Skip to main content

Mixed messages

We are now moving into the critical part of the year of the jewelry industry.  The summer trade shows are not far away, and suppliers are waiting to see, with bated breath, just what depth of commitment retailers are going to make in stocking for the fall. 

The political news, here and abroad, is unsettling.  The stock market is bubbling, but news about the residential market is bad.  Employment stays relatively high, but corporations are making money.  The dollar is weakening (making our exports more attractive overseas), but the cost of materials and labor for our jewelry seems to be rising geometrically.  Even US Treasuries have seen its credit standing trimmed.

All of this adds up to uncertainty about the future (as evidenced by the latest New York Times/CBS poll).  Is this a problem only for the lower and middle market, while the affluent are back buying?

What do you think?  And how are you responding in your business?

Comments

Ben Janowski, Janos Consultants said…
Well, i see that nobody wants to jump in here. So I will comment on my own comment!

It does look like the affluent, at least those that are confident their income stream will continue, are loosening their purse strings. The competition for those dollars has intensified - no surprise - leaving some retailers still pressed to make payrolls.

For the moment, many retailers are making good money recycling gold, silver, diamonds, etc. That may become a very regular part of business, especially as the public generally does not know how to figure out scrap values. Certainly not diamond values.

This translates into uneven results at the summer trade shows. Suppliers will be working hard.
May 10, 2011 at 10:26 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top ten trends for 2014 - Trend # 1 - Growth of recycling

I took a shot last year at the 'top 10 trends' for 2013.   So I am taking another shot this year.  But I thought I would do it as 'a trend a day' for the next ten days. We continue to see the gem and jewelry business as a whole changing day by day.  The number of jewelry retailers and manufacturers in the US continues to slowly decline, now about a thirty year trend.  Diamond prices are volatile while colored stone prices reflect growing scarcities.  Diamond distribution still hangs onto the "sight" process, but there are more and more auctions and special sales.  Worst of all, there is no conference (no, not a trade show) where the pressing issues for all sectors of the industry are discussed openly and thoroughly. In any case, I offer my Top Ten, in no particular order.  None of these are just for 2014.  All of them have been cooking a while and will be with us for some time to come. Growth of recycling .  I remember my first ro...
2 comments
Read more

Top 10 trends for 2014 - Trend # 3 - Top-Bottom mirror of society

We read a great deal about the economic divide in the US and how the gap is growing.  Actually, it is a global problem, with many countries, both developed and emerging, now trying to deal with this issue.  When I think of my own experiences in various workplaces, it becomes inescapably clear that this problem has had a long arc, and is not about to change. Simply put, a 200 year development of technologies is now reaching warp speed, and much of it is aimed at eliminating the need for people to perform fairly routine and repetitive chores.  The assembly line now has a few supervisors.  We are now watching the process move on a very fast track in China, India and elsewhere in Asia and the Americas.  It is as if we are observing our own industrial development in double time. Just imagine a world that has 7 billion people, 6 billion of them of working age, but there are only 4 billion jobs.  Make no mistake, we are all in the same labor pool.  Educ...
1 comment
Read more

Top 10 trends for 2014 - Trend # 4 - No capital, no business

All through the history of the jewelry business, and especially the diamond business, the support offered by banks to suppliers has been an essential part of the industry's growth and prosperity.  This has been particularly true in the decades after WWII, a period in which there was steady expansion of the US economy and a rapid recovery and industrialization in Europe and Japan.  People were making more money, the most since before the Great Depression, and the war years had built a backlog of consumer needs that were being satisfied. De Beers played a key role in the expansion of appetite for diamonds and thereby the desire for people to own jewelry in general.  De Beers played a very important role in another way.  They acted as the market buffer, holding stocks when the economy suffered recessions, and releasing more when boom times returned. This was an excellent environment for banks.  They could lend against inventories, with De Beers protecting thei...
Post a Comment
Read more