By Hannah Connorton and Michelle Graff

New York--For some jewelers, the end of the holiday season was strong enough to draw comparisons with post-recession seasons, while others reported that they saw fewer customers but that those who did come in made bigger purchases.

National Jeweler publishes a weekly holiday sales roundup every Monday throughout the holiday season. The roundups are compiled using interviews with independent retailers from five regions of the country: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, South Central and West. This is the seventh sales report of 2011.

NORTHEAST
The week before Christmas started out slowly at Evan James Ltd., said owner Evan James Deutsch. Momentum built throughout the week, however, culminating in a Friday and Saturday that were “unbelievable,” he said.

He said the Brattleboro, Vt., store opened at 9 a.m. on Saturday, which was Christmas Eve, and was supposed to remain open until 5 p.m. Deutsch remained at the shop until 7 p.m. because of the volume of business.

He said while this week will be telling, with exchanges--always an opportunity for an up-sell--and customers using gift cards, he expects he will be up 10 to 15 percent over last year.

The increase in business is due to improved consumer sentiment and the shop’s storewide “Renovation Celebration” sale, where all inventory was marked down as much as 40 percent. Deutsch said they distributed direct mail pieces to their best customers offering savings above those offered to the general public in the renovation sale. The postcards generated a tremendous response.

“So far it has,” exceeded expectations, Deutsch said of the holiday season. “This week could make it really, really great.”

With a week in the year still left to go, business is up 33 percent over last year at Ralph Miller Jewelers & Gallery in Erie, Pa., said Daniel Niebauer.

The store was “just swamped,” the week before Christmas, including on Christmas Eve when customers were pounding on the doors after the store had closed to purchase gift cards.

“It was kind of unexpected,” Niebauer said of the strong holiday season. “It was kind of Christmas as it was in the past, before 2008.”

He said a combination of factors contributed to a successful holiday season, including more positive economic reports in the media, a stronger local economy, the end of the war in Iraq and very little snowfall in the Erie area.

New York City’s Greenwich Jewelers was busiest on Thursday and Friday, which is normal for the store since it is located in a business district, said co-owner Christina Gandia Gambale. 

“All in all, we were slightly up,” she said, with sales about 5 percent higher year-over-year.

She said while they were expecting the season to be “slightly stronger” they are not disappointed with the sales increase.

SOUTHEAST
Steve Allen, of Allen’s Jewelers in Albany, Ga., reports that this Christmas was the worst his store has experienced in its history. He said Albany, a small community located in the southwest corner of the state, still is struggling economically.

“I don’t think that the economy is as good as everybody is trying to report that it is,” he said.

The final numbers aren’t in yet at Wick and Greene Jewelers in Asheville, N.C., but, overall, Eva Greene said they were “very pleased” with the holiday season, including the last week before Christmas.

“We were constantly busy with everything from Pandora beads to significant diamonds,” she said.

The store called all staff members in early on Christmas Eve, expecting a crush of customers. Though it was not as busy as anticipated, the store still did solid business that day. “It was a nice, constant pace,” Greene said.

Helping the store this holiday season was its deep selection of inventory and its staff. This year, Wick and Greene focused on training all staff on selling big-ticket items, and it worked.

Greene said every single sales associate has at least one single sale of $10,000 or more.

MIDWEST
The holiday season was going “alright” at James Alperin Jewelers in Pepper Pike, Ohio, but owner James Alperin said “the last three days were so dead it was unbelievable.”

The jeweler said he noticed he hadn’t sold a single pair of diamond stud earrings the entire holiday season and called other independent jewelers to see if they had. Alperin said he was surprised to hear they hadn’t sold any either.

“I found it very odd that there were three stores that didn’t sell one pair,” he said “And a jeweler’s wife told me that the purchase range this year was $200 to $500, so diamonds studs at $2,000 were too high of a price point.”

Still, traffic was decent at the store, although Alperin said he believes he is a little down from last year.

