Today's Guest: Krissie Toomey
Today's Host: John Bentley
January 2008
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Krissie Toomey Transcript Page
Krissie Toomey Expert PageANNOUNCER: Welcome to the Krissie's Radio brought to you by Krissie's Creative Gems and Fine Accessories in Traverse City, Michigan. The look you'll love for less. And now, here's your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Welcome to Krissie's Radio. Today we have the Vice President and store manager of Krissie's, Krissie Twomey, in the studio today. Thanks for coming in and talking to us on Krissie's Radio about your store.
Krissie: Thanks for having me.
JOHN: Well, it's your radio station. Let's talk a little bit about Krissie's Creative Gems and Fine Accessories. First of all, how did this come to be?
Krissie: It's a family owned business and it's my family and one other family. The other couple actually approached us. They do a lot of traveling and they're big jewelry lovers so they had discovered this product in one of their trips, and they came back and decided they wanted to open a store in Traverse City so they came to our family and approached us about helping them run the store so that's kind of how it came to be.
JOHN: Ok. Now, we're talking about a product called Spektralyte. These are lab created gems? Tell us a little bit about Spektralyte.
Krissie: Spektralyte is the top of the line lab created diamond alternative. It replicates a D-rated diamond which is totally flawless which means that it's perfect in cut, clarity, and all of that. Besides being basically perfect to the eye, they are a fraction of the cost of natural diamonds.
JOHN: Now why is that?
Krissie: They create them in mass quantities. They can produce them at a much quicker rate than a natural diamond grows so they can afford to sell them a lot cheaper than the natural diamonds.
JOHN: And you don't have to get all those Tonka trucks out and stuff and dig in the ground to find those gems.
Krissie: Exactly.
JOHN: Now let's talk a little bit about, you know, you mentioned the clarity and the cut of the Spektralyte gems, what about stuff like the hardness and the weight?
Krissie: The hardness is actually an 8.7 out of 10 so it's 87% as hard as a diamond which really it still won't scratch, you know, it will still cut glass, all of that so it's still very, very durable, very hard.
JOHN: Does it weigh like a regular diamond?
Krissie: The weight is actually heavier. It's about 75% heavier. It's still kind of...they still try to weight it in karat weight; however, it's kind of...it's always going to be a little bit off just because these are actually a bit heavier.
JOHN: Now is there any special care for this product that would be different from regular gems?
Krissie: Nope. You really care for them the same way you would as any other diamond. We clean them in our store. We clean them with an ultrasonic cleaner which is what a lot of jewelry stores clean the jewelry with. Really any jewelry cleaner you can use for them.
JOHN: Now do you do a special service for customers when they come by? Let's say they purchase a ring from you. If they come by ten years down the road, do you clean their rings for them?
Krissie: Yeah, yeah, we have a lot of local customers in Traverse City. We tell them whenever they have something that they need cleaned, they can come down we always do free cleanings. Generally, when someone buys something, we just tell them any time you want to stop in you're more than welcome to come in and have a free cleaning.
JOHN: Let's talk about the kinds of jewelry that you carry in the store. Now, I've been in your store and I've seen some very beautiful pieces. Do you carry a regular supply of a certain type of cut or...what about things for men, perhaps, do you carry jewelry for men?
Krissie: We do carry jewelry for men. We have one 6 foot case that's dedicated to men's jewelry. Most of it is set in stainless steel which is mainly because a lot of guys are more hands on. They're a little rougher on their jewelry and it's a lot more durable for them. It won't scratch or bend quite as easily as silver or gold would so...and as far as certain items that we always carry in the store, you know, for the women's jewelry we always have the solitaire rings and the pendants and the stud earrings and those sorts of things. We also have many different unique settings as far as rings and all that go. All of the jewelry is set in either solid 14K gold or sterling silver. So it's kind of just...
JOHN: It's not a dipped silver or anything like that is it?
Krissie: Right. The sterling silver is solid sterling silver. The 14K gold is solid 14K gold.
JOHN: So you're getting a very good quality ring...
Krissie: Very good quality.
JOHN: ...whenever you purchase one of these rings here at Krissie's. Krissie, we're going to take a break here, but before we do that, would you kind give your website address and contact information for our listening audience.
Krissie: Our website is www.krissies.com and the contact information...you can reach us at sales@krissies.com. The phone number is (231) 929-9992.
JOHN: We are in the Studio with vice president and store manager of Krissie's of Traverse City, Michigan, and we are speaking to Krissie Twomey. You are listening to Krissie's Radio. W e'll be right back after these important messages.
ANNOUNCER: This show is sponsored by Krissie's Creative Gems and Fine Accessories in Traverse City, Michigan. Located at 127 E. Front Street, downtown Traverse City. You can reach them on the web at www.krissies.com or at (231) 929-9992. Krissie's Creative Gems and Fine Accessories. Love doesn't have to cost a fortune.
