Diamonds to dust

[valeria101]

The MALL War! The long STORY short, it seems like selling well-cu and well-priced diamonds is a dangerous business. PS, beware!

 

[magna2]

Interesting article - it is all about money and the big dogs have more of it so they can dictate whom they want to quasi-compete with. And, yes, the little guys - consumers - lose out.

 

[Hest88]

Interesting. They're facing the same hysteria that the Internet stores face.

 

[mike04456]

It's understandable, if unfortunate. The mall owner is likely in a tough position. Owning and running a shopping mall can be a cut-throat business. Generally they are carrying huge amounts of debt, and every space that isn't occupied is money out of their pocket. They have to keep their "anchor" tenants happy at all costs, and jewelry stores are one of those mall essentials. Keep in mind that most mall jewelers are big chains--they can afford to pack up and move to a more profitable location if necessary. The mall owner is stuck with what its got. Those two guys should have anticipated this before sinking $300k into their idea. Malls are generally not good locations for discount merchandising--one or two discount stores can drag down the image of the whole place.

 

[pqcollectibles]

Val~

You make some of the best contributions to this Forum. Great story! Glad you posted the link!

Unfortunately, it is loose/loose, both for that business and consumers.

 

[winyan]

It seems to me it's PAST time the *CONSUMERS* started taking matters into their own PURCHASING hands and told the SIMON mall owners and their inline store clients that they will be boycotting the Simon malls till the matter is resolved.

I'm sick of this whole attitude of "it's not my business"! It's everyone's business!

win

 

[valeria101]

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On 12/2/2003 3:26:43 PM winyan wrote:

It seems to me it's PAST time the *CONSUMERS* started taking matters into their own PURCHASING hands and told the SIMON mall owners and their inline store clients that they will be boycotting the Simon malls till the matter is resolved.

I'm sick of this whole attitude of 'it's not my business'! It's everyone's business!

win

----------------

Did this ever work? I am the greatest disbeliever in public action (99% of Romanians likely are).

If I ever wanted to make a point out of this post it would be this one: an enormous amount of pressure is needed to get prices down once they are up. If products and prices are standardized (such as they are for Diamonds, see that database on our front page?!) things get worse. If there is just one common market for whatever that is (and the US makes much of the world's cut diamond market, retail) getting prices down is impossible. Why? Consumer pressure is unlikely (unless we are talking about a basic good) since higher & rising prices just means increasing value of their buy
(who wants their diamonds to become cheap?), the story for producers and distributors (well, see above if not already known).

SO WHAT? Well, we'll probably get better cut, nicer diamonds as the industry evolves, but cheaper diamonds? Not really.

Hope this story is as FLAWD as can be. Comments much needed...

 

[valeria101]

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On 12/2/2003 10:57:24 AM Hest88 wrote:

Interesting. They're facing the same hysteria that the Internet stores face.----------------

THANKS! This is why I posted the link... otherwise, that would be just another Mall story.

 

[winyan]

Peaceful protest worked (on a much more important scale) for Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and others.




I'm not putting this on the scale of racial discrimination, I really feel that until whatever power is in control, be it racial separatists or those folks like the Simon mall conglomerate owners actually start to feel the pinch, (especially in this shopping season) they will ignore the issue.




I still feel that the customer is right.




win

 

[valeria101]

"Consumer pressure is unlikely (unless we are talking about a basic good)"... such a freedom becomes sometimes for all

, and diamonds seldom become for few

Why am I getting into politics

? OUPS


This post was meant to bring the story home about the five or so Cs virtual diamonds.

I know that the "Pricescope gang" lives for the CUT, repels COLOR, worries about CLARITY (and the safety of overkill here), favors a rather medium number of CARTS, demands outmost CONFIDENCE, but would never, never bid the COST down. Funny?