Episode Transcript
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Michael (00:01):
Welcome back everybody
to In The Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpoe.
Thanks again for listening toIn The Loop.
This week we are returning oneof our most popular series,
which is Retailer Roundtable,and we had on three Punchm ark
clients and to talk about whatthey are focusing on, things
(00:22):
that are important to them intheir store, their current kind
of projects and a lot more.
So I had on Jesse Minor fromMinor Jewelry in Nashville,
tennessee and a Barnett fromBarnett Jewelers in Jacksonville
, florida and Vincent Spilacciofrom Arezzo Jewelers in Elmwood
Park, illinois.
It's a really fun talk.
I want to do more of these andactually the way I filled the
(00:45):
last slot on this episode is inour Facebook community, which is
open only to active Punchmar kclients.
So if you are a Punchmark aclient and you're not a part of
that, get on the horse, let's go.
Hope you enjoy this talk andlet me know what you want to
hear next.
(01:05):
This episode is brought to youby Punchm ark, the jewelry
industry's favorite websiteplatform.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
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It's never too late totransform your business with a
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It's the best way to help usgrow into show that you really
enjoy in the show.
Thanks, hey, everybody.
(01:48):
Just a quick note before youget into the episode.
We're going to be taking twoweeks off, a quick two week
break in the middle of theseason.
We've done 25 episodes on a rowsince the start of the season
and we haven't taken a break yet.
So we're going to take the weekof 4th of July and the 11th of
July off.
We always do this in the middleof the season.
Just allows us to kind of focuson the podcast a little bit as
(02:09):
well as take a break and be withour families.
So make sure you check us out.
We'll be back on the week ofJuly 18th.
Thanks so much for being withus And now back to the show.
Welcome everybody.
I'm so excited I have Jesse,Anna and Vincent three
Punchmark retailers joining meand we're going to have like a
(02:31):
little bit of a round table sortof interview about what's
working, what might not beworking as well, how things are,
how they're running their storeand their e-commerce approach
as well, and we're going to bekind of going around and hearing
about you know what's new withthem.
And now further ado.
Maybe we can do like a littleround of introductions.
Vincent, you might kind ofstart us off and we'll just hear
you know what story you're withand where you guys are located.
(02:54):
Sure.
Vincent (02:55):
My name is Vincent
Spilotro.
I am a second generationjeweler out of Elmwood Park,
illinois suburb right next toChicago.
I have been doing this since2008.
I've been a been full time,went to college, everything.
It's my father's business.
He started this a little over30 years ago And I just been
taking over since.
(03:16):
I do all the heavy lifting here, the marketing and then the
high ticket sales Nice, i loveit.
Where?
Michael (03:22):
And you Jesse?
Jesse (03:24):
So my name is Jesse Minor
.
I'm with Minor Jewelry inNashville, Tennessee, right out
of high school.
I went to trade school in 1985.
And we opened this, this store,in 1986.
Me and my dad opened ittogether.
My dad I'm the third generation.
My dad moved to Nashville in1947, worked downtown on the
(03:47):
public square, but we've beenhere for 37 years and so far
been successful at it.
Michael (03:55):
Wow, 37 years.
my gosh, yeah.
And what about you, Anna?
Anna (03:59):
Yeah, so I'm Anna Barnett
of Barnett Jewelers in
Jacksonville, Florida, and myhusband his name is Oscar.
His great grandfather startedour company in 1917.
So we have been there 106 yearsthis year, yeah, and so we took
over the business in 2016 andwe are, you know, just grinding
(04:25):
every day trying to keep thelegacy alive.
So it's been an incrediblejourney and we're excited about,
you know, continuing to grow it.
Michael (04:33):
Yeah, that sounds great
.
And, Anna, I want to stay onyou.
One thing I saw.
I don't know if I'm pulling thecurtain back too far, but I saw
that I want to ask aboutjewelry organizations that you
guys are a part of, And I think,that you have a pretty close
connection with your jewelryorganization.
Could you kind of touch on that?
Yes, which one are you a partof?
Anna (04:53):
Yeah, so we are a part of
IJO and we are actually
celebrating 20 years as a memberwith them this year, which is
incredible.
I've had some extremely specialmoments with IJO.
My first plane ride was to anIJO show, that's what I saw.
And, yeah, and Oscar and Iactually got engaged on an
(05:14):
Antwerp trip He proposed inParis.
So IJO man, i don't even knowif I could fit everything that I
love about IJO in this episode,but I will say that the biggest
things for me is that it's likea family.
I mean, to sum it up, one ofour really good friends.
They have a store in Olean, newYork, it's Ask Design Jewelers,
(05:39):
martin Maynard.
He actually came and stayedwith us for like a week at our
house.
