ZACHARY`S JEWELERS

››› QUICK FACTS
ZACHARY’S JEWELERS
Annapolis, MD
URL: www.zacharysjewelers.com
OWNER: Steve Samaras
FOUNDED: 1992
OPENED FEATURED LOCATION: 2005 (2007
remodel)
EMPLOYEES: 9 full-time, 2 part-time
AREA: 4,000 square feet
ARCHITECT/DESIGN FIRM: Aleksey and
Karolina Belinskey with Formatum Inc.
84 AUGUST 2008
S M A L L
S T O R E
C A T E G O R Y
ZACHARY’S
THE COOLEST OF ’EM ALL
BY
JO S H
W I M M E R
Over the course of a decades-long
journey, Steve Samaras of Zachary’s Jewelers
met pain and disaster with friendship,
skill and ingenuity that would do his Greek
Downtown Annapolis, MD, is
packed. On a sunny Sunday
afternoon, families and couples bustle up and down the
sidewalks, which are lined
with boutique retailers —
many local, a few chain stores
— upscale souvenir shops, and an inordinate
number of ice cream parlors. The crowd is a mix
of older folks, whose T-shirts and shorts can’t
conceal the signs of a comfortable income, and
younger adults, whose quietly dignified carriage
suggests an affiliation with the U.S. Naval
Academy, which sits next to the shopping zone.
In the middle of it all is Zachary’s Jewelry,
right on the corner of Main Street, nearly
impossible for anyone not to walk by.
It wasn’t always this way, though, and it could
have turned out very differently. Because while
perseverance, brains and a love for his people,
his work and his community have played a huge
role in owner and president Steve Samaras’ success, he was also helped along by a bit of bad
luck. Really bad luck.
An Annapolis native, Samaras entered the
jewelry industry in the late 1970s when he started working for his cousin, who set up an opera-
tion to buy gold and silver
for resale. It later expanded into a retail storefront in
town. The businessmen
had big dreams — they
hoped to “establish a little
bit of 47th Street” in
Annapolis, Samaras says — but by the late ’80s,
the venture was losing money.
The Greek-American Samaras ran sales and
purchasing for his cousin, and had gone to
gemological school to better understand his
product. The production manager was a man
his age from Belize named Errol Daly. When it
became clear they were going to be out of a job,
Samaras approached his co-worker and friend.
“This is the only thing we know,” he told Daly.
“Let’s try and move on.”
Small-business ownership wasn’t entirely
new to Samaras — his parents had run a liquor
store for years. He also had a set of close friends
and mentors, including his attorney and an
Israeli diamond dealer, to whom he turned routinely for advice. “My father had a saying, one of
many: ‘Success has a million fathers, and failure
is an orphan,’” he says.
He sold his home, took $20,000 in equity and,
P H OTO S : H E AT H E R C R O W D E R P H OTO G R A P H Y
ancestors proud — and that have made
him a local legend.
m Despite setbacks, Steve and Challie Samaras
never lost faith in the success of the store.
AUGUST 2008
85
ZACHARY’S JEWELERS
at almost 40 years old, moved in with his parents. Daly came to work for him, in the downtown building that had housed the old operation, and didn’t take a paycheck for two years.
“We went through the first winter without
heat,” Samaras says. He convinced about a quarter of his vendors from his cousin’s business to
stick with him, and to give him what he needed
for a solid inventory mostly on memo: “We were
probably showing a quarter of a million dollars
or more in product, and we owned $20,000.”
And he and Daly worked around the clock.
“There wasn’t an hour in the day that we wouldn’t open for someone,” he says. His sister,
Evangeline Ross, now the store’s sales and marketing manager, adds that it wasn’t just about
staying busy in the store.
“Steve never refuses an invitation,” she says.
“He’s like the mayor in this town. He’s too modest to say that, but I can toot his horn. I used to
tease him about how he would always triple- or
even quadruple-book himself. I’d say, ‘How can
you enjoy yourself?’ But he does, and he makes
everyone he touches feel like they are the most
important person in the world.”
And Zachary’s grew. The heat came on. Daly
started drawing a paycheck. The store added
new lines.
