GemThoughts

Here is the list of issues we have been covering — we are up to number 7. The Gig Economy Millennials Climate Change Consolidation and/or Decline Natural Diamonds vs Lab-Grown Banking Image  Demographics Retail Evolution Industry Structure _______________________________________ I have been writing about these "issues" for a while.  I did not start out trying to put them in any particular order, but here we are addressing the first of the last four, and all are bound to be particularly affected by the pandemic, no doubt in ways that none of us could have conceived of just months ago.   The definition of image, and how that definition is being forcefully altered, is one we ponder carefully these days.  The word itself is in many ways more powerful than an alternate that some people use - brand.  Some brands, say Coca Cola, have instant global recognition, but what we retain is sensory - what it tastes like, what the c...

Trade shows have been an essential part of the jewelry business in the US for the last half century or more.  We have seen transitions, expansions, contractions, and evolution over those years, but we now confront unfamiliar, highly disruptive forces. Pandemic and social distress. The pandemic will leave us with an altered retail environment, but it is one that was coming slowly anyway.  Department stores have not been able to counter the efficiencies and range of cyber-retail, and have been shrinking and fading for years now.  Independent stores of all sorts, not just jewelry, have also been disappearing at a rapid rate, though mostly because the country became badly over-stored in the boom years of the malls, and for many other reasons. So something had to change.  We didn't know into what, but we did know that retail formats were not keeping up with how people lived, worked, and shopped. What I recall so clearly are the halcyon days when there were dozens o...

_____________________________________ Here is the list of issues we have been covering — we are up to number 6. The Gig Economy Millennials Climate Change Consolidation and/or Decline Natural Diamonds vs Lab-Grown Banking Image  Demographics Retail Evolution Industry Structure _______________________________________ Have you been wondering where I am?  So have I.  We have all, it seems, been wandering in a wilderness with no milestones, road signs, or even taco carts.  I started out months ago offering some thoughts about an industry that was having a bumpy ride, and found that when I was half way through, everything was turned on its head.  So I paused, just to see what we might see as we look ahead that is not a mirage. But now, as we observe worldwide assaults on the status quo, ailing as it is, we need to stand back, take a deep breath, and prepare to dive into very unfamiliar seas. Our case in point in this post - banking.  Answe...