other and uh it's a really cool conversation. I hope you enjoy. Cheers!
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SPEAKER_01:What's up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. I'm joined by Anna Barnett from Barnett Jewel Jewelers, uh, Lee Algin from Algin's Fine Jewelry, and Vince Spilaccio from Arezzo Fine Jewelry. The main goal with this one is I'd like to talk about what it is that you guys are doing for your stores, other than just opening up the unlocking the doors and letting people in to buy some beautiful jewelry. Uh, we all know that if you were to do that, the holidays would kind of, you know, handle some of the marketing for you. It's kind of built into the marketing calendar. But I kind of wanted to ask, maybe we can start with uh Vincent. Can you just kind of give me an idea? What is your mindset going into the holidays this year?
SPEAKER_05:Well, this year, I'm I'm hoping it's going to be a good year. Uh we we definitely bought a lot, prepared a lot for the year, uh, gold being the price that it's at. We're very fortunate to already have a stock of it. So we're not planning on buying any more of that uh kind of that kind of stock for our store. But um getting prepared, uh, I hired a new employee to actually help me with the marketing aspect. I am reaching out to my VIPs. I haven't yet, but I will. And uh I will have uh two different sales. Uh one will be like a generalized sale, and the other one will be um focusing on my super high-end product because I feel like this year is not the year for the super high-end stuff. So I wanted to clear out what I have because I do have a lot of that inventory. And then I want this year to be the last year I actually have a sale in the holidays because I want to put I want to move my sales to different parts of the year because we're getting the customers anyway. So I want to see if that is uh I'll I'll test it out next year to see if that works. But yeah, this year I'll be having a couple sales and uh next year, hopefully, I won't be having them during the holidays.
SPEAKER_01:That's so interesting. I love that because, like, in the end, if you're gonna have the people walking through, if you discount something, let's just say 10%, theoretically you're just kind of wasting 10%, right?
SPEAKER_05:So yeah, that's that's an interesting kind of thing. My my mindset now is my uh inventory is pretty well priced because I haven't raised it since this huge increase of the gold price. So I will probably be doing that closer to holiday. Um, I did raise it before a few months ago, but I haven't raised it again. So my my inventory is already well priced. It would be the discount price if if I put it up to market price today.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, interesting. And what about you, Anna? Um, what's your mindset kind of going into this part of the year? We were just talking about is it like exciting? Is it uh dreading? I don't know. What what are your kind of uh where's your head at going into this year?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. First of all, thank you so much for having me on this. Um, we are so excited about the rest of the year. Uh, we've got a lot going on. Um, this year we've we've kind of like switched our agenda to giving things, giving like a free gift instead of doing sales um and partnering with Edge Retail Academy. We really want to like move away from discounting. So in May, we gave away five-day, four-night cruises. And for Christmas, we're doing um half carat lab gram studs for Black Friday weekend. So when they spend a thousand dollars, they get a free pair of those studs. So I'm very excited about that. We've never done anything like this. It's always been like, you know, come in for 50% off. And we really, like I said, we really want to get away with from that. So I'm very excited to see how that goes. We're sending out postcards with drive retail for that, and then I'm doing um digital marketing with hope uh with you guys. Um that's that's going really well. Uh, she's gonna do some emails for me as well. So very, very excited about that. We um we also do ladies' night every year, and we usually have one, um, meaning like all the ladies get invited to one night, but after talking with um the Falls family, Falls jewelers, they actually do two ladies' nights.
SPEAKER_03:Interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so they do that because it like it obviously gives people two different days they could come, where like, you know, if they were out of town for one, they could come to the other one. Um, and why that was so appeasing to me was because when we have one lady's night, there's so many people in our store you can hardly walk. And it's overwhelming for my sales team, it's overwhelming for the the customers because they can hardly move. And we really want to be able to give everyone some more dedicated time. So I'm actually gonna split the alphabet up and do, you know, A through M last names are gonna be invited to one night, M through Z is gonna be a different night. So um, yeah, really collaborated with Caleb on that one to get two nights going. And I'm excited to see how that turns out. That's always a those events are always great because women will self-purchase and they'll fill out wish lists. So it it's always a big success. So very excited about that, and very excited about giving away some studs and seeing what kind of business that drums up.