I mean that's how close we arewith other members and it's
invaluable.
I mean just the camaraderie,the ideas we share back and
forth, what's working.
It's amazing.
Michael (05:55):
Yeah, and what about
you guys?
Are you guys part of anyjewelry organizations?
Vincent (06:00):
Yeah, I'm in IJO as
well, i've been in IJO.
I think I'm on my fifth year nowfourth year, i would say.
So far it's been great.
Since I joined it's been anexponential increase all around.
I learned things that I haven'tlearned before And I'm just
starting to get to Anna andOscar's level.
Meeting friends the main erdsare amazing.
(06:21):
I have to actually punch markis the reason I'm in IJO.
Ross got me.
Yeah, ross got me into it.
He introduced me to his mother,penny She's amazing, got me
into it.
I had no idea that this worldexisted until then.
So very grateful to be in IJO,nice And Jesse.
Jesse (06:38):
I'm not in any kind of
organization.
I guess I'm the outsider.
Michael (06:43):
What's funny is I had I
was kind of inviting some
people and I was like, yeah, iwonder if I should like try to
only invite like one person fromeach of the different groups
and have them, you know, duke itout.
But it doesn't seem like that'sthe case with jewelry.
It seems like it's it's verykind of open and people are very
accepting of kind of whatregion you guys are from or
(07:04):
which organizations you're apart of.
You were mentioning one of youguys were mentioning like
learning so much.
And that's the thing I've kindof really come to understand
about the jewelry industry isthat a lot of things are very
contextual and you have to.
You know a lot of it islearning how best to the best
practices with.
You know how to approach, youknow different sales or
(07:25):
different vendors.
Could you guys kind of touchupon what things you guys have
learned from being in some ofthose jewelry organizations?
Vincent (07:34):
Oh yeah, i'll start
this out One of the big things I
learned before coming into this.
I wanted to carry as many linesas possible And I thought that
carrying a bunch of differentbrands would be beneficial to us
and learning.
Coming into IJO, that was oneof the big things I learned that
you want to reduce the amountof brands that you keep and make
(07:54):
better relationships with thevendors that you do have.
That was one that that's mybiggest take out of them.
So I've been working on thatfor the past three years and
it's been helping a lot.
I've been increasing myrelationships with the vendors
that I do want to keep and, youknow, just eliminating the ones
that you know I just have thehalf, yeah.
Michael (08:12):
And Anna.
Anna (08:12):
I mean, i agree with
exactly what Vincent just said
as well, as I would say thebiggest thing I learned is like
taking more risks, and what Imean by that is we just had our
first event with Port Marketing.
They are also an IJO, butthey're a company that James
Port is his name, but hebasically does digital marketing
, print marketing, and he'sknown for like these six hour
(08:36):
60% off sales, right, andthere's other variations to that
.
But that's kind of like hismain thing And I was.
We were scared to do it becauseobviously there's a little bit
of cost that goes into sendingout those advertisements, right.
I mean, we sent out like 6,000postcards and we haven't done
that in a long time and there'ssome, there's some expense with
(08:56):
that.
So we were like is this going towork?
Is it going to do what wewanted it to do?
Right, and the goal was to movedated inventory.
Okay, that was the goal.
So I talked to some otherjewelers that are also, you know
, in IJO, friends of ours, andthey have done it and they have
had incredible success.
Falls jewelers was one inparticular.
So that's where the value comesin is being able to go to them
(09:20):
and, you know, ask like has thisworked for you?
What does it look like?
So, anyways, yeah, we did thethe six hour 60% off sale with
Port Marketing.
It was incredible that exactlywhat we needed it to do, and
that there's value in being ableto talk to other people and see
you know what works.
Michael (09:38):
Man, so cool And Jesse,
i want to talk about, like, the
idea of these vendor relations,because that is a very
underrated aspect of owning ajewelry store And, at least for
me, it seems like that is one ofthe things that is very unique
about the jewelry industry isthat you have to keep up these
kind of relationships with thesedifferent vendors that are
(09:58):
going to, you know, be providingthe jewelry or different.
It's their job to be staying ontop of what's popular.
How do you kind of make thatdecision with you know, knowing
what is going to sell well orwhat's not going to?
Jesse (10:10):
you know, sometimes I
think I buy things that it's
kind of like going to Vegas.
You know you buy it, you hopeyou pick the right item and that
you're going to sell it.
You know some vendors give youor you know allow you to, you
know get traded in for newmerchandise, which is good.
You know it's just learning thevendor trusting the vendor,
(10:33):
liking the quality ofmerchandise that they're selling
.
I'm pretty picky about who Ibuy from.
I mean, i have vendors thatcome by and I look at their
merchandise and I'm like, well,this is not good enough.
