Roberts Jewelers ready for Christmas: New products, new technologies, new store, new staff

December 7, 2007
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

With a portfolio of new assets, Jeanne Roberts Roe, owner/manager of Roberts Jewelers, is determined to attract new customers, too, with no letup in catering to her loyal clientele. Roe’s secret weapons? An inventory teeming with sparkling, sophisticated gifts to suit any budget, and long-standing, loyal co-workers, and new employees ready to learn.

“Do you have a gemologist here?” queried a new customer as he walked in the door at 1904 Veterans Blvd., Saturday (Nov. 17). “You bet. I’ll be right with you,” replied a season-harried Roe as she scurried away to complete one customer’s task before starting another, answering a couple of waiting phone calls, and signing paperwork for incoming shipments. Roe and her staff have sustained all the growing pains of major change in 2007, paving the way for even greater things to come in 2008.

Spearheading the transformation of the family business was a tripling of floor space when Roberts Jewelers yielded its lucrative location at the center of Plaza Del Sol Mall to move into the building adjacent to Edwards-Graham Insurance. Now, with 3,200 square feet comfortably and attractively filled with an expanded, more diverse inventory, roomy office space, storage, and a workroom, Roe says her employees can now provide both services and discretion as never before.

“If they want to examine a product without being seen in the showroom, or talk about their budget without being heard, we’ll come back here to my office and talk privately,” Roe said. Minutes later, Roe took a phone call from just such a customer who wanted no one to know about a planned Christmas purchase. “Many of our customers want to buy their more expensive gifts from gemologists, designers and technicians,” Roe said.

“We’ve got merchandise here now ranging from $6 to 60,000,” Roe said, beaming. But the larger store also permits her to carry lines of jewelry and specialty items such as French designer Frédéric Duclos, Huntington Beach, Calif., Lorenzo Jewelry and Sterling, Seattle, Wash., and personalized Italian enamel bracelets and rings from Hidalgo Jewelry, Miami, Fla.

Growth of this unique family business is a portrait of business virtues: Survival, education, perseverance and professionalism. Roe’s father, John Roberts, and her mother, Jeri Kynion, were both from Dallas. In Del Rio, John worked for the mail-order and retail giant, Sears, Roebuck and Company, 1965-1970, which span of time included a reluctant move to Deridder, La. There, Jeri took her introduction to the precious gem business managing a jewelry store, while John farmed and managed the local Sears store.

In 1974, Bob Stagg, Keepsake Bridal’s top salesman contacted the Roberts family, urging them to return to Del Rio to open and manage an outlet for his firm. So, when Jeanne was 12, the family moved again and established the Veterans Boulevard store, adding jewelry to the Keepsake line. That first venture here is visible from the front porch of the new Roberts Jewelers.

But, from the old building in 1976, Roberts Jewelers moved to the La Villita strip shopping center, then to Plaza Del Sol Mall. “We had to give up the space in La Villita because the mall was taking up all the market share. That’s the way people were shopping back then,” Roe explained. “Now we’re back in a place where we’re more exclusive, and still keeping the customer relationships we’ve had for years.”

But in 2007, Roe actually opened two new locations, the other in the Base Exchange (BX), Laughlin Air Force Base, with a staff of Elizabeth Cruz, Martha Mitchell and Lynn Switzer. At the Veterans Boulevard store, Roe and Kynion are assisted by “Tencha” Barrera, Blanca De Leon, Valerie Greer, Greg Schmitt, and Elda Valentin.

Ironically, the ultimate challenge to Roe’s preeminence in the field of gemology in Del Rio might come from any of these employees who choose to follow her 28-year path of resolve and professional preparation. Roe once harbored aspirations to be a physician. Her mother, Jeri, was a victim of a terrific automobile accident, and nearly died, according to Roe, whose own childhood illness from an immune deficiency compounded her interest in health care. “My prayer every night between the ages of six- and 10-years-old was, ‘Dear Lord, I don’t need anything for Christmas; just please don’t take my mother away.’”

“Right around my 16th birthday is when I made the commitment to go into the jewelry business,” Roe said, recalling that she had already spent four years while in school helping out at the family business. The Roberts family then lived in the Del Rio Mobile Home Village, obliterated by recent Home Depot construction. “But if I didn’t have any homework to do, I’d take a different school bus and head for the store.”

