Can’t sell from an empty wagon
Moss says he’s received a few calls from Canadian retailers looking to buy a lab-grown diamond. Most of the time, it’s because the consumer has come in looking for one, rather than the store promoting them.
“Canadian retailers are more afraid of them than they are of seizing an opportunity,” he says. “Consumers don’t ask for a product you don’t display. If you want to make an opportunity for yourself, you don’t wait for your customer to come in and ask you for something. You promote it. As my father used to say, ‘You can’t sell from an empty wagon.'”
Zale says changes in consumer preferences and shifts in the market are inevitable. “Regardless of what business you’re in, you always have to look over the next hill and over the horizon to see what’s coming next,” he says. “This is an industry that is steeped in tradition in so many ways, but when I look back over the last 30 years, there’s been nothing but change.”