SPEAKER_01:So cool. Man, really interesting to hear that you can just uh that small like tinkering, like just the little small tweak, can make such a big impact. Is when you do your wish list, this is maybe a silly question. Are you having them fill out physical, like um like pen and paper type wish lists, or are you having them do like a digital version? What how do you execute that?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's a great question. So it is a physical wish list. Um, they fill out the top part, you know, is all their information, the second part is their spouse or significant other or whoever's gonna be shopping for them, and then we um, you know, put the SKU numbers down on there. What we usually do is we will put all of those into like a clear container and we do drawings throughout the night, you know, for ladies' night. Oh, fun. So it's yeah, it's enticing for them because if they fill one out, you know, they go into the drawing, they can win something that night. And then what we do when the event is over is we actually put them all into the edge so that no matter who comes in and shops for that person, um, whichever employee's helping, they can literally just pull up the account and it's all right there in edge. Wow. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's it makes it so so uh so simple and also effective that you can also, you know, kind of have a shelf life to it. But and Lee and yourself, um, I know that you were talking, uh I talked with you previously about you know getting excited and also marketing throughout the entire year. Uh so this part of the year seems like it's kind of the continuation of that. Um, are you doing anything different, kind of going into the final push, or are you just keeping the foot down on the gas sort of thing?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, hey, thanks. It's uh great to be here. Yeah, we're we're keeping our foot on the gas for sure. Um, we've got our sort of marketing plan in place. Um and we'll uh we'll crank back up some video ads on like um streaming TV and things like that. We did it last year. It seemed to get a good response and had some good metrics, and so we and we had a good season last year, so we're gonna allocate some budget for that on top of the other digital marketing efforts and things we had. And you know, and it it's always uh this time of year is super busy, we're getting ready for the holidays. Um, I love it. It's the best time of the year. Uh I don't dread it one bit. Nice. We're so excited, you know. Um we is and as far as like sales and things, I'm kind of in the camp with Vincent, you know, in the last year or two, we've sort of gotten away from the the discounting messaging uh around the holidays, um, moving more towards just gift guides. You know, we're gonna put together a lot of gift guides um that we'll have um landing pages on the website and things like that. And then um now we did just have a big six-hour, sixty off like nice clearance sale and was really successful, so that's gonna take care of the discounting, I think, for a while, but it was it worked well. We got we moved a lot of um things we've had just a little too long, so it was it was successful. But no, we're we're gonna keep our foot on the gas, man, and uh finish the year on a high note for sure.
SPEAKER_01:So cool. No, Vincent and Anna, just out of curiosity, did you guys uh did you guys hear this suggestion about getting away from discounts? Or is that something that comes like internally, like you're making your own strategy, or did someone advise you to move away from sales? Because it sounds like you kind of both developed that strategy independently. Um I'm always curious, is it like a data-driven approach to looking at your own sales from years past? Or um is this like, ah, we should try something new? What does that kind of decision making look like?
SPEAKER_05:For me, I could tell you 100%. Someone told me. Oh, really? When they told me it cli it clicked. And uh, yeah, I was like, of course, of course, like that's that's silly of us. And I wanted to say the reason why I'm still like I didn't want to have a sale this year, but the reason why we are still is because we carry that Pandora line and we are having a closeout sale for them, so that we're gonna bundle up our sale by getting rid of that line. And then post that we're having a trunk show for a trunk show for a new silver line that we're gonna come in to replace it. So that's very exciting. Very exciting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so for us, um, someone told me as well. Um, we're clients of Edge Retail Academy. Um, Amy is our business coach, and before that, Stephen Barnes was, and and he said the same thing. Um, so the biggest thing is like, you know, the expectation that once something's on sale, they get a discount, they come in next time, they're gonna always expect whatever they buy to be on sale. So we obviously want to move away from that. The other thing is that we use the IJO pricing guidelines. So everything that we have out is already priced for the margins that we should be getting on every single piece. So, I mean, we really shouldn't be discounting, right? Because it's priced at what we should get for that piece. So it's really just moving away and getting the margins that we need, you know, on the items. So um, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Adding to Vincent's point about, you know, a lot of our inventory is probably priced good anyway. Uh just with how you know the surge we've had in gold in the last six months, so uh really the whole year. Um, so it's kind of like um uh you know they're getting a good deal versus having to maybe customize it or special order it at current pricing, current gold. So um that you know, that's uh another reason to kind of, you know, and then even offer that to the customer as a as a reason to buy is like, look, if we sell this and have to order it, you know, it might cost more, you know, urgency.
SPEAKER_01:That was like kind of that question is uh I always wonder, like, are retailers or sorry, are customers actually paying attention to that? Because I'm always like, I'll talk to my friends, like, oh, did you know that the price of gold is just like increasingly breaking records and it's like insane? And 90% of my friends are like, I have no idea, or honestly, maybe even 100% of my friends have no idea about the price of gold, even the ones that like they might might be able uh pay it paying attention to it. Do you ever have that conversation about like this is an investment? Like you're buying uh a large quantity of gold at a time when it's important to be buying gold, or is that conversation not really being had with shoppers?
