I’m looking to by THAT ring and I’m a regular single dude who doesnt know shit about jewelry. I’m wondering if the markup at a mall is substantially higher than places like Shane Co and other jewelry stores that AREN’t in the mall?
I doubt you can make that generalization. I know that the retail markup on jewlery is high no matter where you buy it. I’ve heard anectdotally (no cite) that 200% markup is not unusual at the higher end stores, but whether you sell your wres at a mall or down the street shouldn’t make that much difference. After all, the mall stores have to compete with the non-mall stores.
In my experience, a jewelry store is a jewelry store. Like most other types or stores, the markup at a mall chain will be less than that at a independantly owned place, but you may (or may not) end up with a better quality item at the independant shop. Either way, markup on jewelry, as you’ve heard, is generally ridiculous.
A personal anecdote:
I worked at the jewelry department at Kmart for two years. One day while at the mall I decided to stop at a Kay Jewelry store and gawk and all their fancy-schmanchy expensive stuff, and I noticed a bracelet that looked exactly like one that we sold at Kmart. I asked to try it on, and I noted all of the markings and details about the bracelet, as well as the price ($239). At work the next day, I checked out our version of the bracelet, and it was indeed 100% indentical – had to have been from the same manufacturer. Kmart’s price was $66. I used to computer to see what we had paid for it, wholesale. $34.999.
Kmart also robbed me of my ability to write in a completely coherant manner, for the record.
If you’re buying <i>that</i> ring, go to an independent store. Tell them what you’re looking for; go in knowing what type of stone you’d like and buy the loose stone from them. Then choose a setting that will complement both the stone and the woman who will be wearing it for the next fifty-plus years. Take your time. If it’s not exactly right, ask them what else they have. Ask to look through a catalog, or come back in a week. If you go to an independent store and convince them that
(a) they will make a sale, and
(b) they can find you what you’re looking for given an appropriate amount of effort,
they should bend over backwards to make you a happy customer. After all, if she’s happy enough with you to say “yes,” then they’ve got fifty-plus years of anniversary, birthday, and Christmas sales to look forward to.
I used to work for one of the major department stores (in their new store construction division, not the retail end). As an employee I got a 50% discount on anything I bought at the store (yeah, that was nice).
Once a year they had a 40% off sale on all diamond jewelry.
Even with a 90% discount I didn’t buy that many diamonds (some, I was married at the time). I still think they’re wonderful little objects, but the need to own them just isn’t very compelling. But if they were selling them to me at that discount (and still making some profit I’m sure) you can see that the markup was absurd.
The jewelry business is the stuff of dreams.
I worked in a mid-to-upper-line jewelry store in a mall many years ago. The markup was supposed to be pretty much ‘top secret’ to employess, but I think it ran about 400% for watched and 100-200% for watches.
Even during a half off sale, the store made a pretty good profit.
I vaguely recall a sister store having a nearly year round half off sale- perhaps 11 months out of the year.
Interestingly, we didn’t actually own most of the jewelry displayed. It was on a long term loan and got sent back if it went out of style.
This was 15-20 years ago. Maybe things are different now.
Remind me to gripe about the crappy commision structures sometime.
OK - here’s the rub. A ‘new’ commision program starts. You have to sell, say, 20,000 dollars worth of stuff to get a 2% commission. The when you get to say, 50,000 dollars in sales, your commisssion ups to 3%, etc., etc. BUT, as soon as you start to accumulate sales and actually earn some bucks, you hear this happy chant…Hey! Good News! TheNew Commission Program starts Next Week!
Second this one. Please, please, please, especially since it’s for that ring.
Mall stores and chain stores sell horrid junk. The quality you’d be getting is much lower than what you could get from an independent jeweler. Ask some friends and co-workers where to go.
I used to work for a very nice independent jeweler here in Baltimore, and every so often I’d wander through the mall stores just to see what they had and I was amazed (appalled, actually) at the quality of the diamonds they sold.