You know this is not made wellenough, so I don't buy it.
Michael (10:52):
Do you have any vendors
that are working right now that
you're willing to talk about?
Jesse (10:56):
Oh, yeah, i mean we do
buy a lot from Stellar I mean
you know we and Quality Gold.
I wish I could find morecompetition for them.
I do have some small vendorsthat I buy from that are local
vendors.
I have local salespeople.
(11:16):
A lot of them representcompanies in New York, like I
hope.
We have one local vendor calledDiamond South.
They come by and see us, butthen you know we go to shows, we
try to meet new vendors thatway, but honestly there's I
(11:38):
can't think of another vendorthat I would even throw out
there.
Michael (11:42):
And what about you guys
, Anna?
maybe which vendors are doingsuper well for you guys right
now?
Anna (11:49):
Quality Gold and RDI are
two top vendors.
RDI, yeah, RDI.
We get most of our loosediamonds, so big diamond winner
for us.
And Quality Gold has alwaysbeen a huge vendor.
We do a lot of our basics withthem and then we do a lot of
special orders through them.
I will say there's a couple newlines that we've just picked up
that are doing really well.
(12:10):
We were kind of late to the gameas far as lab grown diamonds go
.
We there's a small group of us,i think that have waited.
There may be some people thatstill aren't going heavy and
there's people that have beenheavy in it.
You know, for a while now.
Right, there's kind of aspectrum, i think, if you will.
And we've waited and we justrecently got into it.
I would say middle of last yearis when we started doing like
(12:33):
ordering a menu just when peopleasked for them.
Right Now we're stocking it,and we're stocking it with
Mercury and we're stocking itwith Craft Lab, which is
revelation is the brand of CraftLab and it's taking off.
So Lab is doing really well forus.
Michael (12:51):
Man, i love that.
And Vincent, what about you?
any good vendors?
Vincent (12:55):
Vendors-wise, yeah,
most of our best sellers are
Italian gold, so I import a lotfrom the manufacturers in Italy.
Obviously, none of them are inany of the buying groups.
They're the old worldmanufacturers from the small
towns around Italy that make ourchains, our crosses and a lot
of our staple pieces that wesell here.
As far as our bridle, my bestselling line is Mars Fine
(13:21):
Jewelry.
They used to be an IJO vendor.
Their quality and pricing, asfar as value and everything,
they're the best and they have avery fast turnaround for their
custom goods and I do very wellwith them.
They're all in trend styles andclassic styles.
And then Pandora.
We carry the Pandora line.
We just can't seem to get ridof it.
(13:41):
It sells well by itself.
It advertises itself, but youdon't even have to advertise it.
It'll just come in and it justempties the showcase on its own.
And then our fashion line is wedo very well with an IJO line
called Hiramoti.
They are a diamond and gemstonefashion line, very well priced
(14:03):
and very good quality goods Andthey're very well made.
The diamonds don't fall outlike some other price point
lines that we used to carry.
So yeah, we've been doing verywell with Hiramoti.
They sell very fast and they'revery, very well made pieces.
Michael (14:20):
Man, it's so
fascinating.
I love hearing that you have alittle connection with someone
that is a little bit harder toget in touch with.
maybe, like you said, the oldworld kind of gold.
that's super cool, a good wayto stand out.
Vincent (14:35):
We have to travel to
Italy twice a year just to make
the orders, because they don'teven have like the Zoom calls to
do.
They don't have websites or anyof that.
We just go, we show up and wetell them what we want.
Michael (14:47):
That's really
interesting.
That's the kind of stuff Ialways wonder about is because,
like you guys had mentioned,just two of you guys have
quality gold And I sometimeswonder how are you able to
differentiate yourself ifquality gold might be stocking
in two different stores ormultiple different stores.
I guess that kind of brings upthe question of marketing.
(15:09):
And how do you market to yourcommunity or your surrounding
area, Steve?
do you guys do any marketing,whether that's digital or
traditional marketing?
Jesse (15:20):
Typically, all we do is
like Facebook and Instagram.
I just started a channel onTikTok, which I have.
I just don't have a lot of timefor a lot of it And we're all
just really busy because most ofwhat we do is custom.
It's just like 90 or 95% ofwhat we do is custom.
(15:41):
So we do a lot of CAD stuff.
We carve waxes.
People come in with their owngold and we make stuff out of
their gold because nobody elseis doing it.
We're getting all that work.
Michael (15:54):
Yeah, i spoke with
David Geller from the Gellers'
Blue Book and he had mentionedthat a lot of the stores that
he's seen that are doingespecially well right now are
folks that are doing custom,because it's a way to kind of
differentiate yourself and offersomething that is not able to
(16:14):
be found online.
So that definitely probably isreally important?
