I recently hit a few milestone anniversaries. Within one week, I hit the 35th anniversary of opening my trade shop, the 25th anniversary of buying my retail store, and the 10th anniversary of moving my store from its original home of 60 years, to a new location across town. So I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane and recall some of the things that stand out to me during my time in ‘the industry’.

“This rang is real ‘cause it’s got them holes in it unnerneath the diamonds so the light can git through,” she said as she was handing me a very cheap, and very worn out, costume ring. You know the kind I’m talking about. The kind of ring that probably looked good the day you bought it at the department store to wear to a party that night. Then you lost it a day or so later and someone found it and thought it was real and has worn it every day for 2 years. Now, the glue that is holding in the ½ of the rhinestones that are left has turned green. The gold plating has worn off and it’s kind of brown in some places and green in others. But it’s got to be real ‘cause it’s got them ‘light holes’ in it.

I previously wrote about how people will readily click the ‘I agree to these terms and conditions’ on a website without giving it a second thought. That made me think about adding a ‘Terms and Conditions’ waiver that customers must sign before entering my store. After mulling it over for about a year, I’ve come to the conclusion that I left out a few important terms and conditions and now need to amend the document. This is a work-in-progress and might never be finished.

She sees me eating lunch as she comes through my front door just gabbing away on her phone. Granted, it was only chips and hot dogs, but it was still my lunch. And, they weren’t just any hot dogs, they were special hot dogs. When I’m marinating anything for the grill, I’ll open a package of hot dogs and I’ll pierce them with a fork, and marinate them at the same time. Then I’ll grill them and put them in the fridge to reheat later in the week for lunch.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a strange situation occur. I had someone come in wanting me to verify an online purchase they made - and I knew them! They were actual customers of mine. Every single time that’s happened in the past, and it’s happened a lot, it’s a total stranger. This was a first and it went something like this.

As a card carrying member of the jewelry industry, I speak from experience when I say “we need to talk” to my customers. In all reality though, I’m just trying to save them from a very costly lawsuit against me. Because, if we don’t have ‘the talk’ first, they may be foolishly thinking that the thingy they are trying to hand me is actually worth something. Because, when it all goes to hell on my bench, they may actually try to sue me for negligence which is hardly ever true. In most cases, the problem they are bringing to me today started in a faraway land several years ago.