SPEAKER_05:So I sell gold, like that's one of our bread and butter is gold here. We sell solid gold chains, pendants, earrings, everything gold. And I feel like I have that conversation several times a day. I've customers know they know, but they're blissfully ignorant to it because I mean it's gold, so it's already expensive, and they think I'm just increasing the price. But it's uh I explain it every day. The price of gold's four thousand dollars. Oh, oh, is that expensive? I'm like, well, it doubled this year. Um almost, it almost doubled this year. So whatever you bought last year cost twice as much this year. Oh, I can't believe that. And then you go and you try to show it's it is a broad concept to most people. So I do have that conversation every day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, look at the chart. Like you can see, we're not making up this number. Like, this is literally the price almost, I think, everywhere in the world at this point. It's like it's it's an it's universal.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, our customers tend to uh some of them are sort of in tune with it, and others we talk about, um, talk about it with them, and it's uh it's crazy what's happened with the gold price. And um, you know, it's uh it's always hard to predict what's gonna happen, but um it seems to be um it doesn't seem to be coming down anytime soon. Of course, the minute I say that it'll crash. Knock on wood. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the minute I go buy a bunch of coins, then it's you know, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's really interesting. I uh I I think gold is one of those things that is, I feel like has the propensity to um break out of like our little echo chamber of jewelry. Um for example, I thought that lab grown diamonds would be that catalyst for like people suddenly taking an interest in not suddenly taking an increased interest in the jewelry world. Um, like, hey, did you know that the that diamonds are like being able to be made and like the price is like fluctuating? Um, no one, none of my friends that are not in jewelry uh seem to uh be aware of that kind of discourse. But then with gold, I I think that that one is it's on the news all the time and it's uh it's one of the tickers, you know, it's always there. Um, I didn't know if that is our lab groans being spoken about and how the price is kind of increasingly going down. Um to Yeah, but every but that's something everyone knows.
SPEAKER_05:Like that I don't have the conversation. They they come and they already know. Like yesterday, customer came in and never met before. They're like I and their quote was, I can't believe how cheap lab groans have gotten.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, really? Oh, interesting. Um, and I guess back to this discussion around the holidays. What's our thoughts on um, I think it might have been Anna or Vincent was mentioning reaching out to your VIPs? And this is one of those discussions that um I actually have started to take to heart from having spoken to people on in the loop uh when it comes to my own paintings. I used to be kind of shy about the ideas of um, I mean, affectionately referred to them as whales, you know, these uh clients that are VIPs that spend a fair amount of money with you, uh, whether it's because they really like you or they have a lot of available and liquid, you know, money. Um, do you guys lean into the marketing towards these uh small number of VIPs or whales? Is that something that you're you actively are trying to do, or does it just happen naturally?
SPEAKER_05:Um, I know I think I talked to Anna about this. Uh, she was really good at this. I I do, but I'm trying to be better at it. Uh, I feel like we did a good job last year really getting uh used to the my not me doing it, my employees doing it. Um Lee mentioned that he did that 60 off, 60 percent, 60% off, six hour sale. And James Pork gives you a script, and one year we did it and the we used the script and it wasn't successful. And last year we used our own script and it was wildly successful. And so I feel if we uh if we keep that momentum going, if we start calling do the same thing we did last year without the big sale, we'll still have the same success.
SPEAKER_06:Interesting. Yeah, and we we reached out to our VIPs for the sale, a lot of them, and um a good number of them came in and were appreciative of the to let them know, you know. Um and we've even we even had some where it was like uh you know, with the discount they got, it was we we were worried that maybe we're pulling forward some business from Christmas, but a lot of people ended up just saying, Well, I'm gonna get this today. And then something else later, I'm gonna put this on hold for Christmas. And we went ahead and gave them the price, you know, and it's like, look, just put you. So they we've ended up moving two multiple pieces, um, and then also it's set up to where those sales will count around Christmas time. So it's um it was kind of a win-win. But outside of that, yeah, just that direct outreach, people really appreciate it. Yeah, most people and are just super, you know, responsive to it. And um we we we try not to rely on those sales sort of to like make the year or make the season, but man, it really helps when they come through, you know. Yeah, it does. It's it feels good when you have that, you know, five-figure sale and you're like, yeah, come on.