Jesse (16:19):
I think so.
Yeah, i had a lady in the lastnight.
She bought a ring but shedoesn't like it, so she wants me
to cut it apart and remake itbecause she doesn't like the way
it's put together.
Michael (16:32):
Oh it's like, okay,
yeah, putting me on third base
and I'll run it home, that's noproblem, that's great, there you
go.
Yeah, that's what happens.
So do you guys do somemarketing to your specific
community?
or I'm trying to be more openabout traditional marketing.
I used to poo poo on billboardsand radio spots and you
(16:52):
mentioned postcards but it seemslike they're rather effective.
Anna (16:56):
Yeah, I mean our year long
.
we basically just do Facebook,Instagram, run ads on there.
The only time I'll do like apostcard or a digital ad or
anything like that is when we'rehaving a special event.
So kind of stick to socialmedia And our website, obviously
(17:18):
.
Michael (17:19):
Mm-hmm, and how do you
guys do market the, the website,
and pretty differently thanyour physical location?
Anna (17:25):
No, so I'm actually, you
know, i'm still working on
replacing all of the pictures,so I'm actually going to talk
with you guys about doing somemore marketing with y'all as
soon as I get the rest of thepictures Finish, which my goal
is July 1st.
I bought a gem light box and weare just hounding away at those
pictures.
(17:45):
But you guys have been sosupportive and like letting me
know it doesn't have to beperfect, that it's always
evolving.
I'm always gonna be working onit and I love you know How you
guys say that, because it makesme feel better that it's not
completely, you know, to mystandard Jedi pictures go, but I
still want like the majority ofthat done before we pump, you
know, money into that.
But I'm excited about July 1stgetting some more of that going
(18:09):
nice.
Michael (18:10):
What about you, vincent
?
I know that you've done somemarketing in the past.
Vincent (18:13):
Yeah, well, i currently
do the digital marketing with
you.
I work with Stuart a lot oftalk to him every other day,
basically on things I have to do, so that's been helping a lot.
I we do the Google ads with youguys.
You guys manage all of that andwhat I have been seeing I I
haven't seen a huge uptick inonline sales, e-commerce sales,
(18:34):
but I do ask everyone that comesthrough the door and they say
they saw us on Google, theyfound something on our website,
they wanted to see it in person.
So it is.
It is showing Definitely thereis an effect of that.
I do the Facebook Instagram.
I don't.
I haven't done any boostedposts lately, but my organic
posts have been doing very well.
I Keep my website picturesmetadata updated as much as
(18:57):
possible because that that showsbetter to me.
That does better results thandoing my Facebook and Instagram
posts, and I update my, myGoogle listing Probably twice a
week, put a picture on there orput an update on there.
That has measurable effects Onon everything and as far as the
digit, the print ads and thetraditional ads, i actually just
(19:18):
finished your last episode withnational rarities and I
listened to Justin and Alex andabout the print ads.
I I was on your boat before.
I was thinking that those aredying out, yeah, yeah.
But you know, we moved to a newarea about three years ago and
this area is a little bit moreold wealth and they Respond to
(19:40):
these print ads much more thanthey will respond to a billboard
ad, than they will to aFacebook or Google ad.
So it's not dead, it's there,and there are definitely people
that you didn't even knowexisted in your neighborhood
once you start doing those.
Michael (19:54):
Yeah, i just it's never
sat well with me that you can't
measure The effect of abillboard.
It's like it's always botheredme because you're like I don't
know if it's good, i don't knowif it's not, but it sounds like
You guys have been able to dothat by just by, you know,
asking people coming through thestore.
So I definitely agree, vincent.
I wanted to ask right now we'rekind of entering a lot of.
(20:15):
A lot of people are mentioningkind of like a dead part of the
year.
Right now we're recording onJune 9th and Sometimes we can go
through the summer spell wherethere aren't like a lot of major
holidays coming up.
Sometimes people are onvacation and they're moving away
.
How do you guys feel the, thedowntime, or I mean the the
(20:36):
drier parts of the season, whenthere isn't like a major holiday
like Valentine's Day orChristmas or something?
Vincent (20:41):
Yeah, excellent
question.
It is, for the most part It isyour, your slow time because
there is no holidays.
We push today It is weddingseason, so we definitely push
wedding bands.
We're doing very well with thewedding bands and a lot of
people are getting engaged.
In this summer It's been a hotsummer for bridal Naturals and
lab groans both.
So I don't want to say eitherone is better than the other,
(21:04):
but bridal has been good as longas we've been pushing it,
showing it, showing that we doit and, yes, so we do custom.
It's not we don't do 95% custom, i'd say it's more 50% custom
What we offer here.
But that has been helping withso much more competitive market
here for that.
