128-133_COOL BORSHEIMS.qxd

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F I V E
C O O L
T H I N G S
BORSHEIMS
FINE JEWELRY
& GIFTS
6 LOVING NATURE
The remodel team had
nature in mind when
designing the new store.
Display cases are made of
wood from sustainable
forests in Brazil; underground pipes outside melt
snow, reducing the wintertime need for salt and
chemicals.
6 SERVICE
BORSHEIMS FINE
JEWELRY & GIFTS
OMAHA, NE
url: www.borsheims.com
owner: Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
year founded: 1870
opened featured location: 1986
(Remodeled 2006)
store area: 62,500 square feet
employees: approximately 350
(240 full, part-time, about 100
seasonal/reserve)
architect/design firm: HDR
slogan: “If you don’t know jewelry,
know your jeweler.” — Warren Buffett
Thirty wireless laptop
computers have POS software, can complete transactions and track repairs
and special orders. They
have a catalog and advertising archive, a form to
create reports for customers’ insurance purposes and a diamond search.
6 SUPER-DUPER STORE
Borsheims is housed in
one 62,500-square-foot
location, 25,000 square
feet of which is sales floor.
The remaining space contains the repair shop,
receiving, shipping, gift
warehouse, e-commerce
division and corporate
offices. The store uses
material lifts and pneumatic tubes to speed service.
6 LIGHT MATTERS
7th
place (tie)
CRYSTAL
CLEAR
BIG MONEY ASIDE, BORSHEIMS STAYS
COOL BY DOING SMALL THINGS RIGHT.
2
3
4
A two-story glass foyer
allows natural daylight to
flow through much of the
sales floor, helped by
etched glass panels
throughout the store.
Borsheims also asked its
customers to help determine which lighting to
install.
6 EVERYBODY FITS
Wider aisles, private
showing rooms and a bigger, brighter store make it
easier to accommodate
Borsheims’ crowds, which
can total 37,000 shoppers
during the three-day
Berkshire Hathaway shareholders weekend each
May.
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129
7 th place (tie)
b o r s h e i m s f i n e j e w e l ry & g i ft s
S T O R E F A C T S 6 At 62,500 square feet, it is one of the
largest independent stores in the country — large enough in acreage to
grow 250 bushels of corn. 6 The 8-foot-by-20-foot artwork in the
atrium is changed every few months. It is currently showcasing
microphotographs of gemstones taken by John Koivula.
S TO R E
1
S C O R E C A R D
78%
83%
83%
EXTERIOR
APPEARANCE
INTERIOR
APPEARANCE
COOL
FEATURES
WHAT THE
JUDGES SAID:
LARRY JOHNSON
MERCHANDISING EXPERT
6 This store seems to answer the
age-old parlor question, “If space
and money were no object, what
kind of store would you build?”
LEATRICE EISEMAN
COLOR SPECIALIST
P H O T O
C A P T I O N S
2
3
Modern, fresh and veryx
inviting, inside and out.x
features a rotating exhibit.
SHANE DECKER
items in stock.
SALES TRAINER
3 Display cases made of
6 What can you say about this
store that hasn’t been said? The
building is wow, the merchandise is
wow. They do an incredible job of
marketing, bringing customers in
from all over the world. And the
store’s never gotten too big for the
customer.
lookers, but adjacent showing
rooms provide discretion for
high-end buyers.
2 , 3 , 4 Etched glass
RHONDA FABER GREEN
panels soften natural light and
offer privacy for customers.
JEWELRY DESIGNER
6 This expansive space looks as
though you’ve been dropped right
Visit us at:
JA Booths 1554-56 & 1653-55
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AUGUST 2007
W W W. I N S T O R E M A G . C O M
DAVID PETERS
JEWELRY EDUCATOR
6 Big is better when it’s executed
with the style and sophistication
that Borsheims personifies. Clean
lines combine with modern materials for a shopping experience that’s
calming, relaxing and friendly.
6 Although it is difficult to relate
to the size of Borsheims, there are
some key elements that make it
stand apart: 1. Attention is still on
the average repeat customer; 2.
Prices are competitive; 3. The staff
is happy to be there; 4. While working on their remodel, they incorporated their customers’ opinions.
This not only makes their customer
feel important, it also makes for the
best choices. It is not a coincidence
that they are successful.
JEWELRY DISPLAY DESIGNER
x
1 The luxe salon welcomes
in the middle of a diamond. The
white surfaces, etched glass and
sleek lines all lend themselves to
the feel of diamonds.
BERJ ALEXANIAN
x
OPENING SPREAD
total points: 194.5
RUTH FAILER
1 A two-story atrium
Brazilian Lyptus wood display
Oggetti artglass.
81.0%
6 Theatrical is the word I would
use to describe this store’s entrance.
This is a very clean, contemporary
and stylized look. Like Warner Co.,
this store’s interior design is about
shapes and forms. The frosted glass
is elegant. And I like the unusual
treatment where the glass is next to
the marble — this isn’t commonly
done. The watch section is a favorite
area of the store. The cubist carpet
design and texture is a good, practical choice for a high-traffic area.
And, the different watch companies
each get a different color treatment,
but have a uniform look with the
logo etched in brushed steel. This
makes each brand stand out individually, but brings them together with
similar treatment.
THIS PAGE
2 Borsheims has 100,000
OVERALL
SCORE
TRADE-SHOW CONSULTANT
One of the largestx
independents, yet theyx
xtreat their customers as ifx
tthey were a small store.x
x
x
NICK FAILLA
SALES CONSULTANT
6 The grand entrance presented
by Borsheims invites the customer
to enter into an experience that will
exceed expectation. The abundant
space and design offers glamour
with a name to remember.
