Diamonds & Engagement Rings News

Alpha Omega Jewelers issued a statement from that he left the country to receive medical treatments, a magazine reports.

      On Thursday,Boston’s blog spot for Boston magazine stated that it had obtained a copy of a letter from Raman Handa, issued by Robert Joy, the company human resources director.

                         ‘’The Alpha Omega Team,’’ states:           

‘’Raman has asked me to communicate to you last week he had taken ill and has traveled to India to seek medical attention and convalesce. We anticipate a quick recovery whereupon he will return to operate the day-to-day functions of Alpha Omega Jewelers.’’

          Handa had left the country on Saturday, although the memo states that Handa communicates with the company management and the office on a daily basis. He had asked his employers to continue working normal. Their was something strange about this because no one had been answering the phones at any Alpha Omegas four Boston locations on Friday.

        It had appeared that the companies website appeared to have been taken down; only a phone number to the company’s corporate head quarters in Cambridge, Mass., was still posted.There was no answer to phone calls at the corporate office and a message left for Joy by National jeweler was not immediately returned.

          Earlier this week there was trouble when employees arriving at the company’s headquarters were confronted by ‘’a consulting group working with the bank ‘’ they were asking many questions about the stores inventories but the group wouldn’t say who they were or which company they were from.            

            Early this November retail sites saw the biggest rush in online traffic with jewelry, luxury, good and accessories. With November showing the start of the holiday season, online customers, comparison-shopping engine and discount sites experienced a flood of visitors.

            Moshe from Diamonds on fifth says: “With the sub-prime melt down and high gas prices having and impact on retail spending, consumers are doing their research and searching for the best deals online.” 

 There are many other departments stores that their customers also experienced traffic increases such as Target corp. with nearly 42 million visitors in November (up to 35 percent), followed by Wal-Mart with nearly 40 million visitors (up 54 percent) and J.C penny with 18 million visitors (up 37 percent). More than 2 million consumers have given the company permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing.

Gun-toting carjackers made off with an 18-wheel FedEx delivery truck after accosting the driver at a stoplight in Manhattan early Friday, police said.

Police say the truck was stopped at a traffic light at 47th Street and Eleventh Avenue when two men pulled guns on the driver and forced him out of the truck. The driver was put in another car and driven around for awhile. He was found around 1:30 this morning in Brooklyn, reports Magee Hickey for CBS station WCBS-TV.

The driver wasn’t hurt, police and FedEx Corp. spokesman Steve Barber said.

The FedEx Express truck was headed to a company facility in Newark, N.J. While the driver, who has worked with FedEx for 25 years was stopped at a traffic light on the far western side of midtown Manhattan, two men confronted him, brandishing a gun, according to police.

The truck was carrying more than $1 million of cargo, including holiday gifts, diamonds, and jewelry. Police do not consider the driver of the truck to be a suspect.

Moshe’s Comment: We shipped out two engagement rings with Fed-ex yesterday, and hope it wasn’t in this truck, We are in the middle how following the boxes. We will let you know if our diamond rings where on this truck.

The newest top two celebrities in New York, Teri Hatcher and Ashton Kutcher are representing luxury watchmaker Baume and Mercier.

As with the brand’s two previous campaigns, all royalties due to the ambassadors both of their photographers will be donated to charities together chosen by the Hollywood stars and watch brand. The new campaigns will support the fight against cancer, under privlaged women and the promotion of child education.

News: The ads featuring Teri Hatcher and Ashton Kutcher will launch on Jan 1. and April 1, respectively.Meg Ryan, Kiefer Sutherland, Kim Basinger and Gary Sinise were the previous Baume and Mercier Celebrity

 Report says:

The owner of the Alpha Omega jewelry store chain reportedly left the country. They say that he was struggling with financial problems.

According to a report on Boston Magazine’s website, Raman Handa returned to his native India with his family on Saturday after several weeks of rumors about his financial health.

Alpha Omega was very big and recently been a major advertising in several media outlets, (including the Boston globe and Boston magazine). But Dan Scully, the president of Boston magazine had started refusing Alpha ads because he had fallen behind its payments.

Dan Scully had said that he saw a memo that was sent to the employees that Handa had returned to India because of Health reasons.

Alpha is now living in Cambridge and has 2 stores in Harvard Square in the prudential center in Boston mall, and in the Natick collection.