And then the last thing thathelps out is, since we do have a
(21:24):
very strong gold presence here,we have baptisms throughout the
year.
We sell a lot of religiousjewelry, so every day we sell at
least, you know, one baptismgift, because those are not
holiday based.
Michael (21:38):
Interesting just here,
anna.
How do you guys stay busyduring the the slow part of the
year?
Anna (21:43):
So we're actually we're
running a 106 year anniversary
sale right now.
That is our, our summer savior,if you will.
So we're doing that and it'sgoing great.
We're just basically we havefour cases that are sale cases
and we have one that's 20% off,one that's 40% off, 50 and 60,
(22:04):
and how we're deciding what'sgoing in there is based on the
age of the inventory.
So how long we've had it, we'rereally focused on moving,
continuing to move the needle onthe percentage of age inventory
That we have and really getinto where we're turning items
You know better and reorderingthose items that are moving for
(22:24):
us.
So that's the goal of thisanniversary sale.
We did toss around some ideasabout doing like a red, white
and you sale in July Whichfocuses on engagement, kind of
like what Vincent was saying.
We're very strong in engagement.
That's our number one category.
So tossing around the idea ofdoing that.
And then I'm so glad that youguys brought up national
(22:46):
rarities, because September weare actually doing our first
event with Yes, i'm so excited.
I listened to that podcast thatyou guys did with Alex to.
It was awesome.
But yeah, justin's amazing It's.
We're all super excited aboutthat.
So that'll be in September.
So I've kind of got the nextthree months lined up, which I'm
(23:06):
excited about.
Jesse (23:07):
Nice.
So what we're doing is we'redoing like the deal of the week,
so we get a lot of touriststhat come in, and so you know we
have and we've talked to someto marketing people and one
thing we've started we put theselittle signs on all of our
merchandise.
That's in our cases, like every, every piece will have like a
(23:31):
little little handwritten sign,and we have.
We have an employee that hasbeautiful handwriting So she's
wrote these little signs thatkind of give you like a little
bit of something informationabout the item and the price.
And we do a lot of estatejewelry, so we have a lot of
unique items coming in that way,and so every week we have a
(23:54):
different deal of the week.
Michael (23:56):
Oh, it's super cool.
I think it kind of reminds mealmost like a like bookstores.
I feel like sometimesbookstores do something similar
where they they have like thestaff picks and they write like
a little synopsis.
That kind of makes it so thatit stands out a little bit more
And it definitely works on mewith with the books, but I'm
sure it works with jewelry aswell.
That's great.
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Again, that's 800-828-7840.
Until in the loop sent yaAlright and back to the show.
Now one thing I kind of wantedto ask about is about kind of
(25:44):
just the changes in fashionright now.
I know that it's very close tohome.
I'm always very interested inmen's jewelry.
I had talked with Vincent whenhe was on as a guest about, you
know, the rise of the Cuban linkand how popular that is with
different sports players.
What are you guys seeing issuper popular as far as like
(26:06):
styles of jewelry?
I know that for a while, for ahot minute, there was the
permanent jewelry was allanybody would talk about.
But are you guys seeinganything, at least when it comes
to trends, maybe in differentstone usage or metal types?
Anything from any of you guys?
Vincent (26:23):
A couple different
things.
Well, the Cubans are obviouslystill very much in trend.
Very poppin' Basic gold iswithout gemstones has been very
popular, so a lot of dangle goldearrings have been in.
Hoops are huge.
They've always been big, butfor some reason this year,
mother's Day, we sold out ofhoops every single size, even
the big ones.
We call them the J-Lo Hoops.
(26:44):
Oh yeah, we sold out of those.
So that has been very, verypopular for us.
And in bridal it's been gettinga lot simpler A lot of hidden
halo solitaires or just plainsolitaires.
A lot of the past three monthshave been that, jesse or Anna.
Anna (27:02):
Yeah, i mean honestly the
pretty much the exact same thing
that Vincent just said.
we're moving a lot of basics.
So and when I say basic yellowgold right, so yellow gold chain
, yellow gold hoops, yellow goldlittle ball studs I mean a lot
of units moving in basics aswell as simple engagement.
(27:22):
I feel like the halo that wasso hot has dissipated
drastically.
It's like I've got so many haloengagement rings that I can't
move, that are moving into thesale case.
So I don't know, vincent,you're seeing that too, but I
mean we're selling.
we are selling oval solitairesLike they're going out of style.
Michael (27:44):
Crazy.
Anna (27:44):
So yeah, it's crazy.
So yeah, basics and simpleengagement.
Jesse (27:50):
We're doing the same
thing.
Halos are kind of dead.
I don't even try to sell a haloanymore.
