Jewelers Upbeat About January Sales

RAPAPORT... Whoever considered the holiday season over might need tothink again: Many jewelers are seeing just as much business during January asthey witnessed during the Christmas period, if discussions on a popularsocial-media forum are anything to go by. Customers are still visiting stores, and not only toredeem gift certificates and get their purchases repaired and resized,according to several of the more upbeat participants in the 15,000-memberFacebook group Jewelers Helping Jewelers. "Anyone else off to a wild start? January's lookin'like Xmas 2.0," said one group member (emoticons removed) in a post thatprompted a slew of comments over the weekend. The responses weren't all positive, but many said theholiday momentum had continued, or even picked up. That's after an earlierthread on December 22 produced a more sober consensus about the season. "Just got back from holiday vacation and backed up withorders. Yeah! The holiday that keeps giving," wrote one respondent. Two saidthey were still seeing Christmas-like numbers, while one claimed engagementseason was still going on. (That roughly ends on Valentine's Day, according tounofficial definitions.) "I literally asked my wife when Christmas would be over,"one joked. Another added: "Crazy January so far for us! I'll sleepwhen I'm dead." Some were frustrated that most of their income was from relativelylow-value exercises such as simple watch repairs. "If you're talking about watch batteries and watch linksremoved...yep banner year!" reported one commenter. "I hate this week because you get all the resizing,returns that you have to take apart and put back in the showcase, and then allthe small diamond replacements from the micro-prongs that are falling off,"said another. However, such January jobs can be lucrative, as onemember pointed out after forfeiting a rare free Saturday to show a client theresults of a large repair project. "But hey, $1000< (sic) repair job is worth theeffort I'd say," she noted. A lot of income appears to have come from customerscoming in to use up the cash they received over the holidays. "Lots of young and old gals buying themselves Christmasgifts - guess some guys missed the hints," said one. Customers also see January as a time to buy forthemselves after spending on others over the last month, another explained.They also have more time to spare, and may just have got a bonus, she said. "This happens every year, and I usually don'tslow down until August," the poster added. Image: A woman selecting rings in a jewelry store. (Shutterstock).