SPEAKER_05:And I feel like once you start reaching out, it it's you're uncomfortable because you're afraid of the response you might get, but vast majority is positive. You everyone's gonna get a few people just hang up on you, no big deal. But honestly, the vast majority of people are very, you know, happy to hear from you. So that's what makes it better. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:What about you, Anna?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I don't know that our messages necessarily say we rely on them, but I cater to them so that I get the business. Uh, and what I mean by that is I call I have this special list of people, I call them my concierge people. I drive jewelry to these people. Um, Jacksonville is a huge city. So that's so cool. Um yeah, so there's a couple zip codes in our city that are like 45, 50 minutes from our jewelry store, hiring clients. Um, they literally, they're doctors, most of them are doctors, uh, friends of the family. Um, and they will, you know, I'll reach out to them. How can I help shop, you know, for your wife this this year? So they'll send me some things and I'll send pictures back and forth, and then we'll decide on something and I will take it to them. Um, so those are all you know, 10,000, I would say, plus sales. And um, I'm happy to do that. I love doing it. Uh, it's fun to get out of the office and and go take that. But yeah, so that's how I mean obviously we have customers that spend that that come in, but um, that's like a special little thing that I do, and I make a little a box. Um, I think you know, Kyle Maynard has seen it. I know Vincent has seen it, but I I put in all of our branded stuff, um, our signature scent, um, you know, jewelry cleaner. I make it nice and fun, some champagne, and I take that like with the gift every year that they pick out. So um, yeah, so I love that that concierge list that I cater to. Um, and then of course, you know, the ladies' night and stuff like that. There's some big people that come into those events and stuff like that, but but the special thing is is really hand delivering those pieces.
SPEAKER_05:That gift box that Anna makes is incredible.
SPEAKER_02:It's incredible.
SPEAKER_01:Go on about the signature scent. Is that like a perfume that you guys like built or what what is that?
SPEAKER_02:So that is through Air Essentials. Um, I know they're in IJO, I don't know if they're probably in RJO too, but um, yeah, it's a company that they actually um they have like tons of scents that are already made, but they will brand it to your company. And so they've got some big accounts, like they do the Waldorf Astoria Hotel scent, um, which we think is the same scent that Barney Jewelers has because we went on a trip and we like walked in the hotel and we were like, whoa, this smells like Barnet Jewelers. Um, so yeah, they have some big accounts. The scents are all amazing, and you can just I think you can like completely cust, you know, do a custom one if you want to. But we picked one that was already made and branded it to our store. And so we have the scent in a diffuser in the store. So you walk in, you immediately smell it. It's made for a big space. Yeah, and then they can purchase it in a um diffuser for their home or a room spray. Um, and people do buy those, but I I give a lot of those away to our VIP clients.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, that's branding on a whole nother level when you think about it. Because what they always say branding is just um having a signature for every sense, and they always I guess that we do always kind of forget, uh, like you know, the uh sense of smell. And yes, what a really fascinating way to extend it. A plus, good, good, good show. Punchmark's gonna get a signature scent pretty soon, I'm pretty sure. That's that's awesome. All right, guys. So I kind of also want to talk about uh trends. And I'm a big fan of jewelry trends, but I see it from a very different lens than you guys in that I'm I feel like I'm watching uh just through a screen at this point. Where I live is man, I wish I could just bring you guys here and have you guys see it's very uh very redneck. No one wears uh really jewelry, but what they do wear is really interesting to me. So a lot of um gold hoops and a lot of uh like just gold jewelry in general is very popular up here because it has to be removable because a lot of people work with their hands, very blue collar. So if you have like um you know a bracelet, you need to be able to take the bracelet off uh regularly. Otherwise, uh you won't be able to get onto some of these job sites if you have like um, you know, a Cuban link and you can't take it off, sort of thing. Uh Vincent, you mentioned that your signature is or your bread and butter is uh is gold jewelry. Um Lee and Anna, what do you guys have like kind of a bread and butter that you sort of lean into, like that you're known for?
SPEAKER_06:Well, I would say that we um, you know, we try and follow the trends so much. We're doing a lot of gold jewelry too. Uh, you know, we've started to um stock more and more of it. Um, but in the fashion jewelry, you know, we do uh uh yellow gold, yellow gold, uh bridal, yellow gold fashion, you know, even a lot of two-tones coming back um in in fashion. A lot of people mixing metals and uh stacking things. So it's those trends seem to be um carrying on in our market. Um so and I know it's different, you know, depending kind of can vary a little bit depending on where you are uh in the country, but that's kind of what's been working for us.
SPEAKER_02:So I know that yellow gold chain, or you know, gold chain in general is like our number one category that we move the most. Um I I say that we do a lot of engagement rings. I would say that is what we're like known for. Um custom engagement rings, engage rings, you know, people just come in and buy. Um so we're known for that, but we sell more chain than anything.
SPEAKER_01:So interesting. Well, you know what? I mean, like if you're they always say if you're gonna have uh you know the nicest house, you might as well pick a nice neighborhood too. So I think that's it. Same in it, same as the chains, the chains.
SPEAKER_02:The chains. Yeah, it's it's funny. I was actually gonna ask you, Vincent, um, about something. So as far as gold goes, we like I don't have the time to reprice everything to to you know what the market's doing. But what we did do is our biggest men's chains, we did reprice like three of them just because they're so heavy and it just didn't make sense to leave them at the price they were. And I was curious, like what how you know both of y'all are really handling that.