That experience showed Roe first-hand the need in business here to speak Spanish well. She took four years of it in school, then attended a student exchange program through Texas A&M University at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. A summer immersion there assisted her fluency. “I use it all the time with my customers. It’s an important advantage,” Roe said.

Roe was a “bench jeweler” from 1984 through 1987, an artisan using a variety of skills to make and repair jewelry. She has also been a licensed appraiser since 1983.

Education continues to be a touchstone for Roe’s future and the health of her business. Together, she and Kynion attended the Gemological Institute of America, near Santa Monica, Calif., both receiving the non-profit organization’s Graduate Gemologist degree after six months of instruction. With three laboratories and 14 campuses around the world, GIA is widely recognized as the leader in education and research benefiting both professionals in the field and customers of diamonds colored stone precious and semi-precious gems.

Now, by Dec. 15, Roe will complete requirements for another degree – Master Independent Jewelers Organization Jeweler – bestowed by IJO, Norwalk, Conn. Roe will receive her diploma at the famed, historic Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colo., in the company of 800 jewelers from around the country.

Profession-related travels are part of Roe’s continuing education, affording as well a limitless supply of new contacts and purchasing information. In 2004, she traveled to Brazil on a GIA-sponsored trip to the mines of tourmaline, emeralds, amethyst and other quartz stones. The group also attended a major gem show and visited cutting facilities.

In 2006, she traveled to Antwerp, Belgium. “It’s the diamond-cutting capitol of the world,” Roe explained. “Several of my dealers are direct ‘site-holders’ for DeBeers,” she added, referring to independent jewelers, each of whom purchase “billions of dollars” of diamonds from the 120-year-old South African diamond mammoth, then cutting them or having them cut in India for sale to retailers. Thus, Roe believes it’s important for her to maintain direct contact with these dealers, and the place for that is Antwerp. She plans to return next year, and every year after that, if not more often.

But jewelry design is another of Roe’s passions. She has refined her abilities to service fastidious customers requiring one-of-a-kind artistry in the jewelry they wish to purchase. A CAD (computer-assisted design) software permits Roe to go quickly from imagination to product. “I’ve been designing for about 25 years, but now we can use the computer to design and actually go directly to molds with correct shank sizes and shapes of stones built in.” The design work can be effected on a laptop computer at the jeweler’s counter or in Roe’s office.

Finally, Friday (Nov. 23), she installed a $50,000 technology investment at the store to facilitate quick engraving service on nearly any surface the customer desires. “We can now engrave anything the customer wants to say or show on everything from posters to Bibles. It works on glass, metals, just about anything but fabrics,” Roe explained. “We can make virtually any design permanent, such as corporate logos, babies’ hand- or footprints, ranch brands, signatures, and military insignia, and we can either emboss or engrave,” said Roe.

Unable to separate good fortune from the support of family and supporters, Roe waxes philosophical about the source of her strength and her calm in the face of adversity. She’s been through the death of her beloved husband, retired postmaster and skydiver extraordinaire Jim Roe, major changes in her business responsibilities, the loss of some valued staff members, the discovery of more, and her recent betrothal to a new love in her life, Fred Slover, and much more.

“If someone would ask me about the blessings in my life, I’d have to say I have a wealth of friends,” Roe said.

Roberts Jewelers store hours are 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blanca De Leon shows off Roberts Jewelers’ Seiko “Velatura” stainless steel chronograph. A new model in the Seiko line with a three-year warranty, the “Velatura” is water resistant to a depth of 300 feet. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)	Roberts Jewelers’ Italian-style enamel bangle bracelets and rings are actually made in the U.S.A., and may be personalized on the exterior and engraved on the interior surfaces. They are 18K yellow or white gold or platinum, from the Hidalgo Jewelry Company, Miami, Fla. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)	“Real Rose” decorations begin with living blossoms, preserved at the peak of booming, electroplated and then dipped into 24K gold for years of enjoyment. Roe says this new product is proving very popular with many customers, and is available in a wide range of color combinations. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)
Roberts Jewelers new home, 1904 Veterans Blvd., is situated next door to Edwards-Graham Insurance, on the west side of the thoroughfare. It’s the latest and largest of five locations that have housed the Roberts businesses since the first one opened only a block from this store in 1975. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)		Jeanne Roberts Roe, owner/manager, Roberts Jewelers, is a graduate gemologist with a diploma from the Gemological Institute of America. She and her mother attended the school together in a class of 20 and graduated, respectively, first and third in the class. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)