Employees at all four stores said that they were open for business for the Christmas shopping season, although the store in the prudential center closed earlier then other shops. Workers inside covered display cases with sheets, and calls and emails to the office, and to Alpha Omega publicist, and the members of the Handa families weren’t returned.

A sales person at one of the stores said that workers were called by their manager after they clocked out on Tuesday and told them “that something is going on’’ and that in a couple of days they will find out if their going to have new owner or if the store will be closed.

That employee said that they have not seen any memo about Handa leaving the country. She said that it was a usual day of business. All the same employees were told that the store would be closed on Thursday but come in usual time on Friday. All employees are all very sick of everything that’s going on and they hope that somebody buys the place and they all have jobs.

Alpha Omega has been a highly visible advertiser in Boston area newspapers and magazines, often employing ‘’co-op advertising,’’ in which a watchmaker, such as Rolex, shares the cost. In 2007 the jewelry store chain has been among the top advertisers in Boston magazines.

Scully said that he cut off the Alpha omega account in June because the chain had stopped paying its bills. Handa had asked to be a little more flexible and lower the payment. But Scully said that means he would have to run a financial difficulty because of an investment.

                                   Scully says: ‘’I told him that it would be a good idea to take a break and come back later when he was in a better financial condition.” Scully recalled. “  I told him I didn’t want him to incur any further debt.’’

One Vendor said Alpha Omega owes him $800. Due to competition from other jewelers the company had been facing financial pressure due in larger part to high rent at Harvard square store.

Local jewelers have faced growing competition from designers looking to get a piece of retail market, as consumers become increasingly brand driven. Several months ago luxury watchmaker Tourneau opened a store in Natick, just a few years after launching a Boston boutique.

Competitors yesterday said that they were shocked what reporters were saying about Handa’s departure. They say ‘’He’s a great guy and a generous man said jack winer, vice president at Shreve, crump & Low in Boston, who once worked for handa.                                            

It all started with a hit pop song and young couples in love. A new survey shows that today days zales’ Holiday TV commercials have become young adults favorites. The survey, conducted by Columbus Ohio-based Big research for the retail advertising and Marketing association, asked 8,135 consumers between Dec. 4-11 to name their favorite holiday television ads.       

    Target ,Wal-mart and Macys grabbed the top three spots overall. In the sought after young adult category, zales’ ads snuck into the top 10. I saw this advertisement showing a young man giving a young women a zales’ jewelry holiday gift, as  the pop singer Vanessa Carlton’s (”A Thousands miles”) playing in the background.

    ”Many of this seasons television ads were created with young adults in mind”. As it says, If you put in a bit more humor and fun into the holiday it will attract more young adults  into the stores this season. 

    27.3 percent of young adults say that the television ads give them more encouragement to shop at specific stores. This is compared with just 17.1 percent of the other shoppers.

 Click here to view Zales’ ads

In today’s world it’s going around that more women are buying jewelry. For instance Pam McGinnis didn’t event think to drop $1,000 on a Lecil Henderson necklace from Sanders Jewelers in Pasadena. As well after her husband lost his first diamond wedding band she didn’t even flinch to buy him another one. She figures that if she’s working and she’s likes a piece  she is going to buy it.    Going back 25 years ago no jewelry purchase was made unless it was  by a gentleman.    

   Women are pulling more cash out of their handbags for loose diamonds and gold, experts say. Over the past two decades, they are taking on a greater role in the work place, as well they are really benefiting from the trend ,local jewelers say.      

Moshe from Diamonds on Fifth says that he estimates that about 30 percent of his sales came from self purchasing women last year. It shows that the growing demand  shows a social shift that more women are moving up and bringing home higher salaries. Women are expected to make up 48 percent of the labor force by next year. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says) .That is up from 45 percent in 1988.      

   Larry Sanders, President of Sanders Jewelers estimated that  between 30 percent and 40 percent are self- purchasing women.      

   Ms. Schupak stated that ” the traditional perception has been that men buy jewelry for women period”.      

   Back into the late 1980’s and early 1990’s women are purchasing two-thirds of all gold jewelry and 90 percent of all sterling silver. But it also says that a larger number of women are buying diamonds now and plenty of colored gem jewelry Ms. Schupack says. MVI Marketing Jewelry Consumer opinion Council survey says that 84 percent of respondents were women, and more then two- thirds bought jewelry for themselves in the past.       