SPEAKER_05:I didn't put everything up to market price, I raised them up 30% from what I bought them at, and I bought them, I bought them under 3,000. So I did I raise them 30% from there, but I still have another 30 plus to go if I'm gonna raise them up the market value. Yeah, and I just the image I have so much inventory, it it takes a couple days to do that. So I haven't I haven't been doing it, but they've been selling well, and the demand has definitely been steady or gone up with this gold price.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, the thing too is as the price goes up, people um, you know, you hear the hype, people start buying more of it. Yeah, even so cool, counterintuitive. Um, you think, oh man, you know, it's turning people away because of the price, but no, it's like it's almost it's like the chasing it, you know? It's like I gotta get some gold, you know.
SPEAKER_02:It becomes like the exclusive club, you know, that very few can get into.
SPEAKER_06:It's crazy. And we've we had um we've had to reprice our wedding bands. We carry a line of uh really nice men's wedding bands, and they're heavy. And we looked at the price one day and we had to order it, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this tag is way too low. So we had to reprice that. We've done some gold chains. Um the finished goods with the gemstones and the diamond fashion jewelry and stuff. We haven't uh haven't repriced that, but it's a little less of a factor in those items. But um, yeah, it's definitely something we've I guess we hadn't had to normally do uh in the past, you know. Usually sort of sell through your inventory and it kind of keeps up as you reorder it. But um this time we've we've had to be more cognizant of that just because you it it costs a lot to replace it when you do sell it, you know? It went up so fast. Yeah, it did.
SPEAKER_01:Now, Anna, um, I know that you guys were doing some luxury watches at one point. Um everything I see online claims that the luxury watch market is cooling a little bit. Are you seeing that at your store as well? Or is that uh is it still going up? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:We are seeing that as well. We um we only have a couple, you know, luxury watches in store just really to show people that we can get them. I don't stock like a full case of of luxury watches. Um so I mean it is definitely going down, I would say, for us at least. Um yeah, I mean it's it's hard that you know the pricing and everything, and there's they can look online and see that the prices are all over the place. So I think it's confusing to them, and um, yeah, I don't know, maybe the economy too. But yeah, definitely seeing that decline a little bit.
SPEAKER_05:Do either of you guys uh carry carry any luxury watches? Yeah, I do the same thing Anna does. I carry a few at a time in the case, uh in the boxes, just to show that I could get them. Uh yeah, it's something that is uh it's never been crazy popular by us. It's been pretty steady. Uh, I could say that the last couple months we sold more than usual, but I will I won't say that that's a trend or anything. It was just a few clients that came in and asked for them, but I don't think it's gonna be trending more during Christmas. I'm gonna keep the same amount in the case.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, same here, just a handful of examples. And but I I would say that just generally speaking, following the market, it does seem to be cooling or normalizing um from you know the to kind of the the peak about a couple years ago. So um, but yeah, again, it's it's an interesting market, and um but there's a lot of people who are really into it. So, like you said, you gotta have a little offering that way when that customer comes in, you at least and and have something to show or talk about, you know, and uh they appreciate that.
SPEAKER_05:There's never a shortage of people asking. Oh, really? Actually purchasing is what is the difference.
SPEAKER_01:What an interesting kind of point I love I love watches, and um yeah, like I think it was two years ago, just had this incrazy run-up, and it seemed like everybody was uh that was dealing in watches was doing super well. Um, I was just curious about that. But At the same time, uh, just on the topic, I guess, is I wanted to talk about men's jewelry just a little bit because it's something um I almost am kind of having this thesis where I think that men's jewelry, the branding of calling it men's jewelry is almost like um sort of handcuffing yourself a little bit. Whereas like it's like calling something like men's clothing. You could just call it like clothing, and then you cast like a little bit of a wider net and maybe people don't have to like be pigeonholed into something. I wanted to ask, sounds like Vincent, for example, you do um, you know, chains and and things like that, which I guess you could kind of classify as men's jewelry.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, do you guys I would I was gonna say if you're gonna talk about men's jewelry, put it into two categories, uh okay uh g occasion, gifts for occasions and fashion. Uh so gold chains, gold bracelets, uh, those are milestone gifts. Uh we're selling those for uh baptisms, uh uh graduations, birth, uh, we're selling those for major occasions, whereas fashion jewelry is gonna be first birthday, like an off birthday or a Christmas present, and that's gonna be competing against everything else that you could get a gift for. So we do do men's fashion and we do okay with it. But men like occasions jewelry, that's the that is always gonna be strong and steady. Really interesting.