But we, we we're doing thepermanent bracelets and it's
pretty strong for us.
We've we've done like 450 thisyear when we did we did 140 last
month.
So so we're.
(28:12):
I mean I did, i think I did sixyesterday.
So I mean it's a pretty steadyincome.
It's just kind of little gravyon top of everything else we're
doing.
Michael (28:22):
What kind of jewelry is
that?
Is that like fine goldbracelets?
I think that's what I've seen,the most most popular ones.
Jesse (28:28):
Yeah, but basically it's.
You know, it's the chain thatyou can buy by the inch, and
usually it's like a little cablechain or a little paperclip or
something like that.
And we've even started doinglike the diamond station And
this is kind of a secret, i'mgoing to let it out.
We're selling diamond permanentbracelets and the way we're
(28:51):
getting them and we sell themfor 4.99.
And the way we're getting themis simplex sells a like a
diamond by the yard and anecklace and 18 inches, and so
we just cut the catch off, wecut it in half, we cut it into a
four diamond bracelet and wesell it for 4.99.
Michael (29:16):
That's why people
listen to the show is so they
can get a little nuggets likethat.
Jesse (29:21):
I think we maybe have
$200 in it.
So so it's, i mean it's we'remaking you know double and a
little extra for a time.
Vincent (29:32):
I am regretting not
jumping on this permanent
bracelet bandwagon, because Ikeep this in it, because I've
been selling gold for so long.
but then I hear stories fromJesse It's you guys are killing
it.
Jesse (29:43):
Well, my, my, i said no,
i don't want to do it.
We started last year in July.
I said I don't want to do it.
It's just, you know, it's goingto take a lot of time And we're
going to have to invest in allthis chain.
And my wife said we need to dothis.
We've got the machine, we'vegot everything to do it.
Let's just do it, let's try it.
And it's been successful eversince we started.
Michael (30:05):
Oh, that is super cool.
Do you have them sign a sometype of waiver?
because I spoke with I think itwas Scott Stambot and he had
mentioned one of the reasons whyhe was hesitant to do it is
because they are a little bitmore prone to being broken, and
then people get mad at you ifthey break when they are the
(30:25):
ones that broke it.
Jesse (30:27):
I don't, i don't have
them, i don't have anything that
they sign.
We've only had one break andthe customer said that they
caught it on something and youknow, they were luckily enough,
they were local and they justbrought it back in and we just
put it back on.
Michael (30:44):
Nice, i see.
Wow, really cool.
I've been kind of, you know,very interested in the permanent
jewelry.
I can never do it because whenI work out it would get pulled
off and I need to be able totake off my jewelry.
I guess related to this is theprice of gold.
I just pulled it up.
Year to date, price of gold isup 7%.
(31:06):
How is that affecting yourguys' business?
I know that it can make thingsmore difficult in the short term
because the price of items haveto go up, but I also know that
sometimes people see it as moreof an asset and they're more
likely to see it as like aninvestment.
How is the price of goldaffecting you guys as store
owners?
Vincent (31:28):
That's probably one of
our biggest effects at the store
Is the price of gold.
It definitely affectseverything, because we don't
market up a crazy amount becausewe turn it and it's just
something that we're known for.
It affects how we buy, when webuy.
God bless you Everything.
It affects all of that.
Right now this would be thehighest we'd ever bought gold at
(31:52):
, and I just didn't make a smallpurchase yesterday because I
have to restock some of thestuff that we are out of.
I try to keep the pricingconsistent enough.
The price of gold is up over10% since we bought it last.
I'm only marking it up 3% andthere's still a cushion for
margin, just not as much.
I definitely take a small hiton it.
(32:14):
When the price goes up likethis It hurts, but we manage.
The good part of it is there'sa lot more people selling their
gold, so we get a lot of more ofthat coming in.
It does make up for some ofthat loss when we do purchase
brand new Interesting.
Anna (32:31):
I'll say that we buy off
the street year round constantly
.
We have a massive selection inthe state jewelry.
I will say when it's higher wejust get more people in selling.
Other than that, we don't stocka ton of heavy men's chains.
I don't see the same effects asVincent was saying.
(32:54):
Obviously we stock a lot ofgold and definitely when the
price is up it sucks.
It's not something that I wouldsay is the biggest thing that
happens when gold's up.
The biggest thing that happensis we see more people selling
gold.
Michael (33:09):
Interesting.
Anna (33:10):
Which I like Yeah.
Michael (33:13):
I think right now.
I just went back for five years.
I've been with Punchmark forsix years now.
In looking, the price of goldis up 54% in five years.
That is just a lot.
I'm always interested tohearing as the prices fluctuate.
Same thing with lab growndiamonds.
(33:34):
I know that the price can begoing down.
