I began a close association with my father’s cousin, Fred Kuczajda, back in 1977. Uncle Fred lived in Windsor, Ontario and owned jewelry manufacturing companies in both Windsor and Detroit. I went to him as a struggling hobbyist trying to make crude silver jewelry, and soon found myself learning from a true, old-world master craftsman and jewelry designer.
Uncle Fred suffered polio at a young age and the government had programs back then to educate these individuals in jewelry, one of the few trades that allow a person in a wheelchair to earn a good living. He was one of the original founding owners of Motif Manufacturing, and left that company in 1959 to form his own smaller company, Fayrick Mfg. Inc. Throughout the 60’s and 70’s, Fred designed and manufactured items for companies like Keepsake, Orange Blossom, and chains such as J.B. Robinson Jewelers and Fox Jewelers.
My wife, sister and I opened our retail store in 1979, along about the same time that Uncle Fred reached the sad conclusion to get out of the jewelry manufacturing business. Until that time, Fayrick only sold its products to wholesale companies and jewelry chains with multiple locations. My cousin Faye (yes she had a brother named Rick) would travel across the country three or four times each year on selling trips, and their customers would order styles by the dozen. Basic staples like solitaires were often ordered by the gross, and even in 1980 when I purchased Fayrick, we kept three bench people busy year around in a feverish pace.
Uncle Fred, however, had been in this business many years, and could read the signs of what was to come. The chain stores began to buy their product from overseas manufacturers where labor was cheap. The wholesalers were going broke trying to keep salesmen on the road, and the independent jewelers stopped buying inventory in volume, instead choosing to purchase one piece at a time, either when it was sold or when their customer placed an order. By 1983 it was no longer cost effective to travel in search of Fayrick orders.
The bottom line to the story above is that by the late 1980’s, most of the small and medium sized jewelry manufacturing companies were no longer in business here in the states. By 1990 almost all of the wholesale companies were gone as well. Only the largest and the smallest seemed to have survived, and only then by reducing overhead cost to an absolute minimum.
From 1990 through today, the major retail chains purchase from companies located in China, Taiwan and India, and to the trained eye most merchandise in these stores all started to look alike. Craftsmanship has been completely lost, and low pricing is all that seems to matter. New technology was developed to allow manufacturers to install stones directly into wax patterns of rings prior to casting, and costly stone setting procedures have nearly become a lost art.
Go for a walk in any large mall and visit four or five of these retailers and you will likely see what I am talking about. Look at the jewelry in the cases with a critical eye and it will all start to look alike. Each style is available in red, blue or green and the ceilings are lined with spotlights to dazzle you with all the sparkle. Most people in our trade call these rings “five year” pieces, and I honestly wonder how they even last that long. The low-end, big box stores (think Wally-World, etc. etc.) are even worse, selling rings with diamonds that look like frozen spit and held in place with a technique called “nick-set”. My staff will not clean this type of merchandise, even when brand new, as the stones will shake out under ultrasonic vibration.
One last story before I leave this subject. One large, U.S. based diamond jewelry manufacturer named Leo Schachter Diamonds, a major supplier to Kay Jewelers, opened a new factory in 2007. The new plant was located in China, and was designed and built to accommodate 800 workers. The buildings also include dormitories and cafeterias, with the intention that their workers will live and work in one location, and be cared for from cradle to grave. It certainly is a different concept, and I leave it up to the readers as to how you see it.
My next column will be Jewelry Pricing-Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later. I hope you are finding this information entertaining as well as informative. Got questions? Send them my way at mike@JonMichaelsJewelers.com