SPEAKER_01:And Anna and Lee, do you guys carry I guess men's jewelry, quote unquote?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we do. Um, you know, we have Inox, which uh we have like an open selling system with Inox and Lash Brooks. We have like a whole men's department kind of on one side of our store, and um, all that is, you know, consumer facing, they can walk up and touch it all, and that does really, really well. We sell a ton of Inox just because the price point's so great, um, all those different styles. Uh, and then we do have, you know, uh, you know, men's diamond fashion rings, colored fashion rings, and then chains all in another section as well. I would say as far as like the number of SKUs go, we sell more of the lower price point I know stuff. Um, and and similar to what Vincent was saying, those the gifts that are like the chains and the bracelets and all that, that's like gold or silver. Um, those are more for like big occasions.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I'd second that too. Inox does really well for us. Um and so we, you know, we're fully stocked and ready to go. Shout out to the guys at Inox. Great guys to work with. Um, but no, their stuff is nice and um, you know, men love it. And when they come in for they see things, you know, maybe they're coming to buy something for their significant other, but they say, Oh man, look at that bracelet. I kind of like that. Just give me that, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I've always heard heard that it's like it's like uh like a play pen almost, is like you have like a corner, and then you know, they're uh the significant other is picking something out, and then they walk over and they're just like picking up necklaces, and it's like, oh, there you go, and found them and got got hooked.
SPEAKER_05:Well, yeah, they pick something up, they like it, and they're like, Oh, it's only you know$75? Yeah, it's done, add-on, it sold itself.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. Um, I guess let's talk about like the the floor a little bit. I always wonder, do you guys do any like kickoff ahead of the holidays? Because this is so important. It's like you said, 30% of your uh sales are gonna come in the next uh two months. Do you guys ever do like uh, for example, in restaurants, they do a like a like a wait staff meeting where they like talk and they talk about the product and they uh kind of like maybe not do family dinner, but they do like a like a planning session, like a little hoorah, and then they uh kick it off. Do you guys do that with your with your sales staff? Or I mean you guys are it's another day technically for you. So is it kind of more run-of-the-mill for them? What do you do?
SPEAKER_02:We actually just did a quarter four kickoff party for the first time.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_02:Um well, first time since Oscar and I have owned the business, you know, since 2016. I'm sure his dad did that years ago, but it was so much fun. I rented a private room at a restaurant here in town. And um, yeah, it was so fun. I get we gave them all um a cruise package to like kick it off because we did that event earlier in the year. So they were like just so excited about that. And then we I basically made like a PowerPoint of October, November, and December execution and like how we were gonna get there. And they all were so pumped up. I mean, we I have like um fun little um prizes they can win every month, like if we hit certain, you know, objectives. So it was a blast, and Oscar and I decided we're definitely gonna keep doing that because I think it really set the tone. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:I'm just taking notes over here. Anna's like spitting fire, like it's gonna be hard to follow stuff, man. It's like man, it's gonna be a little hard to follow.
SPEAKER_05:So I'm gonna I'm gonna go with Anna's comment there.
SPEAKER_06:No, for sure. And um, that's a great that's a great thing. And just keeping your your team happy and like engaged and excited is just you know, it's it can be a struggle at times, especially when you have some real veteran people, but um anything we can do to um keep them motivated and engaged, especially for this really vital time of year. Um, yeah, it's it's uh it's always best to keep these, keep your people happy, you know? Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:I wouldn't say I do like a like a singular kickoff to for the holiday. We're always in the morning together talking what we're gonna do, but there will be a couple times a week what I will show like more than once what we sold last year and what I want to focus on this year. Uh, but now I need to have a party and give my employees some gifts. Private room and everything.
SPEAKER_02:We can uh Vincent, we can talk later about all that. I can give you some ideas. Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Team members are gonna hear the podcast, be like, where's our party?
SPEAKER_01:Uh uh, what about availability? Uh are you guys going to do you do you open seven days a week and like all through uh December? Is that kind of uh the strategy? Uh most people are doing that, I guess.
SPEAKER_05:Uh the last couple of weeks up until the holiday I'll be seven days. Uh we're typically closed uh Mondays and uh Sundays and Mondays, but uh cob Black Friday, we will be open Mondays again. So we will extend the hours. It's always useful to do that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, we do some extended hours. Um uh those last two weeks really. We'll we'll go a little bit longer in the evening. Um, we'll open up usually the one or two Sundays before Christmas, kind of depending on how the calendar falls. Yeah. Um and um, but we're open Monday through Saturday, uh, generally speaking. But it's changed a little bit over the years. I would say uh we used to be open like from Thanksgiving seven days a week till Christmas, but we started finding that those Sundays, those first couple of Sundays, just weren't very productive. A lot of times we ended up just kind of catching up on things we hadn't had a chance to do yet. The shopping season seems to start earlier, and I mean I know we've probably talked about this over the last year or two, but um so it's it seems to be a little more spread out. It's not as concentrated like right at the end. Um, I don't know if anyone else is experiencing that, but that's kind of what we've been experiencing. So it does make it a little bit easier um uh as people start maybe shopping you know before Thanksgiving or you know, holiday time. You know, November 1st they start playing the Christmas music on the radio, you know. So it's don't stop um yeah, right. But um so it does seem to have uh changed a little in that regard in the last few years.
