All, For the benefit of those of you who have brick and mortar
businesses, you may been wondering what is going on in the retail
jewelry business. Recently I did an analysis of our business
comparing the first four months of last year with the same period
this year. I discovered that ,overall, business was down VERY
substantially, that the bench was carrying the business and that
made up goods were gathering dust. Furthermore, it seemed that some
weeks were up and some were down…really down !
My initial reaction was to scrutinize what we were doing and try to
spot mistakes. One of the discoveries suggested that we had allowed
our price point goods to become understocked. Otherwise we couldn’t
figure out what had gone wrong other than to realize that the buying
public was frozen with fear about the economy and the international
scene.
The current issue of National Jeweler confirms my suspicions. Many
jewelers throughout America are having the same experience. As a
matter of fact, some indicated that were it not for having business
for the bench, they might not have survived. I wholeheartedly agree.
Those of you who do not perform services might want to give a second
look at your position. After all, cash flow is king ! Ron at Mills
Gem, Los Osos, Ca.