Pineforest Jewelry in east Houston, Texas, will move a mere hop, skip, and jump down the road this fall, but the new location will feel like a different world, thanks to the ambitious vision of proprietor Diamond Jim Mills. The new store – dubbed Diamond Jim’s PINEFOREST JEWELRY Experience – promises customers a taste of the jewelry industry from the ground up – an 8,000-square-foot themed space based on an 1860s working gold mine.
An authentic mining cart and rail will mark the path to the entry, where a massive gold nugget will usher customers through a rock-lined mine entrance. They’ll walk on a concrete floor, pass innumerable mining artifacts, hear the sounds of authentic gold-mining operations, and watch scenes of diamond cutting and setting, jewelry making, a Rolex watch being overhauled, gold and silver mining operations, and the processes of pearl diving, sourcing, drilling, and stringing, as well as how gold is assayed – all shown on multiple big-screen TVs suspended from a 20-foot black ceiling, to give the feel of the inside of a mine.
A large glass wall the length of the shop will let customers view the art of jewelry making and repair, he says. Videos in the shop will constantly show activities currently happening on the jewelers’ benches.
“We’ll cover every facet of the industry, pardon the pun,” says Diamond Jim, 79. “We are on schedule, and we’re 40 percent complete (as of early July). The walls are up and we’re working on the interior. Showcases are being built.
“For years I’ve wanted to allow people to have an insider’s look at the jewelry industry,” he says. “So many customers are young and want to be involved in the process, they want to see how everything is done. … So, over the years I’ve simply refined the idea of how to give my customers a true jewelry experience. Thus, the word ‘Experience’ was added to the name.”
Swearing by the benefits of smell associations with simple things that make people happy – food being at the top of the list – Diamond Jim intends to continue serving food onsite and to introduce an in-store deli or restaurant.
“I have three kitchens and five restrooms in my current store,” he adds, “and I sometimes appear on the floor wearing an apron and carrying bowls of gumbo for my guests while showing engagement rings, etc. I love to cook for my customers. I love to have home-cooked food odors wafting throughout the store. Everybody who walks in says it smells like home. … It’s the association – if it smells like home, it smells like family.”
Other jewelers have told Diamond Jim they don’t want food smells in their stores.
“I just think, well, that’s why I have fifty thousand customers and you don’t.”
Another benefit of onsite food, he says, is the convenience it provides customers who are on a strict one-hour lunch break. They can bring a piece in for repair and have a free bite in-store while waiting for it.
After PINEFOREST JEWELRY opened in 1986, the business grew like gangbusters. It occupied an 1,800-square-foot store in a strip center, and Diamond Jim and wife Linda were “forced” to expand to their 7,200-square-foot current location after three years of watching customers stand in line inside and outside the store. Today the store enjoys nearly 1,600 five-star Google reviews and has been listed by Three Best Rated as the number one jewelry store in Houston for three years in a row.
Diamond Jim credits his success to placing great emphasis on giving attention to every customer, “whether they’re buying a watch battery or a $30,000 diamond ring. We don’t have the 700 percent markup of the chains and big box stores, and we never will.
“We ‘service’ our customers with ability, friendliness, knowledge, and sincere help to fill their needs. We offer twice the quality of the chains and big boxes at one-half the price. … Every customer is an extension of your family. Selling is what happens after you make a friend, develop trust, and fill their needs. …
“At the end of our store meetings I always ask, ‘What is 90 percent of everything you do?’ The answer in unison is ‘Common sense.’”
With this idea constantly in the minds of the staff, Diamond Jim says everyone in the store helps customers on the sales floor because they don’t need super sales skills.
He hires people who are engaging, comfortable speaking to strangers, and who will treat every person entering the store as though they are family.
“Every staff member has unique knowledge. Even our bench jewelers move to the sales floor at busy times. If anyone lacks sufficient knowledge to help a customer, they will have another associate step in. In the meantime, they are serving drinks or food!”
Diamond Jim has scheduled a two-week grand opening during October and plans to be fully operational in November.
Rather than open more than one location, the 40-year jewelry veteran intends to convert the current store, which has operated for more than three decades on Uvalde Street, into a much-needed veterans’ center.
Diamond Jim and Linda, his wife of 58 years, are life members of the North Channel Chamber of Commerce, as well as Rotary International and The Pilot Club International, respectively, and have always believed in the motto “Service Above Self.”
“We believe giving back to the community that has given so much to us is the way business should be conducted. We have raised over a million dollars for our local community … and we’re still going!”