SPEAKER_05:The shopping season definitely has started sooner, and yes, it's become less cut concentrated, condensed in those last couple of weeks to the point where we haven't opened on Christmas Eve, which is amazing. Oh, we haven't needed to. I remember the last year that we did, we just said next year we're not gonna open. We'll work around it.
SPEAKER_02:So for us, we are closed Sunday, Monday throughout the year. I think that's like what Vincent said too. Um, what we're gonna do this year is we are going to be open on all Mondays in November. And then Black Friday weekend is when we start being open on Sundays. So we will be all seven days in December. Um so it's kind of a slow progression to being open seven days. Um we do an hour later, so we're normally 10 to 5, we'll be open 10 to 6. And um I would say I agree a little bit for us. I mean, we're already seeing people shop for Christmas right now. Um so I agree that it's definitely started earlier. Um, I think it's like pretty consistent in the middle, and then the last two weeks are insane for us at least. So um that's kind of how it is for us.
SPEAKER_01:Now to get into your guys' business, though. I I guess how often are you as the owners there? Um, are you do you I don't think it's healthy or productive to work 30 days or 60 days in a row? I just don't think that our bodies are really made for that. It's hard to keep that kind of spark. Um, but some people do. Uh, do you will you find yourself there every single day of December? Uh you know, every single day you're open-ish.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Really?
SPEAKER_05:Every single is it uh I mean, I'll try to leave early, but I will be there every day.
SPEAKER_01:Will you rotate off of like the the sales floor and like be in the back kind of playing support, or is it still just in the front being able to help sell?
SPEAKER_05:So I'm like I'm also a bench jeweler too, so I'll be doing all the extra jobs that my bench my two bench jewelers that we hired can't do. So I'll hopefully be able to catch up on jobs with them. Ah playing support, that's super cool.
SPEAKER_06:For me, for sure, the last you know, two or three weeks, depending on how it's going. We're staffed up pretty well. Um and uh we try to let everyone have a day off, you know, as long as we can uh in the season. Um but I I'll I'll be here. Like said, maybe if I if I do take half a day or something like that, you know, maybe early mid-December. But um, you know, it's I tell you, you get a little worn down, but I I don't know, just after so many Christmas seasons, you know, it just it's just what you do, you know. You just go to work. You go to work, you make the people happy, and and then you know, you try and uh when when it's all over, you try and spend as much time with the family as you can, you know. Um but yeah, that's it, man.
SPEAKER_05:Kind of I I try to work the everyday because I don't I I don't give my employees extra days to work. That's pretty much it. I'll like I'll take the brunt of that because I just want to keep them level headed.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:We do the same thing, like they'll all get days off, but Oscar and I, you know, we'll work with the shifts that no one else wants to or can. And um and and our job too, like I know you asked about how much you know we were gonna be on the floor. My big thing that I do in the back, I mean, I handle all the money, I order all the inventory. So the biggest thing like over the next two months will be reordering fast sellers um quickly, right? Because we're gonna sell a lot of them. So um I'll be on the floor, I would say, you know, here and there, definitely Friday and Saturdays. I try to like commit my entire days to being out there observing, helping. And um, the rest of the week, you know, I try to get all the fast sellers done, get that inventory in, check it in, get it back out, which is a long process when you're talking about a lot of items.
SPEAKER_01:So cool. I I they always say that that's the number one indicator. Whenever you talk to Lenny from the edge, uh, he always says the number one indicator for the success of a store is going to be do they order their fast sellers? Do they reorder in quickly too?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it's huge. I mean, and I didn't even know like we should be doing that until we became Edge Retail Academy clients. And now that we've done it, it is insane to me. I'm like, wow. I mean, I've sold like six of those, and before I hadn't reordered it for six years. I mean, it's just it's mind blowing. So it's a it's very important. And um, yeah, that's why like me doing that, like I have to be in the back and get all that done. So cool.
SPEAKER_01:And maybe just to wrap things up, let's say when the when it's all done, do you guys open on Boxing Day or even like what we say, like the the ugliest uh six days of the year, which is 20 the 26th through the 31st? Do you guys open on those days? Or uh some people just take the entire week like just completely shut down, they open back up on New Year's Day. Is that what do you guys do for that?
