The Jewelry Exchange

The Goldenwest Diamond Corporation which does business as The Jewelry Exchange, The Jewelry Factory, is one of the largest diamond importers in the United States. Today, there are 15 locations nationwide each within a certain metropolitan area. Its headquarters is in Tustin, California.

History

Bill Doddridge started his career working in his stepfather’s pawnshop. He had wanted to go out on his own and so he found a location to open up a pawnshop, but did not have the financing, so he opened it up for his stepfather. In 1977, after saving enough money, Bill finally went out on his own buy buying Buena Park Loan & Jewelry, a pawnshop located in the next town over from his.

It was soon apparent that Bill was not getting enough used jewelry from pawn customers to meet the demand so he began designing his own jewelry. He realized that in many cases he could make the jewelry for less and have more trendy designs than buying used jewelry from the pawn customers. He also started advertising loose diamonds and was able to undercut everyone else’s prices by maintaining low margins. He had so many customers coming back with appraisals 3 to 4 times more than what they had paid, that in 1984 he decided to guarantee all of his jewelry to appraise for double. This guarantee still stands today.

1980's

In 1986 he moved the business to Main Street in Santa Ana, California and brought jewelry manufacturing in-house. Previously, he used to send the jobs out for setting. Then, in 1987 he went to Israel and started importing diamonds directly. This provided him with savings of 25-30% on both the cost of diamonds and the jewelry he was manufacturing. The event was important because he was now both “Factory Direct” and a “Direct Diamond Importer.”

In 1988, the jewelry business had grown so large that he decided to discontinue the pawnshop operations and focus on the jewelry business.

1990's

In 1991, Bill opened a second store in San Diego, California and in 1993 a third store in San Francisco, California. Although the San Diego store was eventually closed, the San Francisco store was a success and did better than he expected. He focused on the Santa Ana and San Francisco models for his future expansions.

In 1994, a competitor (14k Jewelry Mart Exchange) moved right next door to their flagship store in Santa Ana, California, and posted a sign emphasizing the words “Jewelry Exchange”; the “14K” and “Mart” appearing in small letters. Their customers found it difficult to distinguish between the two businesses. That forced them to move to their new headquarters to Tustin, California and seek legal action against this unscrupulous competitor. After four years of preparation, and a two-month-long trial, the court upheld the validity of their federal trademark “The Jewelry Exchange”, granting permanent injunction against 14K Jewelry Mart Exchange and awarded the Jewelry Exchange damages in excess of two million dollars.

Current

Today the Jewelry Exchange is one of the largest Jewelry retailers in the nation due to its low cost-high quality jewelry. Also 15 locations and an online ordering site allow the Goldenwest Corporation to do business with a large variety of customers around the United States and even some in Canada. By removing middle men, the Jewelry Exchange keeps their operating cost low and in turn is able to keep retail prices low. The jewelry exchange is known to have many seasonal specials, a large stock of loose stones, a trademarked "Create your own ring" option, and thousands of other jewelry options.

References

External links

• The Jewelry Exchange website