DEBORAH E. HECHT
WHOLESALE JEWELRY REP
CRAIG UNDERWOOD
2006 COOL STORE WINNER
6 Words can’t describe how awesome this store is. The single coolest
feature is the new entrance — it’s
taken the store to new heights. The
design and visual image is unlike
anything I’ve seen anywhere else.
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S T O R E F A C T S 6 Nearly a quarter of Borsheims 350
employees have been with the company for more than 10 years.
6 40 percent of Borsheims’ customers live outside Nebraska.
7 th place (tie)
b o r s h e i m s f i n e j e w e l ry & g i ft s
H O W
T H E Y
G O T
T H E R E
IT ISN’T JUST
THE MONEY
Warren Buffett’s cash didn’t make Borsheims
cool. This store was a winner long before that.
asking the ceo of a jewelry
store owned by Warren Buffett’s
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. how it
became so big and successful is
akin to asking a wealthy man the
secret to becoming rich and he
tells you: “First, you make a million dollars.” Mom-and-pop store
owners out there may be rolling
their eyes when they see that
Borsheims in Omaha, NE, the
behemoth 62,500-square-foot
store with an inventory of
100,000 items was named one of
“America’s Coolest Stores”: well,
of course it’s going to be a cool
store. Most stores would kill for
its client list of Berkshire
Hathaway shareholders alone.
But, you know, if you were to
think that way, you’d be wrong.
Borsheims president and CEO
Susan Jacques points out that
Warren Buffett wouldn’t be
Warren Buffett if he didn’t buy
businesses that are already successful and sustainable.
Long before Berkshire
Hathaway came into the picture,
Borsheims began as a general
store in 1870. Swedish immigrant
Louis Borsheim and his descendents turned that little business
into a chain of four Omaha jewelry stores by 1947, when it was
bought up by Louis Friedman. It
was Friedman and his son Ike —
and his son, Alan, a designer now
known as “The King of Pinks”
with a store in Beverly Hills —
who turned Borsheims into first
an 8,000-square-foot single store
6 COOL PROMOTION
Borsheims’ 2006 Christmas “Wish”
promotion benefited the Make-AWish Foundation of Nebraska.
Sterling-silver star-pendant “Wish”
necklaces sold for $15, with 10
percent of proceeds going to the
foundation. A “Wish” tree held boxes
sold for $15 (all going to charity) that
could contain something as small as a
pearl bracelet or as large as a $1,000
gift card. (All sold in three days.)
Additionally, the store held a
celebrity poker tournament. In total,
the store raised $32,000 for the
foundation.
and later a nearly 30,000-square“Engagement is the No. 1
foot store that was attractive
replenishing customer base that
enough in 1989 for Berkshire
we have,” Jacques says. So the
Hathaway to purchase a majority
engagement rings moved to the
stake.
front of the store, “so that a young
Jacques says the store’s success
guy who walks in in shorts and
to that point was due mainly to
flip-flops wouldn’t be intimidatthe management style of Ike
ed.”
Friedman: “He might not always
At the same time, the luxury
remember a customer’s name,
department was repositioned to
but, boy, he could remember the
allow for more discretion. “The
pieces of jewelry he sold them.”
difficult thing is being everything
It’s that same attention to custo everybody,” Jacques says. “You
tomers that has seen Borsheims
want a customer who’s buying a
continue to succeed.
$100,000 necklace to feel
“How we’ve managed to
equally as comfortable as
grow our business is manthat guy in flip-flops.”
aging and marketing to
Borsheims still is facing
out current client base,”
what Jacques says is the
Jacques says. This intense
greatest challenge to all
focus on fostering longindependent retailers: the
term relationships keeps
Internet. “We want to go
marketing costs low and
head-to-head with the
leap: Susan
contributes to a low oper- Jacques, CEO
Blue Niles,” Jacques says.
and president.
ating-expense-to-sales
And she believes the way
ratio. (Jacques says it’s
to do that is through the
about 20 percent.)
added value of customer service.
Maintaining such a figure can
“We know the personal service
mean putting money back into
we offer exceeds the value they’re
the store and planning for the
going to get at online stores.”
next 20 years, as Borsheims did in
Because of its volume, the store
its 2006 remodel.
is able to offer prices close to the
“It was time for an update and
online diamond giant, and
a fresh, new look,” Jacques says,
Borsheims has recently expanded
“but we honestly didn’t want to
its website to offer a live inventory
spend the money.”
in partnership with its diamond
It’s a dilemma that a store of
suppliers. Additionally, the store
any size faces, but Jacques says
has partnered its bridal registry
they determined they simply
with WWW.WEDDINGCHANNEL.COM.
That last endeavor came about
could not sustain long-term
rather suddenly, Jacques says, but
growth without making the
as with so many business deciinvestment. While it was a comsions, “Sometimes we all try to
plete remodel, they targeted their
think and strategize too hard, but
watch, bridal and luxury departsometimes you just have to take
ments as both areas of growth
the leap.” — R A L F K I R C H E R
and sustainability.
6 T R U E TA L E S
CAPTIVE MARKET
a tornado warning was issued one year during Berkshire
Hathaway’s shareholders meeting, which is one of
Borsheims’ busiest weekends of the year. Customers could
take shelter in the store’s warehouse, and several hundred
decided to do so for the 20 minutes the sirens sounded.
Some associates actually brought the jewelry they had been
selling back to the warehouse with them and completed the
sale. Others sold items off the warehouse shelves! Susan
Jacques, the president and CEO, greeted customers and kept
them calm, as security monitored the storm and the store. It
was an experience customers will never forget.
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