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Wily As A Fox! The Fourth Generation Transformation Of A Legendary Jewelry Store | April 29, 2015 (0 comments)
Seattle, WA—Zoehana ‘Zoey’ Mann, fourth generation jeweler and president of Fox’s Seattle, says 2014 was quite the year for her company. “We built a new store, moved locations, changed our store hours and store name, and have a totally new atmosphere inside the store,” says Mann. That’s a lot of change for a successful business that had been in the same location for 36 years and in business since 1912.
“My grandfather, Sid Thal with his wife Berta, bought the store in 1948,” says Mann. “My dad, Chai Mann, joined in 1980, beginning work the day after he married my mom, Joy.” This was quite a shock to her mom, who thought she was marrying an artist and a teacher and suddenly found herself married to a businessman. (Zoey and Chai are pictured left.)
Mann’s dad ran the store after that. Her grandfather passed away in 2002, and Mann joined the family business in 2003, a move that was not exactly on her planned career path. “I was going to be a teacher, kindergarten through 8th grade,” says Mann. She graduated mid-year with her teaching degree and another in scenic design and theater. Mann would have been looking for a teaching job in the middle of the school year—not the most opportune time—so her dad recruited her for the family business.
“He told me he had some work that would keep me busy through the season, then I could look for a teaching job. Then around first of the year, he wanted me to stay for our February leap year sale.” The cycle continued. Her father finally asked her to stay for three years and see if it worked.
“I have no idea when those three years were up,” admits Mann. “I love this business; I grew up here.”
What was then Fox’s Gem Shop had evolved during the years that Sid was in charge. “Dad says we did about 80% of our business with five different vendors prior to that. When he came in, he wanted to expand. His vision was a store with great designers with amazing jewelry and today that is a reality.”
Mann remembers the family mission to find and connect with the best designers. “The first year that Alex Sepkus came to JCK, my father and his employees were standing at his booth. Since then, Alex has been our number one vendor for as long as I can remember. We’ve carried his line for over 20 years. They are an amazing company to work with. We love the unique brands like Gurhan and Todd Reed. We also carry the cool, different pieces from Mikimoto, not the everyday pieces. We love the one-of-a-kind pieces; we want to stand out in this market. We visit the Centurion Show to see many of these designers.” The store’s website lists more than twenty jewelry and watch brands.
The newly renamed Fox’s Seattle is a store full of designer jewelry as well as some traditional jewelry—but their preference is clear. “We have traditional engagement rings, but we will tell you why you need a Mark Peterson engagement ring,” says Mann, who also wears a Mark Patterson engagement ring. “We are all about hand-crafted, especially in our new space. Our old space did not have that vibe.”
The search for a new store was a lengthy one. “We discussed it for seven years,” said Mann. “We hadn’t found the right space or it wasn’t the right time. And it was hard to imagine moving from what was like my childhood home. We did know they would be tearing down the building we were in at some point, so we did have to find a place.”
Exterior of Fox's new store in the Olympic Hotel.
And find a place they did, only two blocks away. While the original place was 5,000 square feet, it was the epitome of ‘70s design. The new place is much smaller--1,800 feet—but is artsy and interesting. According to Mann, you can read ‘Carnegie USA’ on the columns that hold up the building, from the original Carnegie Steel plant in Pittsburgh, PA. It lends an authentic feel to the new space. Fox’s new store is housed inside the Fairmont Olympic Hotel.
One of the vintage steel beams--made in Andrew Carnegie's legendary steel plant in Pittsburgh, PA--holding up the store.
“The store is constantly changing,” says Mann. The photos below show parts of the store as continues to evolve:
Fox’s Seattle customers come from all demographic areas but they all have something in common. “We always want the female self-purchaser,” says Mann. “And the man who likes to buy a unique gift. We love to tell the stories behind all our brands – all our shoppers love hearing the stories.”
The staff at Fox’s numbers eight full-time and one part-time workers, plus Mann, her parents and her brother, who supports the store from Los Angeles. “My brother Zach does all our videos and social media. He’s a part owner who isn’t here day-to-day but supports the business through his expertise.”
Fox’s has a solid presence on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. “We’re all over the Internet,” says Mann. “We just launched an e-commerce website where our customers can purchase many of our brands online.”
Mann considers Instagram “much more important than Facebook. On Instagram, if we get the right hashtags, we reach a lot of people. We try not to overly hashtag but we like to tag our designers. It’s very cool to see who you can interact with. There’s no filter and all your followers see your posts, unlike Facebook. We see a much better interaction rate on Instagram.”
Along with social media, Fox’s reaches out to their customer base through additional media. “We love our buses and billboards,” says Mann. “The bus ads are great; there are plenty of people stuck in traffic next to buses that see those ads. We also do radio; NPR has been great for us. And we do some print; Luxe, Sip and Architectural Digest magazines. We’re getting away from traditional advertising and focusing on a larger scale.” Mann says they also do a good amount of direct mail.
So, along with all the changes in 2014, why the name change from Fox’s Gem Shop to Fox’s Seattle? “After 102 years, we’re not just a gem shop,” says Mann. “We’re a part of the city of Seattle, so we landed on Fox’s Seattle. It fits us.”