RAPAPORT… By all accounts, Birdsall Inc. is an unusual jeweler, even to the name of its home city — Cut Off, Louisiana. But its setup — half pharmacy, half jewelry store —puts it in a class by itself. Still, the unusual combination makes perfect sense when one learns its history.
Walter Birdsall, a pharmacist, opened a small hometown drugstore back in 1971. Following tradition at that time, the store sold much more than medicine. Along with a soda fountain, there were several aisles of appliances, books, record albums and other everyday items. However, he found he was losing the lion’s share of customers for those products to a dime store, located just next door.
Enter Walter’s wife Betty, who decided to introduce other items into the drugstore’s inventory, things that would set the small business apart from competitors. She tried high-end cosmetics, gifts and costume jewelry and finally settled on fine jewelry. That, apparently, was the right formula because customers enthusiastically bought gold chains, brand-name watches and upscale wedding gifts, along with refills for their prescriptions.
Customers Keep Coming In
Today, Birdsall Inc. keeps to its original format of half pharmacy, half upscale jeweler, and the combination is not as odd as it might appear. It’s owned and operated by the original owner’s son, Thomas, who explains that a pharmacy makes little profit but has quick turnover; jewelry offers a bigger profit, but at a much slower turn. In this case, pharmacy sales can supply the necessary funds to buy jewelry when the latter’s sales are slow. Also, he says, many jewelers can open a store in the morning and not see a customer for hours, but the pharmacy keeps people coming in all the time.
In addition to the business generated by local residents, Cut Off offers a unique opportunity for gaining new customers. It’s a high-traffic port for fishing vessels and oil tankers that dock there to refuel. Added to that are the estimated 1,000 18-wheeler trucks that rumble through the town every day. The name, says Birdsall, originated because the local tributary, Bayou Lafourche, was the cutoff to get to New Orleans, which is about 30 miles away.
When he was 15, Birdsall was introduced to the world of jewelry and watches through trips to manufacturers and trade fairs with his parents. At 23, he enrolled at Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to earn a graduate gemologist degree. “I knew I needed to learn before I went into this business,” he says.
Now, almost 30 years later, the retailer has two stores, the original in Cut Off, and a non-pharmacy, all-jewelry store opened in Thibodaux in 2006, both situated in Louisiana’s Cajun country, southwest of New Orleans. The stores sell a wide range of gold and gemstone jewelry, but their specialty is diamonds. Birdsall says he maintains a “tremendous inventory” of diamonds and his stock includes far more 1-caraters than melee.
His clientele, like the store, is unusual. For example, most customers make their living as either fishermen or oilmen, the two main occupations in this region. Sadly, at this time, both industries are suffering due to the BP oil spill, but many of the boat owners have been employed in the cleanup. Others, involved in oil-drilling support operations, were not so lucky.
Engagement Business
Still, the diamond engagement business is thriving, and even young men aged 18 to 20 regularly buy 1-carat-or-larger diamonds. Birdsall estimates he sells 10 to 15 diamonds of this size per month. Of course, some of the younger customers believe they can get a “deal” on a diamond elsewhere, so it’s usually their parents who guide them into Birdsall’s, where the owner gives them a lesson on what to look for when buying a diamond.
Birdsall shows them two rings, one set with a great stone, the other with a poor-quality diamond. He encourages customers to look at the stone from different angles and in different types of light. “I tell them to look for beauty and cut.” Using his longtime resources that include both sightholders and dealers, Birdsall says he can offer very competitive prices on diamonds and he maintains high quality. For example, in the 1-to-3-carat range, colors span from D to H, with SI1-or-better clarity. About 60 percent of the stores’ sales come from diamonds and diamond jewelry and average prices range from $4,000 to $5,000 per sale.
One of Birdsall’s specialties is custom work, and a bench jeweler on staff hand-fabricates mountings. Birdsall says he never wants to hear a shopper say, “I have one like this,” and he always strives to offer something different. Recently, the retailer has enjoyed strong business in natural colored diamonds, particularly yellows. In fact, when one regular customer couldn’t make up his mind between two yellow diamond rings, he bought them both.
In addition to custom design, Birdsall offers a number of services to his clients, such as diamond upgrades, appraisals, certificates, remounts and watch repair. But one of the retailer’s closest associations with the community is support for the local festivals. In this southern Louisiana region, during the summer and early fall, fairs are held practically every weekend, often with specific themes such as Cajun heritage, fishing, etc. Every festival culminates in an auction, with proceeds benefiting either a local youth center, a school or a church.
Birdsall regularly donates a piece of giftware or jewelry for these events. Sometimes the bidding can get heated. For example, he says, when a couple of wealthy local families are in competition for an item — such as the handmade quilt designed by local grade schoolers — the final price can run into five figures.
