It would be safe to say as a independent jeweler that most of our jewelry business is derived from the store’s 40- year history and its loyal clients. Others might have discovered Anne Dale Jewelers by searching on the Internet when in need of our jewelry services.

However, our greatest joy (and most beloved challenge) comes from our word-of-mouth client referrals. When a long-time client suggests our jewelry business to their friends and family members, these referrals create a competitive excitement in our jewelry shop.

Anne Dale thrives on being the perceived underdog in the head-to-head competition against the area’s more highly advertised jewelry stores. With their high traffic locations and built-in generational customer bases, sadly many have lost (or never had) the passion of their store’s founders. Michael and Anne Dale have built their business from a position of love and passion for over 40 years.

How a Private Jeweler competes against the big budget jewelers?

Simply, Anne Dale Jewelers does not spend tens of thousands of dollars advertising nor do we pay outrageous rents. Big name jewelers may win in the amount of jewelry items sold, but high volume was never our goal. In fact, we are the opposite of mass-produced and aggressively-advertised jewelry.

A premier private jeweler like Anne Dale offers something that far exceeds the competition, both online and when compared to big-name jewelry stores. Here are some reasons why.

The Quality

High-volume jewelry stores often buy jewelry, diamonds and gemstones in bulk. While this may be an efficient way to get a cheap price, quality is often sacrificed in the process. On the other hand, you can expect a local jeweler to hand-select the best values in premium diamond jewelry. Private jewelers will source gold, diamonds, and other jewelry findings from select reputable suppliers.

The Experience & Service

Big-name jewelry stores can spend a lot of money on their locations, advertisements and storefronts. However, this business model can create a crowded and noisy store environment. When you become just another face in the crowd, sadly there is nothing special about you – or the selection to choose from, for that matter.

For the owners, it is a numbers game. You may get lost in the volume and find yourself waiting for a while.

A local private jeweler will do jewelry repairs and alterations right in the store. This means you will not wait long to get your ring back, and you won’t have to worry about it being lost in shipping. In addition, the slower environment is usually much friendlier and more helpful. At Anne Dale , you can schedule private appointments for one-on-one consultations and enjoy the full attention of a private jeweler.

The Choices:

When it comes down to the number of choices available for diamond engagement rings, big-name jewelers often carry branded pieces that are mass-produced. These have typically been acquired through buyer groups, so they are available in multiple store locations. When you choose a private jeweler, you can design your own custom engagement ring. The options are endless. This allows us to provide insight and assistance throughout the process, as you create a truly one-of-a-kind diamond engagement ring.

The Price:

Especially when it comes to real fine jewelry, the saying “you get what you pay for” does not always apply. Unfortunately, at big name jewelry stores, you often can get much less than you paid for. If you want to make a simple change or personalize the piece in any way, you can expect to pay extremely high customization fees. Their business models simply revolve around inventory turnover on the SKUs (product) in store.

Visit Mandeville’s premier private jeweler at Anne Dale, and let us create the perfect diamond engagement ring of her dreams today.


In-House Jewelry Repair

In-House Jewelry Repair

There are many differences between chain jewelry stores and a local jeweler like Anne Dale Jewelers. One of the most prominent services is in-house jewelry repair, along with a higher level of professionalism and expertise, security, communication, and pricing. These jewelry store services usually included repairs such as:

  • ring sizings,
  • diamond setting,
  • tightening loose diamonds and gemstones,
  • prongs, polishing,
  • jewelry cleaning,
  • inspection,
  • watch batteries,
  • watch adjustments,
  • evaluation and estate jewelry
  • and insurance appraisals. Jeweler repair on site

Benefits to a Local Jewelry Store Repairs done on-site

  1. Peace of Mind – This means having the confidence that your family heirlooms are not being handled by third-party carriers or a distant unknown jewelry repair shop. Most jewelry stores do not have a professional repair shop on site, so these large jewelry operators use service centers that are often out of state!
  2. Communication – At Anne Dale Jewelers , you are communicating with an expert jeweler or GIA Certified gemologist who offers in-house services. You communicate your desires directly to us. Our text line is one way we can constantly reach out to you with updates, estimates and links with suggestions.
  3. Reduced chance of lost jewelry – When a jeweler outsources jewelry repair services, items will change hands quite frequently. This fumbling increases the chance that the jewelry may be lost or misplaced. At Anne Dale, all jewelry repairs are documented with a detailed description that produces three copies: one for our client, one for the front of the store, and another for our shop foreman. We are fully insured and have built in security measures to assure peace-of-mind. Also all jewelry is photographed, so the chance of our in-house jewelry repair service losing an item are slim to none.
  4. Fair, clear, and detailed prices – Jewelry repairs that are not done on the premises cost more to insure when transporting. Outsourcing is expensive and the jewelers often charge more. Sticker shock on simple jewelry repairs can blind side both the sales associate and the customers at off-site jewelry repair shops. At Anne Dale, we let you know the price right from the very beginning and will itemize the jewelry findings and craftsman labor.

On-site Jewelry Repairs

We offer the best in-house jewelry repair in Mandeville, LA. We also offer watch battery, watch bands and adjustments in a professional jewelry shop near you.

Bring your jewelry for repair and restoration to us today.

Free Estimates for All Jewelry Repair

Jewelry Repair On-Site


7 Reasons Local Jewelers Are Better

Than Big Box Jewelry Stores

●  Certified Expertise

●  Quality Over Quantity

●  Price & Value

●  Experience & Atmosphere

●  Professional Service

●  Product Selection

●  Community


Certified Experts

Local Jewelers and local jewelry stores are often invested in the jewelry trade. At Anne Dale Jewelers , we have both a Certified GIA Gemstone Expert and Master Goldsmith in the store.