“I have to take some blame for it,” he said. “My store could have too upscale of merchandise. It could be my location. I can’t totally pass the buck.”

There are also two independent jewelers within a half mile of Alperin that have very big stores and carry brands such as Rolex and Cartier. With the competition, Alperin said he ran 60 local television advertisements a week for four weeks before Christmas, but it still didn’t bring in a barrage of customers.

“I really am out of ideas,” he said. “The economy obviously has a lot to do with it, and Cleveland is a conservative area … people don’t dress to go out. It’s not like New York or Chicago.”

Colored stones did not sell this season, Alperin noted, but gold earrings and sterling silver were strong.

Repairs and custom work were up this holiday season at The Jewelry Mechanic in Oconomowoc, Wis., said Jamie Windhaeuser.

The store did a lot of work in 14-karat white gold and also had requests for yellow, peach and green gold pieces, as well as yellow gold repairs. Around 90 percent of the store’s business is custom work, Windhaeuser said, with repairs sprinkled in.

“I had a lot of custom work pendants, and a lot of rings,” Windhaeuser said, adding that tourmaline and emeralds were included in some pieces. “I did a lot of expensive repairs, a lot of people who rebuilt pieces because they didn’t have the money to buy something new.”

Windhaeuser said custom work allows a lot of interaction with the customer, which he enjoys.

“We like to get their ideas and make them a part of the project,” he said.

SOUTH CENTRAL
Christmas Eve was a busy day at Cunningham Jewelers in Tulsa, Okla., said owner Vicki Cunningham.

“It was one of our better days the whole month,” Cunningham said. “I think we are going to end our month better than last year, which 10 days ago I had my doubts about.”

The jeweler said the biggest difference she’s noticed is that last year she had more customers and traffic but smaller ticket sales, and this year she’s had less customers and traffic but much bigger ticket sales.

“The middle-priced customer is still not spending money,” Cunningham said. “But the higher-end person is out spending money now.”

It was a very good last weekend, and overall holiday season, at Newton’s Jewelers in Fort Smith, Ark., said owner Kelly Newton.

“We had tons of customers, it was like 2007 again,” Newton said.

A lot of big ticket items were sold, especially big diamonds, Newton said, as well as Rolex watches and jewelry. Lazare Kaplan sold “like it was on fire,” bringing in more sales in December than it did throughout 2011.

“People’s attitudes are completely different,” the jeweler said. “Customers weren’t complaining or acting worried, they weren’t teeter-tottering on whether to buy or not. People were happy to buy, and that’s the big difference.”

WEST
“We weren’t better than planned and we weren’t worse than planned, we were dead-on,” Steve Goldfarb, owner of Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler in Seattle and Bellevue, Wash. “which puts us at about 10 percent over last year.”

Goldfarb said he saw a pattern last weekend, and throughout the holiday season where foot traffic was slow but people made big purchases.

“Four people made up 80 percent of our business on the 24th,” he said, “a few people come in and make big purchases, and then the rest buy smaller things.”

Goldfarb said while watches and engagement rings have been the major purchases in the past three years, big ticket items have moved to jewelry. Black diamonds did well this season, he said, as well as sliced diamonds and colored stones.

It was a decent Christmas at Sarah Leonard Fine Jewelers in Los Angeles, said co-owner and graduate gemologist Gail Friedman.

The store saw a lot of big ticket items sold, even though traffic seemed to be down, including “a lot” of engagement rings.

“There wasn’t any theme to anything being sold,” Friedman said. “It was all different items.”

Los Angeles is still in a major recession, the jeweler said, and the store’s clientele is elite, but still careful. Most customers only made one purchase, rather than coming in with a list of items they wanted to buy or adding on to pieces they picked out.

“Overall, this year was similar to last year, but it’s hard to compare because we’re seeing shifts,” Friedman said. “A lot of things are coming together, like online sales, no internet tax, and newer customers not necessarily being loyal or ready to spend again.”