    WR chance, which carried 90 percent of products for women recently had designer Amy Levine in the store , and bought five or six items ranging in price from $300 to $5,000. The store recently had a ladies night event to help women develop a wish list that they want their others to buy them.  

    Happens to be that 90 percent of the sales that night were purchased from women for themselves. Mr. Chance says that women are having a bigger interest in the purchases and even paying a portion for the engagement ring.  

Surroundings with big buildings, color, light and thousands of people in NYC you come along a block called

. It’s between fifth and sixth Avenues. This is where all diamonds are bought, sold, and cut. (ect). It all happens here!

 Since this place is so busy, video cameras cover the area like no tomorrow. Their are police in the street and private hired security that watch the shoppers and pedestrians.

 At Diamonds on Fifth it is so exciting because you could save up to 50% by shopping online, then go to the salon to view the diamond and have the benefit of the internet price and being able to see the diamond for yourself. In the early 40’s Fleeing anti Semitism as the German army approached the diamond centers of Antwerp and Amsterdam landed in New York, they were experts in cutting, selling, and polishing Diamonds.

Back in the day

was a part of the cities garment district. 65 years went and the one block area became

there is 35,000 people on the block, and 25,000 more that support its businesses. Diamonds on Fifth is one of the most fascinating diamond businesses out there. They’re nice, reasonable and love to work with their customers with anything you need.

More than $22 billion has been spent online during the holiday season to date (Nov. 1-Dec. 14), representing an 18 percent increase compared with the same period last year, according to ComScore Inc.

Monday, Dec. 10, or “Green Monday,” a term recently coined by eBay to describe the second Monday in December as the heaviest online spending day of the season, may well live up to its billing. Online sales reached $881 million that day (up 33 percent versus a year ago), marking the heaviest online spending day in history.

“Despite the strong surge in spending we observed at the beginning of last week, with both Monday and Tuesday easily surpassing $800 million in sales and showing very strong growth rates, the remainder of the week saw more modest spending,” ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement. “However, we anticipate that spending at the beginning of this week will again be strong with most free shipping deals available until Tuesday, Dec. 18.”

According to ComScore, two other individual shopping days this holiday season have also surpassed $800 million in online sales, including Tuesday, Dec. 11, with $819 million, and Thursday, Dec. 6, with $803 million. Wednesday, Dec. 5, came in just shy of that threshold with $798 million in online spending. Monday, Nov. 26, or Cyber Monday, considered the kickoff day for the online holiday shopping season, saw $733 million in sales.

ComScore’s analysis of online spending by household income reveals that this year’s 18 percent online retail spending growth rate is well below the 26 percent growth rate seen at the same time last year. While households earning at least $100,000 have increased their online spending 28 percent versus a year ago, households making less than $50,000 have increased their spending by just 10 percent.

“The current economic realities appear to be having a negative impact on the growth in consumer spending,” Fulgoni said. “From the sub-prime housing meltdown to a decline in home values to higher gas prices and an uncertain stock market, many consumers across all income segments are either feeling the pinch this holiday season or are lacking the confidence to spend at the rate they had in the past. Consumers in lower income segments appear to be the most affected, as evidenced by the sluggish growth in their rate of online spending.”

ComScore Inc. measures the digital world based on a global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given the company permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. ComScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions.

Get right to the point, i think that everything the citron research cmae up with is a bunch of crap, as i will go into details below.

1)The CITRON analysts that claimed that the stock was crap just happened to short it the day before.. hence the investigation. If this stock really was crap, do you honestly think that no other analysts would have said anything (including IBD). Come on. Everyone is selling on fear. One illegal act by some analysts
drops a stock price in half. Not just any stock, but one with these revenues. Buy.

2)Another thing the citron report, reports is  that people claim that  BIDZ’s jewelry is far less quality that some other diamnod and jewelry web site like diamondsonfifth.com or bluenile.com. Well, when you pay 50% of the price you would in stores, what do you expect? BIDZ is not in the business of selling fine jewelry. Go to Diamondsonfifth.com for that. This company sells jewelry to the masses. They sell jewelry so guys can buy something for their girl and not go broke but make her happier than ever.

Another important thing you need to know they have a 100% return policy so if you don’t like what you but just ship it back and get back you money.

So for the conclusion i thing Bidz.com is a good company and it pays to invest in there stock.
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