My friends' kids are getting to the engagement stage. Just Thursday I spent lunch telling a friend what to tell her son about looking for diamonds. (Blind leading the blind there...lol). I also gave her a list of places (only vendors here) to look.
In our town, zales cluster rings are the rage. Only one store sells AGS diamonds and it is a mall store. My group of people love jewelry and shop out of town/state and are open to recommended online jewelers. (I expect her son will eventually make it to whiteflash simply because he is in Texas).
I'm paying attention to vendors; that is why I am interested in how this problem is solved.