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To: 16yearcycle who wrote (2942)	11/12/2000 6:00:14 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

Are you seeing some slowdown in your stores? I would be amazed if you weren't. Eugene, There is a definite slowdown. This is true in the entire jewelry industry. I was just talking with one of my suppliers in New York that has an office on 47th street and he stated all his colleagues never saw it this bad. There have been two problems. One is to generate traffic into the stores and that is not just my industry related. My discussions with managers of larger chains indicate business is soft. The other problem is ticket size. In my case, the average purchase is about 25% less than last year. I have been really lucky in a sense due to my web site. I am the only jeweler in my markets really working a site and I am finding it to be the best medium to advertise around. There seems to be a reluctance to buy the actual jewelry piece on-line. However, buying a gift certificate for use in one fo the stores is very popular. It is the perfect solution for the typical male getting ready for dear hunting season. That is a big deal here<G> I played and played with the site for a concept to get people to offer their email addresses. I found one that is somewhat bizzare but is so succesful that it is difficult to keep up. We are giving a way a choice of a 14K pair of earrings (these are the small hoops that are worn by either men or women) or a 14K light weight gold bracelet. The person signing up receives an email coupon to claim their gift at one of the stores. We have found about 70% when claiming their gift buy something for someone for the holidays. Not a huge purchase but a few hundred dollars. The giveaway products cost me $9 each. If this person suggests a site to a friend and they sign up, we provide the original person with a $10 gift certificate again for use in the store. We received 1100 new email customers during the last 7 days. We also wiped out the inventory for the earrings in question from the factory. There are some people that come in and take their "prize" and that is it but that is the minority. I know this was a long post based on your question but the buying market has slowed but the net is a very powerful tool when it comes to communicating with one's customers and to generate traffic. We had to generate traffic to the site first to then get word of mouth to work. We used traditional advertising and banner advertisements on the main pages of the local ISPs. My opinion is inflation is going to be the least of the problems. I believe a hard landing is possible. The trickle down affect from all retailers is huge. We know consumer spending is a huge part of the economy. I am concerned that that this can snowball into a mild recession. Glenn