More women buying jewelry
Annapolis Capital, MD
BY KATIE ARCIERI, Staff Writer
Published December 18, 2007
Pam McGinnis didn’t hesitate to drop $1,000 on a Lecil Henderson necklace from Sanders Jewelers in Pasadena. Nor did she flinch when buying a new wedding band with diamonds for her husband after he lost the first one.
That’s because if something catches her eye, the 48-year-old is not afraid to splurge.
“I figure that I’m working, I like this piece, I’m going to buy it,” said Ms. McGinnis, who has worked for the Department of Defense since 1980.
Over the past two decades, as women take on a greater role in the work place, they are pulling more cash out of their handbags for diamonds and gold, experts said. And local jewelers said they are benefiting from the trend.
“They buy across the board, it goes from pearl strands and earrings to buying diamond studs, a lot of right-hand rings,” said Bruce Chance of WR Chance Jewelers in Annapolis, who estimates that about 30 percent of his sales came from self-purchasing women last year. “She can afford it and she’s not going to try to drop hints, hints, hints when they can go and get it.”
The growing demand represents a societal shift as more women move up the corporate ladder and bring home higher salaries. By next year, women are expected to make up 48 percent of the labor force, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s up from 45 percent in 1988.
The trend is also driven by companies marketing jewelry not just as a gift but as a fashion item, said Hedda Schupak, editor-in-chief of JCK Magazine, a leading trade publication for retail jewelers in New York.
“Frankly, a lot more jewelry is fashion-focused now,” she said, citing designer David Yurman as a trailblazer in fashion jewelry. “In the past 20 years, jewelry has really developed a nice designer movement, which tends to be more fashion driven.”
“If a woman is spending $2,000 on a Prada handbag, there’s no reason she can’t spend $2,000 on a ring,” she added.
Larry Sanders, president of Sanders Jewelers, which sells designer brands by Denny Wong, Cherie Dori and Alwand Vahan, estimated between 30 percent and 40 percent are self-purchasing women.
“The men say there’s my money, there’s our money, and then there’s her money,” said Mr. Sanders, whose store recently moved from the Lake Shore Plaza to its current Magothy Beach Road location and holds trunk shows where customers can buy jewelry from such designers such as Lecil Henderson.
“Now women are buying men nice gifts, a lot of high-end watches,” he said. “They like to treat themselves. So if they are working professionals they want to look good.”
Ruby Singleton Blakeney, the city’s director of minority and small business enterprise development and an art consultant, said she’s always considered jewelry an essential part of her wardrobe. And she’s willing to spend the money on quality pieces – “I don’t settle for anything.”
For example, she said she bought a pair of Paul Klecka diamond earrings on sale from Nordstrom that were appraised for $9,500 five years ago.
“We get what we want,” she said. “I don’t want to wait for anyone.”
Ms. Schupak said the tradi-tional perception has been that men buy jewelry for women, period.
But women are a fast-growing group of consumers in general, making 85 percent of household purchases and influencing 95 percent of them, she said.
“I don’t know too many guys out there that are going to buy the car without the women saying ‘that’s the car,'” Ms. Schupak said.
Even going back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, women were purchasing two-thirds of all gold jewelry and 90 percent of all sterling silver, she said. But a larger number of women are buying diamonds now and plenty of colored gem jewelry, she said.
According to MVI Marketing’s Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council survey, in which 84 percent of respondents were women, more than two-thirds of respondents bought jewelry for themselves in the past. Fashion rings, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets were the top styles respondents planned to purchase, according to the survey.
Ms. Schupak said $3,000 seems to be the price threshold for women jewelry purchases, although that can be more depending on the market, she said. After that price, it becomes “more of a family decision.” The “sweet spot” price point for women seems to run between $300 and $1,500.
WR Chance, which carries 90 percent of products for women, recently had designer Amy Levine in the store and women bought five or six items ranging in price from $300 to $5,000, Mr. Chance said. The store recently held a “ladies night” event to help women develop a wish list of things they want their significant others to buy them.
But 90 percent of the sales that night were purchases from women buying for themselves, he said. Women are having a bigger influence in purchases, even “paying a portion of the engagement ring,” he said.
Steve Samaras, owner of Zachary’s Jewelers in downtown Annapolis said about 20 percent of his sales were from women last year. He too has seen more women influencing jewelry purchases, whether it’s style, branding or the size.
“Going back 25 years, no purchase was made unless it was made by a gentleman,” he said.
He attributes the trend to more reasonable price points for fashion jewelry.
“You can get top name brand designer like John Hardy and Charriol and David Yurman for a few hundred dollars,” he said.
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karcieri@capitalgazette.com
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