At a high-volume jewelry store, you are likely to find sales associates with limited knowledge in a very highly specialized field. While a sales associate may have a passion for jewelry, often they are unable to share product knowledge beyond the price on the small jewelry tag. Most offer basic information along with a sales pitch, followed by an offer of in-store financing. This is all in the hopes of closing a sale and processing a transaction. Even their product recommendations are mass-produced, with little or no personalization for the customer.

Quality Over Quantity

Independent jewelry stores for the most part cherry-pick the gold, diamonds and gemstones featured in the showcases. A local jeweler can custom design or handcraft jewelry items to fit the customers’ needs – often capturing rites of passage and memorable moments in jeweled art.

Chain jewelry stores are scalable businesses that operate in a lower market. As a result, the jewelry comes with huge markups that offset their expensive mall rents and advertising budgets. These high-volume jewelers choose products that fit specific price points. These stores also carry SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) that are mass-manufactured with little to no connection to the consumer.

Anne Dale, as an independent jewelry store, hand-selects each diamond, sapphire, emerald, pearl and ruby from reputable sources that take immense pride in their craft. Every piece of jewelry is uniquely created to make every customer feel special.

Much of the pieces from independent jewelers are one-of-a-kind creations. Price & Value

Prices in local jewelry stores are often based on the cost of components (precious metals and gemstones) plus skilled craftsmen’s time. The prices vary, but the true value is a sum of the craftsmanship and the rarity of the materials used that were mined from the earth.

A local jewelers have a skill set above the assembly line functions found in an overseas manufacturing facility. Also, there is an economy of scale in mass-produced items as opposed to truly handcrafted, unique art.

Experience & Atmosphere

Smaller jewelry stores may know you by name, since the staff is a family jeweler that lives in the community. These stores exist based on their reputation and word of mouth marketing. The physical location is close to home and the atmosphere feels like home.

Large mall chain jewelers and high-volume jewelry stores struggle with their bigness, and by design, they always fall short on personal service and atmosphere.

Professional Service

A jewelry store with less volume has more time for its clients, providing a level of professional service that many other industries can simply no longer offer. The owner is the jewelry craftsman, who not only attends to you at the jewelry case but later creates a masterpiece for you or a loved one.

By contrast, the mere foot traffic inside a high-volume or chain jewelry store demands less-experienced sales associates to service the masses.

Product Selection

You can find a work of art in that jewelry box at an independent jewelry store. You will receive an intimate personal experience and a selection of truly fine jewelry crafted with care, knowing the final wearer will enjoy the items before passing it on for generations.

The branded jewelry store has replicated items, which have been formed from a mold and mass produced with specifications to satisfy a return on investment from the company’s shareholders.

Community

A locally owned jewelry store stands for generations of love and commencement. The store’s name and owners are intimately involved with local weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, baptisms and untold rites of passage. In the stage play written by Karol Józef Wojtyła as a college student before becoming Pope John Paul II, The Jewellers Shop portrays the role the little jewelry shop has on generations, and in the end the love always returns.


Engagement Ring – Before You Ask for Her Hand

Why do brides dream of marrying a Knight in Shining Armor?

The answer to this question lies in the Middle Ages, specifically the Code of Chivalry.

A hobby for David Board was metal detecting. In 2019 while exploring the countryside in South West of England his machine pinged on what he thought was something of little or no value.  “It was once I got home and washed it off that we realized it was a lot better than we thought,” he explained to CNN. Examined by medieval historical experts is when the true importance of the discovery was made clear.

A ring featuring two entwined bands seemingly symbolizing marriage. The focal point was an inverted diamond set into the gold. The band was inscription in medieval French “ieo vos * tien * foi * tenes * le moy” meaning “As I hold your faith, hold mine.”

Medieval Ring

14th Century diamond gold ring. (Photo: Noonans)

 

An example of medieval love and chivalry, the ring possibly belonged to Joan Brook, wife of  Sir Thomas Brook(a knight). They married in 1388.

Early eleventh-century poets composed tales about the conception and birth of Arthur at Tintagel, Arthur’s marriage to Guinevere, the knights of King Arthur’s court and the Round Table, Excalibur, Camelot, Lancelot, and the Holy Grail.

Knights in the beginning were anything but shining. Then came the Code of Conduct for the Knights, which changed everything.

King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table were on a quest for holiness, hoping to be protectors of damsels in distress. They saw themselves as knights in pursuit of love, which they would often lose, then fight to get it back again.

Before You Ask for Her Hand

Code of Chivalry:

    • To worship God and uphold his Church
    • To respect the honor of women
    • To protect those who are weak and defenseless
    • To assist widows and orphans
    • To live honorably and for glory
    • To despise monetary reward
    • To fight for the benefit of all
    • To obey those in positions of authority
    • To guard the honor of fellow knights
    • To always speak truthfully
    • To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun
    • To never refuse a challenge from an equal
    • To never turn one’s back upon an enemy
  • “Knighthood” and “chivalry” are not one and the same, but it is impossible to speak of one without addressing the other. It is within this code we find many of our traditions of chivalry, romance, marriage and the engagement.

    Kneeling as an act of humility and service
    A man removes his hat in the presence of a lady because knights removed their helmets
    Even words like “courting”, as Knights were the protectors of the Kings courts

Just a Few of Anne Dale's Shining Knights