March 2021 | Lab Grown Magazine

March 2021 | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 22 As of 2019, Rolex started to modify its shop-in-shop boutiques by widening entry and exit points, creating more and larger seating and selling areas, and using “negative space” with modern emerald tones aligned with Rolex’s style guide. (Photo: Rolex) that last portion, just ask any of the estimated 2,600 independent diamond shopkeepers with one foot in-store and the other on West 47th Street, anywhere between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in mid-town Manhattan. According to Steven Grauer and Harvey Nagin, two leaders of the Diamond District Partnership and diamonddistrict.org , “over 90% of diamonds entering America funnel through New York.” Most of these stones pause or pass through the legendary diamond district, but that district was close to closing. And we’re not just talking about ground- level stores. “These places, they might be on the 11th floor of a building,” says Loren O’Neal, owner of Dripped by Jersey, a dia- mond design house creating custom pieces for private clients that works in “the district.” Today, on these streets, salespeople are hold- ing temperature guns over calculators, yet “No mask, No entry” door signs are now An example of what not to do. As garish as this may look, some inde- pendent retailers may easily pass for Sam’s Club or Walmart’s jewelry departments if they overcrowd and overtly display prices. This is a clas- sic real-life example of clutter and confusion. What may draw the eye as a sea of diamonds, will drown traffic and sales. (Photo: The Jew- elry Exchange) replacing “Closed for Covid,”and those doors are staying open. Reality just walked in. And it’s been working out. For those jewelry stores beginning to slowly reopen nationwide, in some cases doing so again, please take a hard look inside your own space. Study your interior and something unsettling will start to come into view. Odds are, the entire layout of your store, like thousands of others, is patterned after a once very successful 1950’s jewelry department layout. On the ground level, let’s start with recessed security windows with semi-worn sliding back panel doors.These tend to flank an all- glass front door with an oversized handle. Inside, the only things that have changed since the Everly Brothers-era is an expensive and lengthy upgrade to LED lights, the style and color of the furniture laminate, typically a large oval-shaped bay centered in the store. >>