JOHN: Welcome back to Krissie's Radio. We are in the studio today with vice president and store manager, Krissie Twomey, of Krissie's Creative Gems and Fine Accessories of Traverse City, Michigan. Welcome back to the program, Krissie.
Krissie: Thank you.
JOHN: Now we've been talking about your jewelry store here in Traverse City and all the different products that you offer. I want to veer off into a product that you have listed on your website. It's called Oovoo purses? Is that how you say that?
Krissie: Yes.
JOHN: Tell me about Oovoo purses.
Krissie: Oovoo purses are all hand sewn. They are from Vietnam. It's a fair trade company so they basically employ hundreds of women in very poor villages in Vietnam and pay them fair wages to make these purses. So, it's a very, very high quality pursue and a really good cause I think.
JOHN: All hand made?
Krissie: All hand sewn. Yep, and they are beautiful, beautiful purses.
JOHN: If you go to their website, you can take a look...they have a couple pictures of these purses on their website. Very beautiful. Now obviously you have a number of high fashion pieces. What would be some of the high fashion pieces that you carry in the store?
Krissie: You know a lot of times we'll go to these jewelry shows. We go to the Las Vegas jeweler show every year, and we always try to find kind of the higher end pieces. A lot of the higher end pieces are the bigger, kind of chunkier whatever is in for that season, and a lot of times all you have to do to know what's in for that season is watch the awards shows, watch the Grammys, watch the Oscars, and you know what's in. Whatever the celebrities are wearing, a lot of that we try to get into the store. For example, in the past year, year and a half, it's been colored stones, colored diamonds, other gems. You know the yellow diamond, the champagne diamond. Those have all been big, big things for celebrities so when they wear those on the red carpet, they become very popular so we put them in our store.
JOHN: Smart idea. Well, I'm sure you have customers that come in from the surrounding area, all around the Grand Traverse area, what are some of the communities that you see coming into Traverse City to Krissie's Creative Gems and Fine Accessories?
Krissie: Gosh, we have, you know, we have a lot of smaller communities surrounding Traverse City. You know, Suttons Bay is very close, anywhere on the Leelanau Peninsula, Leland, and then gosh, up north, you've got Bay Harbor in Charlevoix, a lot of people from up there. Boyne City, they'll come to Traverse City to do a lot of shopping, and Traverse City has some of the best downtown shopping that you'll find so...a lot of...you know, Kinglsey and just places that are surrounding Traverse City will come to do shopping here.
JOHN: Let's talk about pendants. What are customers looking for in a pendant? Well it depends on the customer. A lot of people that we have come in will just be looking for something that they can wear all the time. Something that they can wear casually and something that they can wear with their little black dress. So we have things that will accommodate those people that's simple and...but we also have the higher end pieces that people will only wear out on special occasions, and we always try to have other designs that are very unique and we'll only get a few of them so not everyone is going to have the same thing. Because there are a lot of people who don't like to have the same old designs that, you know, everyone has. They like to have something different. So, we always try to keep those pieces in there too.
JOHN: That's good, I know when me and my wife or finance at the time were looking for an engagement ring, we definitely looking for something unique and different. You guys were not open at the time so we didn't get a chance to come in and see what you guys had to offer, and that's too bad, because we would of definitely liked to have seen what kind of beautiful jewelry we could have got through you guys. Now what about guaranties? What about if a prong gets moved out of place...what kind of guaranties do you have on your jewelry?
Krissie: We have a forever guaranty on any of the sorts of things. If a stone falls out, we replace it for free. If a prong breaks, we replace that...fix it for free. Basically if any of the normal wear and tear we will always replace it or fix it at no cost. Other than if you lose the whole piece. We can't replace it or if you run it over with a lawn mower, we can't replace that, but other than that, everything is free.
JOHN: So basically, basic up keep and miner repairs that might happen.
Krissie: Yes.
JOHN: Good. Now do you repair in-house, or do you actually send them out?
Krissie: We have a jeweler who works for us. He comes in and...
JOHN: Great so the turnover time won't be too bad?
Krissie: Right.
JOHN: How long do you usually see for repairs?
Krissie: It generally takes about 3 days in between time for it to be repaired so.
JOHN: Well we need to finish up here on Krissie's Radio. Before I let you go, let's hear your website and contact information again, ok Krissie.
Krissie: Our website is www.krissies.com. You can reach us at (231) 929-9992 or our email is sales@krissies.com.
JOHN: Thanks for joining us today on Krissie's Radio. Your radio.
Krissie: Thank you.
JOHN: It's been a pleasure having you. I'm John Bentley and we've been in the studio with Krissie Twomey, vice president and store manager of Krissie's Creative Gems and Fine Accessories of Traverse City, Michigan, and you've been listening to Krissie's Radio. Thanks for tuning in. Have a great day everyone.
ANNOUNCER: You've been listening to Krissie's Radio powered by VTalkradio.com, radio for the 21st Century.
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