Then disaster struck.
THE SETBACKS
In truth, it struck twice. In November 2005,
Samaras, Ross and the rest of their extended
family took a long weekend trip, a regular tradition. Near the end of the vacation, the men went
off to play golf while the women headed to town
to shop. Samaras and Ross’ father left with the
women. But he “looked kind of dejected,” Ross
says, and a few minutes and one cell-phone call
later, the ladies returned and put him in a golf
cart to spend the day with the guys. Their father
had never learned to play — “I always wanted to
teach him, but he’d say, ‘I’m not old enough to
learn to play golf,’” Samaras says — but he
smoked cigars, drank beer and kept score.
That night, Samaras dropped his dad off at
home. “He hugged me and said, ‘The one regret
I have is that I never learned to play golf,
because I could have spent more time with
you.’” The next morning, Samaras got a call: His
father had died.
A week later, the family was back together
again, having dinner at a restaurant after the
memorial services. Samaras’ phone rang. His
store was on fire.
The building was destroyed, along with 30 to
40 percent of the inventory. It would have been
86 AUGUST 2008
5
››› COOL THINGS
THE LOCATION
Foot traffic into the store tripled when Zachary’s
moved from a building up the street, crammed
between other shops, down to the corner of Main
Street facing the harbor, says Evangeline Ross. The
Maryland Chamber of Commerce ranked the corner
among the top 10 in the state.
THE FOOD
Think your little coffee stand is pretty nifty, huh? Can
your customers get an iced cappuccino? What about
the proverbial free lunch? Zachary’s stocks a wide
assortment of refreshments and lays out a healthy
spread of sandwiches and more on Saturdays.
THE PROMOTIONS
Zachary’s offers while-you-wait repairs every
Wednesday and Friday. They send movie tickets for a
“date night” for clients’ first anniversaries, and partnered with a boutique in town to send gifts for new
babies. At Christmas time, they put gifts under the
store tree for customers’ children. “We get kids bringing their parents in — they know,” Steve Samaras says.
THE TECH
To promote a “Write the best love letter” Valentine’s
Day contest, marketing whiz Keith Villones put a video
of Samaras up on Youtube; it garnered more than
1,000 hits over the next week. To reach midshipmen at
the U.S. Naval Academy next door with a class ring
promotion, Villones scrapped the store’s costly directmail strategy and contacted them en masse through
Facebook. Then they featured the young sailors’ photos
and stories on a blog.
THE SCHEDULE
Customer contact is a huge part of the strategy at
Zachary’s, but a while back, it became tough for
employees to keep up with writing thank-yous and the
like. Then one staffer suggested that everyone get an
allotted time for those duties, instead of fitting them in
around other work. “You can get a lot more done in one
to three hours of uninterrupted time than if you’re trying to cover the floor, too,” Samaras says.
››› HEARSAY THINGS HEARD AROUND THE STORE
“You know how there’s
dead silence when someone asks a question no one
wants to answer? That’s
when I bring this out.”
DOUG MIXER, showing off his toy cricket,
which chirps like a real insect
THE COOLEST SMALL STORE
n The interior is
meant to evoke the
feeling of a classic
yacht, with flowing
lines and rich wood
finishes.
fair — reasonable, even — to expect Samaras to
take some time off to decompress at that point.
He shakes his head. “I cried every night when
my father died — I was all cried out,” he says.
Instead of going to ground, he called a meeting
with his employees the next morning.
First, he assured them that they were taken
care of — insurance would cover their wages
for the next year. Next, he explained that they
could take that time to recoup and rebuild or, if
they were up for it, get things up and running
for the holiday season that was already upon
them, including the client-appreciation party
scheduled for six days later.
The staff was unanimous: They wanted to be
back in business within the week.
They made a list of more than 200 action
items and had all but a dozen addressed by
day’s end. Samaras’ landlord offered to clear
C O O L FA C T S
✪ Production manager Doug Mixer is
also a Baptist minister. “It’s great,” he
says. “I get to sell people a ring and
then marry them, too.”
✪ Employee Keith Villones holds the
world championship title in his weight
class in Filipino stick fighting. Yes,
he’s the best in the world. He’s
defending his title this summer.
