I disagree with a passion. We ARE in the "real" jewelry world, the one where we don't fall victim to mass sheeple advertising, where we understand that the information we are fed and brainwashed to believe is untrue. I am part of real world demographics. This "real" jewelry world is where those who want to learn what happens behind the curtain can come together to learn from not only each other, but from movers and shakers in the industry that generously share some of their time and expertise with us. Your comment STRONGLY reminds me of the ubiquitous brainwashing in the pet food industry....dogs should only eat kibble, kibble is healthy, don't feed dogs "people" food.... Not everyone wants to swallow nonsense in a wholesale fashion, and would prefer to make educated decisions. Educated decisions require time and effort to learn about the subject matter. More importantly, we are not all the same, but we ARE all part of the "real" jewelry world. The fact that you and others don't know that there are other areas in the "real" jewelry world doesn't mean they don't exist, it just means you are ignorant to them.
You are certainly within your right to disagree with a passion; I am not sure why the way you're going about it equates to coming out guns blazing and calling me ignorant (and truth be told, I'm not even sure to what you're referring... I'm not denying there are multiple areas of the jewelry spectrum, nor am I invalidating your part of any jewelry demographic), but each to his or her own.
PriceScope represents a tiny minority compared to the worldwide jewelry owning population. This is not opinion. That is fact. If we here were in any way financially significant or representative of the earth's jewelry population, then we wouldn't have things like James Allen removing certs despite PriceScope practically causing an uprising.
All I'm saying is that those on PriceScope -- of course I, you, any and all other regulars here -- have a shared passion for jewelry -- as you say, those significant players in the industry come and generously share their knowledge. PriceScope is reflective of the top ecehlon, not necessarily in finance alone, though it certainly plays a part, but certainly in passion and interest of the jewelry owning population. You, by mere virtue of being here, are in the top percentage of jewelry owners and knowers.
This is not constrained to jewelry alone. I'm part of a golf consumer forum where most everyone is a decent player, cares about equipment, custom fitting, etc. To say that anyone on that forum is representative of your average driving range hack, play twice a year on holidays guy is absurd. To say that your PriceScope member is in any way indicative of what the vast majority of people think or feel about jewelry is equally silly. I'm not saying it as an insult. But c'mon. We here do not represent the average jewelry consumer.
Those who do not care about jewelry vastly outnumber those who care. And those who care vastly outnumber any of those who are interested in PS-level research and interest expeditions. Those who post here have a passion for it but the average Joe and Jane don't give a flying care about jewelry. People want a gift for their mother or daughter, or a guy goes into a store with as much money as he can muster and wants the BIGGEST diamond he can get for $XYZ dollars. People do not care what happens behind the curtain; PS members do. The majority of people have no interest in research or reading about diamonds. PriceScope members do.
Signet Jewelers posted revenue of 6.55 *billion* dollars in 2015, which was the year I could most easily find. Jared's, Zales, Kay, etc. are where the typical middle-market jewelry consumer lie, and I'm not sure what about that statement of fact has made you in such vehement disagreement, because it was certainly not an insult.
In any case, though, I appreciate you posting your rebuttal thoughts. It is, after all, part of what makes PriceScope a neat place to be, such that we can have great discussion about something we all love dearly.
Edit for typo