A FairJewelry.Org exclusive: Jay Seiler of Security Jewelers
I met Jay Seiler of Security Jewelers at the JCK Show. He is a retailer who found my press release about fairjewelry.org at the Rapaport Fair Trade booth and sought me out in the Design Center Building. After the show, I interviewed him by email, curious as to why he is moving his company toward fair, ecologically and socially responsible sourcing.
Jay Seiler
FJ: What in your personal and business background is driving you seek out ethical and environmental sourcing that is of a standard above almost all other jewelers?
Jay: We are located in very progressive area with many social service agencies and a university population of nearly 15,000 students in a town of 85,000. Issues regarding social responsibility that much of the industry has recently been discussing have been on our radar since the mid to late 1990‚s.
In that regard I have been educated by my customer base and inspired by that base to learn more regarding those issues.
FJ: As a retailer, please describe your store˜its size, location and number of employees.
Jay: We have a 6,000 square foot store located in the heart of a vibrant downtown area.We are an 84 year old family owned American Gem Society (AGS) store, carrying many designer names and around 15 Swiss watch lines from Rolex to Swiss Army. We have 21 full time employees. Most have been here over 15 years.
FJ: What do you mostly sell? Diamonds? High karat? Color? Can you give me just a rough brake down?
Jay: Diamonds, watches and bridal are our strongest categories. We sell lots of gold and colored gems also.
FJ: I know you have been a strong proponent of Canadian diamonds. What do you say to those who say, we need to buy African diamonds too because African countries needs diamonds sales to survive?
Jay: Although we sell a lot of Canadian diamonds, diamonds from Africa are still the bread and butter of our brick and mortar retail operation.
While we understand the importance of African diamond sales to benefit artisanal miners, we also understand how the advent of diamond mining in Canada has turned around the lives of many disadvantaged aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Unlike the miners in Africa,very few of the aboriginals in Canada have anyone trumpeting their cause and for them the diamond industry has been a true lifesaver.
We also work with organizations such as Diamonds for Africa and Russell Simmons organization The Diamond Empowerment Fund.
FJ: Who are your customers? Are they average in Minnesota, or are they particularly sensitive to ethical and environmental sourcing, in your opinion?
Jay: We are 2-3 hours north of Minneapolis, so we lack that real large affluent crowd. I would say we have a more middle of the road clientele.
We are the type of store where there may be a doctor or hot-shot developer at one counter and a steel miner at the next counter.
For 84 years, we have aimed to make them both feel comfortable.
FJ: I see that you are developing a new website. How much, by percentage, is does the internet drive your business at this point, and what drove you to develop a new site at this time?
Jay: Although our internet sales are well into six figures, they are still a pretty small percentage of overall business.When we went online in the mid 1990‚s almost all business and visitors were out of state. While most of our online sales are still out of this area, the amount of local customers visiting our web site before coming in is significant.
At first I did not even have our store hours on the site. Now we have hours, directions, even tips on where to park.
Our new site is strictly diamonds from Canada and Eco-Jewelry.
http://www.arcticsparkle.com
I have had success with another niche site as well:
www.squarediamonds.com.
I wanted to expand in areas where there is moderate demand and not many people specializing on satisfying that demand.
Security Jewelers has been in business for 84 years
FJ: Do you see any change in momentum say, over the past year with your customer base around these values? I am trying to see how this movement is trending, one way or another, and if your move in your current direction is related to a particular market force you’ve noticed.
Jay: Prior to the movie Blood Diamond, I thought that once it was released we would see a spike in our Canadian diamond business, but it really had little or no impact.
We really do not take the hard line conflict approach to selling Canadian anyway.We play up the fact that it is a beautiful diamond that just happens to be from North America.
FJ: How do you best attract the customer to your store concerned about socially responsibility? Are they more responsive to some things over other things? Print media? Web? Television?
Jay: We do not really promote to the socially responsive market, but due to our size and word of mouth, they find us.
FJ: What is your best estimate as to how much of a premium your customer will pay over competitive items in your category to be eco and socially responsible?
Jay: I am not seeing much resistance to our pricing on Canadian diamonds which may be only 4-5% more then similar non Canadian.
If a Canadian diamond is out of their price range they generally will lean towards a colored gem.