✪ Confusion often ensues when
customers see buyer Hind Walker’s
first name — it rhymes with “wind”
(the noun, not the verb).
out of his souvenir shop on the corner down the
street so that Zachary’s could move into the
4,000-square-foot space. He, Ross, Daly and the
other employees worked around the clock,
with help from customers. (“My husband was
going to shoot me, because I was pregnant,”
Ross says.) By the middle of the next week, they
had close to $5 million in inventory, thanks to
help from their vendors. And the party was a
smash hit, with some 400 guests in attendance.
“It was really a community-spirited event.
You literally could not walk in here,” Samaras
says. The corner space was a winner, too —
even after missing a week of business,
Zachary’s holiday season was double its previous best, thanks to local goodwill and the new,
far more visible location.
“Someone at the party said to me, ‘You are
the richest man I know.’ And I had to laugh,
AUGUST 2008
87
ZACHARY’S JEWELERS
because I had nothing,” Samaras says. “But
he said, ‘You have more friends than anyone
else I know.’
“I’ve said to people it’s nothing I would
ever want to go through again, but I am so
grateful for having gone through it once. It
shows you so much. It’s like hearing your
eulogy when you’re not dead.”
A RESURRECTION
The new space offered opportunity. Before
Samaras’ landlord had used it to sell souvenirs,
it had been a Banana Republic, so it already
offered a warm, inviting-but-upscale ambience perfectly suited for Annapolis’ casually
wealthy clientele. A $1 million renovation,
paid for in cash and completed in November
2007 stepped things up a notch.
“We wanted it to feel like Annapolis; we
wanted it to look like it belongs here,” Samaras
says. The obvious source of inspiration was
the water a few hundred yards away, and the
ships floating on it. At the advice of Harvey
Rovinsky, owner of Bernie Robbins Fine
Jewelers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, he
tapped designer Aleksey Belinskey, who’d
done work for the high-end Borgata hotel in
Atlantic City, to handle the new look.
q Zachary’s staff
stands before the
maritime-inspired
mosaic.
88 AUGUST 2008
T RY T H I S
✪ “Host of the Day.” If you were
ever a waiter or bartender, as
Samaras and Ross were, you’ll
appreciate this one: Schedule a
different member of your floor staff
as the store’s official host every day.
“You’re like the owner of the store
that day,” says Zachary’s buyer Hind
Walker. “People like that.” The host
makes first contact with customers,
offers refreshments and filters the
clients to the appropriate person.
More important, he or she comes up
with a staff challenge for the day,
like “Find out one quirky thing
about every customer you talk to”
or “See how many pieces you can
get each client to try on.” Winners
earn points, and points add up to
earn prizes doled out by Ross, who
says she comes up with some of the
incentives but that she appreciates
it when employees let her know
what they want, too.
THE COOLEST SMALL STORE
General manager Errol Daly has charm
TRUE
TALE
to spare, and he uses it. Once, another
employee was trying to sell a woman a ring, but the woman’s friend — who
was in a bad mood and seemed a little envious — was interfering with the
sale. Daly swept in and separated the unhappy customer from her companion in such a way that she didn’t even realize it was happening. “It was
just like a dance, the way he did it,” Evangeline Ross says.
r The corner
location has been
ranked among the
top 10 retail slots
in Maryland.
Belinskey brought the theme to life, in subtle fashion. Teak flooring and showcases,
appointed with brass, evoke a classic Trumpy
yacht — especially in the case of the shipshaped island of cases jutting out from just in
front of Samaras’ office, the “helm.” Muted
blue carpet underneath the cases stands in for
the sea, while a spacious lounge area sits on a
wide swath of sand-toned carpet. One wall
sports a sailboat mosaic and the Zachary’s
logo. (“Everyone walks in and comments on
that,” Samaras says. “I didn’t know what to
think of it at first, but I’m glad we did it.”)
A less obvious choice was even bolder: The
architect wanted to close off a second set of
double doors, due to security concerns, but
Samaras overruled him, leaving two entrances
into the store along the route the bulk of shoppers travel. “That’s probably the best thing we
did,” he says. “People will look in and pass by,
but given the second opportunity, they’ll walk
in that door.”