I'm sure that that ends upeating into your guys' wallet at
some point, But I guess itsounds like you guys are making
do With all.
That said, I think maybe I wantto wrap this up and maybe hear
what you guys are currentlyfocused on and what you guys are
working towards.
(33:54):
I know that every store ownerhas some type of project that
they are working on, whetherthat's upgrading their in-store
experience with display cases,upgrading their website or their
online performance, or juststaffing up.
What is it that you guys areworking on?
Maybe, Jesse, if we can startwith you, we'll just go around
(34:14):
and wind it.
Jesse (34:18):
Well, we're doing some
remodeling around our shop area
and trying to add some new tools.
We're focusing on that, tryingto figure out where we should
market, because it's just likewhat does work Right now.
We're just so busy, there's nota lot of time.
Our main focus that I've beentrying to do is trying to cut
(34:42):
out things that we do, becausewe've been doing stuff for so
long that it's probably notprofitable, and so cutting out
what's not profitable, that'staken up a lot of time, so we
can focus on things that areprofitable.
Michael (34:57):
Can you give an example
of something that you've been
doing that might not beprofitable anymore?
Jesse (35:01):
Well, we get, we get
older customers that come in
with jewelry That's not worthfixing or It's just costume or
something like that, and if it'snot, so what we we've, we're
just not taken, like, we're justnot taking it in.
If it's something We can dowhile they wait, we just do it.
But or and we also have aminimum, like if somebody leaves
something, it's got to be, it'sgonna be $60, you know.
(35:23):
And some people like, well, idon't want to spend $60 for, you
know, for a watch, battery orsomething like that.
I said, well then, don't, don'tleave it.
You know, yeah, i mean it'skind of a hard thing because
we've got customers that's beencoming to us for a long time and
it's like, you know, theyremember when we charge $5 for a
battery and so and it's justnot.
There's just things It's justnot worth our time.
Michael (35:44):
Yeah, it's funny.
I'm on like the jewelry forumsand I'll see All the the owners
talking about how this guy camein for a watch battery And he
thought it was gonna be $5.
And here I am, i've got likethree watches that none of them
work, all of them don't have adead batteries And I'm like, oh,
i guess I'm not gonna go inanytime soon to change out my
(36:05):
batteries.
But that's fascinating that youguys are aging out of that.
I know that, like, for example,tattoo parlors have a shop
minimum and that's the kind ofprevents.
You know having to wipe downeverything, go in, you know re,
change out all their Their gunsand everything, just to go in
and do, for example, like the,the semi-colons that were really
(36:26):
popular and then only charginglike $5.
That's it just doesn't reallywork.
Yes, i agree.
What about you, anna?
any anything that you guys areworking on right now?
Anna (36:36):
Sounds like the Gem White.
Michael (36:37):
Box project.
Anna (36:39):
Yes, that's.
There's two big projects we'reworking on.
The replacing all the pictureson the website is one of the big
, the big items.
And then the other thing Ithink I have mentioned this is
Moving our aged inventory.
We are a customer of Edgeretail Academy.
Yeah, stephen, yeah, they'reawesome.
(37:01):
I'm.
Stephen Barnes is our businessadvisor.
We love him and That's ourfocus with him right now is we
have, like, this plan in place.
That's what I was talking aboutwith the cases with the
different discounts in them, andreally what we're doing this
month with the anniversary sale,and we're really looking at the
percentage of inventory thatwe've had, you know, from six to
(37:23):
twelve months that hasn't moved.
Older than twelve months, right.
Older than two years, right.
We're getting very specificwith these numbers and thank
goodness for you know all thedata that they have.
You know, because I think afteryou've had a piece of inventory
for over one year, it's likeyour chance of selling it is.
You know, i don't remember theexact amount, i have to ask
(37:43):
Stephen, but I want to say it'slike three percent or something.
It's crazy.
So we are laser focused onmoving the aged inventory.
So those are our two bigprojects right now.
Michael (37:55):
That's fascinating.
I had no idea how, how big of anot not a problem, but how big
of a focus that would be.
I guess it does make sensebecause in the end you do have
to, you know, lock up some ofyour You know your capital in in
these products, and if they'renot moving, then it's just
locked up.
You're not even using it.
So, man, that that definitelydoesn't important.
Anna (38:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
Michael (38:16):
And Vincent.
Vincent (38:17):
Yeah, we have several
things on the pipeline right now
.
We just right now the storymodel is halfway done.
We just finished the outsidefacade are.
We got a new paint job, newsigns, new awnings, new
everything.
So our outside looks brand new.
The city is fixing up thesidewalks for us.
that should be done in about aweek or so.
So that's the.
(38:38):
The big project that's beingworked on right now is the just
overall aesthetic, the inside ofour store.
