Despite struggling economy, June Sales still strong for IMG stores

Ideal Marketing Group jewelers across the country posted a 12.24% increase over June 2010. This is following a 18.37% increase in May. The average jeweler grew a healthy 12.34% for the second quarter, following an amazing first quarter of 23% growth. Given the strong headwinds retail is facing I consider this a huge victory and proof that market leaders outperform average stores. That may seem obvious, but what I mean by “market leaders” is those stores who are aggressively advertising…leading… and not waiting for customers to walk in their stores. Here are some highlights:

Thom Duma Jewelers  in Warren/Youngstown, OH was up 16%

American Jewelry Company in Bakersfield, CA was up 18.45%

Jones Bros. In peoria was up again with 23.02%

Williams Jewelers in Denver was up a strong 28.2%

Springers Jewelers in Maine & NH was up 34.5%, very strong for 3 stores

Perry’s Emporium in Wilmington, NC  was up 34.8%

And the top store for June was David Fairclough in Toledo with an increase of 36.85%

The rest of the summer…
Based on what I am hearing I expect July to be in the same range. As for the rest of the summer, don’t listen to conventional wisdom. I expect that the Washington lawmakers will come a decision “at the last moment” about the debt ceiling, averting a crisis, and “saving us all from catastrophe”. Don’t fool your self, this whole debt thing was all about raising taxes, not reducing the deficit. A resolution should set up August to be another pretty good month, but we are up against strong numbers from last August and September so you are going to have to earn every penny! If you can post strong sales in the next two months I think the last quarter is going to be a blow out. If the economy dodges a second recession this summer, the economy will start to heal itself.

Gold is still King
If you are not buying gold right now you need your head examined. Alan Perry told me yesterday that his gold buying is “through the roof!” With gold at almost  $1620 there is a fresh new wave of sellers. The public has no faith in Washington and they are scared. Unemployment is getting worse. Fear drives to gold business. As long as the debt continues to rise and The Fed keeps printing money, gold will keep going up. But don’t hold it, sell it. The gold run will all be over by the summer of 2013 as the country becomes much more fiscally conservative.

So why am I still an optimist? Don’t ever bet against the American consumer. He has a job.  He puts bread on the table. He buys houses, cars and yes… diamonds. He really runs the country and he will take his country back. Count on it.