SPEAKER_05:So I um when I said it's not concentrated till Christmas, it's like the six days after Christmas Day are a nightmare. Crazy. It's crazy, and it's all it's very little returns, it's just a bunch of people off of work and coming in. So yeah, we are absolutely open the day after Christmas because it gets busy, very busy.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I would say that um the only time we've really closed any extra days is like maybe if Christmas is on a Friday or Saturday and we might just not come back till Monday, you know. But like Vin said, man, it's it gets pretty wild. Um, I don't know how many watches we adjust uh in those six days, but it's a lot. Um and so, but we do sometimes we'll take an extra day, uh or we have been in the past few years around New Year's Day. Um so we'll take New Year's Day off, close a little early New Year's Eve, and then take the day after off. Um But yeah, the the that week in between, like you said, a lot of people are off work and you still sell a lot too. Like people get money, or they're like, you know, they get um, you know, they just like, hey, I just I just want to buy this, you know. I'm just feeling good. It's holiday time, you know, I'm gonna treat myself or whatever. Or so um, yeah, we do so we try to if the calendar cooperates, we might take an extra day just to get a break, but um, yeah, it's pretty busy usually. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_05:And for me to last five years, there's always been more than one, like at least two engagement ring sales, those days in between Christmas and New Year's. No way. So I I I want to keep that trend going. So it's I wanna, I'm hoping for it.
SPEAKER_06:You want to have that sort of spontaneous New Year's proposal, you know, yeah, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02:We are the exact same way. We do so much business that those days after Christmas leading up to New Year's. Um, and and we've done similar things that Lee said in the past where like if it lines up the right way, we'll try to like at least be closed the 26th as well to give our team just time to sleep.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, but I'm looking at the calendar right now, and Christmas is on a Thursday this year. So uh the 26th is a Friday. So we're gonna have to be open. It's gonna be we're gonna be so busy. Like that'll be a big day. People get money for Christmas, they want to spend it. Let's go.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Man, it's so cool to hear that you guys have such uh are so dialed in on you know the rhythm of your of the business year and your store, uh, that you guys know these things ahead of time. I mean, this we're recording this on October 24th, and so you're making these decisions more than two months ahead of time. And it's just so exciting to to hear. I'm so stoked to to watch the orders pour in from the websites, but also, you know, our our retailers, we always laugh. Like, this is the busiest time of the year for you guys, and we just try our best not to talk to you guys. Like, it's like, okay, you guys just do your own thing, get into the grind. Um, anything that, you know, in wrapping up, um, it sounds like everyone is kind of feeling ready and and optimistic about the whole thing. Any kind of closing thoughts before we uh before we head out and I'll let you guys get back to work?
SPEAKER_05:Shout out to Punchmark for my digital marketing and my website because that's one of the biggest drives of of business that we get.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, I appreciate that, Vincent. Yeah, I second that. I second that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, shout out to Hope.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, shout out to Hope. Yeah. No, for real. It's just so, man, it just makes business so much better when you have an awesome website, you have a storefront for the world, um, and nobody does it better than Punchmark. I gotta say that. Uh we're um, no, but look, it's great to be on here. I'm telling you, um, I learned so much from all of you, and uh it's just I hope that uh you all and everybody listening, you all have great holiday seasons. And uh yeah, it's just great to be here. Thanks, Mike.
SPEAKER_05:You too, Lee. It was great to see all of you guys. I love seeing you guys, and I can't wait to see you guys at the next show.
SPEAKER_01:Show show season coming right around the corner. Oh my gosh, crazy. All right, I think maybe we'll end it right there. I appreciate you all. Thank you all again. Uh, I love do having these conversations. I learn something every single time. And uh, listeners, I hope you learned something too. Uh, you guys can learn from all three of these people. I'll have all their show notes in the in the links below. Um, everybody Vince's gonna put this on his Instagram. Oh man, wait, one thing. Vincent, your the AI video about you eating the gold strands made me laugh harder than anything. I was told somebody about that the other day.
SPEAKER_02:That was amazing.
SPEAKER_05:Happy Italian Heritage Month.
SPEAKER_01:All right, well, thanks everybody. We'll let you on your way. Thanks so much. Have a good rest of your day. Bye. All right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. This week my guests were Vincent Spilatro from Orezzo Jewelers, Anna Barnett from Barnett Jewelers, and Lee Elgin from Elgin Find Jewelry. Thanks so much for joining me. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, Michael Burpo. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cockham. Don't forget to leave us feedback on punchmark.com slash loop and leave us a five-star rating on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help the podcast grow. Thanks, we'll be back next week Tuesday with another episode. Cheers. Bye.