And then, of course, most important of all
are the people. “This is the most amazing team
I’ve ever seen in the store,” Ross says. Daly, the
general manager (and a family member, as far
as Samaras is concerned), “is always happy,”
she says. “Nothing is ever a problem.” His
favorite part of the job is problem customers —
seriously — because he loves turning them
into happy customers. “There’s no magic,
there’s no mystery to this thing,” he says, with
a musical accent. ‘How can we make you
happy?’ It’s as simple as that.”
Ross “is the one who grew the company,”
her brother says. Her partner in marketing is
24-year-old Keith Villones, a former advertising employee who’s behind Zachary’s latest
successful ventures into reaching customers
through online video site Youtube and social
network Facebook. Graduate gemologist
Robyn Singh does while-you-wait appraisals,
something no other jeweler in the community
offers. Moroccan-born Hind Walker met her
husband in Annapolis and returned with him
to the city after a stint in Manhattan as a buyer
for Aaron Basha. Erica Christian “can tell you
the name of everyone who walks in the door,”
Ross says. And when he’s not taking charge of
while-you-wait repairs on Wednesdays and
Fridays, Doug Mixer leads a local congregation as a Baptist minister.
T H E M E TA M O R P H O S I S
Zachary’s has come a long way, and so has
Steve Samaras. At one point while we’re talking, he mentions dealing with an irate customer and says something in passing about
how “the old Steve” would have handled it. I
ask what he means.
“The metamorphosis began when I was
sitting in the showroom in the old store, with
no heat and very little jewelry,” he says.
Living with his parents, and receiving their
support and that of the girlfriend who would
eventually marry him, he reassessed. And it’s
made him all the more able to enjoy everything he has now.
“You really appreciate what it is you’re
doing, and what you’ve begun,” he says. “You
think you’re on your way, and then all of a
sudden it’s gone — and my dad wasn’t there
to help me.” He pauses, shrugs, and smiles.
“But there was never a shred of doubt that
we would make it.” He gestures at the store
around him. “I’ve got a lot of things to be
thankful for, I’ll tell you that.”
AUGUST 2008
89
ZACHARY’S JEWELERS
WHAT THE JUDGES SAY
BILL AND SHARON BLAIR
ASSOCIATION AND JEWELRY SHOW HEADS
✪ Zachary’s was the most consistent of the
››› SCORECARD
STORY
stores, from the design of the store to the
way the owners chose to present
themselves through individuality and
marketing.
EXTERIOR
INTERIOR
KATE PETERSON
ADVERTISING
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
✪ Steve Samaras could give everyone a
INDIVIDUALITY
valuable lesson in marshalling courage and
resources and in overcoming adversity! The
new store is a monument to the value of
fortitude, commitment and will!
BRAD HUISKEN
SALES TRAINER
✪ Zachary’s has a very cool interior and
exterior, designed around a nautical theme
in keeping with the surrounding area.
OVERALL
SCORE
89%
80.6%
95%
84.8%
90%
88.6%
extended home for their employees as well
as the people in their community. They
want their customers to feel comfortable
shopping, spending money, browsing or
simply stopping by.
JAMES PORTE
RENEE SINGER
JEWELRY WHOLESALER
✪ Other stores would benefit from learning
how Zachary’s becomes involved in their
customers’ lives way beyond the sale.
Zachary’s creates customers for life,
something more stores should do.
MARKETING EXPERT
✪ The store employs innovative marketing
strategies and has aggressively partnered
with other businesses that have the same
commitment to quality and value.
Zachary’s has also embraced the Internet
with its virtual marketing efforts.
TERRY CHANDLER
AMANDA GIZZI
TREND WATCHER
✪ What is really cool about Zachary’s is
more than its appearance. It is its business
model. They are dedicated to their
community. They work hard to be an
JEWELRY EDUCATOR
✪ A sleek presentation that has strong
architectural weight speaks immediately to
the seriousness and intensity of the
operation. The ship-like feel and fittings
make the very point intended.
q Marketing for
the store’s reopening merged its old
look with the new.
90 AUGUST 2008