It is finished, but I amcurrently redoing all the
showcases.
I'm adding about four moreshowcases to our current layout.
I'm actually doing it right nowin my CAD program, just laying
it all out.
So we're going to be doing thatwithin the next week.
The I, the golds to that is tocreate an actual shopping
(39:02):
experience, not just the retailstore experience now, whereas we
have sectioned off areas in thestore.
Oh yeah, diamonds here, goldhere, whatnot.
I wanted to kind of make itmore shoppable, more What are
you looking for, as opposed tohere, all the golds here, all
the diamonds are here.
So we're working on that.
That's a big of Big focus rightnow.
(39:22):
So the layout's done, it's justwhere the pieces are going.
That is the current project.
We're doing that later on today.
And then the third big projectis our website.
We are almost done with our bigmajor upgrade that we are doing
with you.
Obviously, we've been a we'vebeen a Punch mark customer for
well over five years, but wejust did the Full website
(39:42):
upgrade the last vegas show andit's in its final stages now.
I'm trying to get my in-storeshopping experience is Is
streamlined on my website.
Now is possible because sincewe started punch mark, we've
never had an online sale And nowwe're getting a few thousand a
month on our website And i'mcapitalizing on that.
So our website is our website'sa big one for us.
Michael (40:06):
That's awesome.
I think my the highlight of myentire experience at the at the
client workshop this past yearwas We had just finished doing
the live in the loop episode.
I wish I would have beenrecording for it and you and you
just stood up and you're like,oh, i just made us, just made a
sale just a minute ago.
Yeah, that was awesome.
Vincent (40:22):
Yeah, that was amazing.
That was so exciting.
It's just a regular, a regularsale.
Someone went on my websitefound it in bots bought earrings
right after that podcast.
So cool.
Michael (40:33):
Well, guys, thank you
all so much for being here.
Um, i'll have all of yourwebsites In the episode
description below, but again,thank you so much jesse for
minor jewelry, anna from Barnettjewelry and Vincent from Arezzo
jewelers, and I really can'tthank you guys enough for being
here.
Um, i Would love to do more ofthese episodes because I do
(40:56):
think it's important to hearwhat other people are thinking
about and are caring about, andthat there's not one way to be
doing this business.
There are Many, many, manydifferent types of ways to
approach it and they all arevery valid.
So hearing from you guys andhearing kind of what you guys
are focused on and what you guyshave tried is So important, and
I hope it inspires someone totry maybe something new one day
(41:19):
Anything before we kind of wrapup.
Vincent (41:21):
Mike, thank you for
thank you for this podcast.
I listened every episode and Ilearned something every single
episode.
I honestly do and, jesse, i amone step closer to becoming a
permanent jewelry retailer.
Jesse (41:35):
Well, you just let me
know if I can help absolutely,
and then it's always good totalk to you.
Vincent (41:39):
Tell last grace and
hello.
Anna (41:41):
I sure will.
Yes, good to talk to everyone,and I, you know, i listened to
the end of loop, every singleepisode.
I love everything that getsshared on here.
Um, same as Vincent, i learnedsomething from every episode.
There's so much value andsharing.
You know what's working for us,what we're focused on, like you
said.
So, thank you and jesse.
(42:02):
Um, i am right on the verge ofdoing the permanent jewelry.
I just have to order themachine and the chain.
I'm ready to go.
I just want to finish up thesetwo major projects I'm working
on and I'm gonna shift focus tothat.
So thank you for that.
Jesse (42:15):
You're welcome.
Michael (42:16):
Yeah jesse is giving
away secrets.
I love it.
Jesse (42:19):
I know that that was hard
to do.
I'm telling you the uh, and I'ma big fan of the loop too The
the loop has really shed a reala lot of light onto a lot of
things.
That Kind of was in the dark,you know, we stuff we didn't
know.
Now we know.
So that's, that's the best partof in the loop is learning from
(42:40):
everybody else.
Michael (42:42):
Wow, that, uh really
makes me feel good.
Thank you guys so much.
It's great to hear that there's.
You know that this isn't justshots into the void and that
someone is out there listening,so it really means the world to
me.
Thank you so much, everybody.
Uh, we'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers, thank you All.
(43:02):
Right, everybody.
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This week's episode was broughtto you by punchmark and
produced and hosted by michaelburpoe.
Our guests this week were jesseminor and Anna barnett and
vincenzo Spilotro, with music byross cockerham and edited by
paul suarez.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on spotify and apple
podcast, as well as check outpunchmark.
com/lou pe.
(43:23):
That's loupe for moreinformation about the podcast.
We'll be taking two weeks off,so make sure that you come back
when we're back after fourth ofjuly and enjoy the break.
Cheers, bye.