Westport’s JL Rocks jewelry shop expands to Riverside
GREENWICH — It’s a tough time to open a store, but the owner of a popular jewelry boutique is counting on her reputation as she branches out into the market in Riverside.
Jamie Camche has operated JL Rocks in Westport for nearly 20 years and now she has expanded with a new location.
“We had no hesitation about doing this,” Camche said after opening her new store this week. “Our Westport numbers have remained strong. I want to pinch myself because we have such an amazing community. So many brick- and- mortar spaces are in trouble, but we’ve been able to expand because of our customers.” JL Rocks is located at 5 Riverside Drive in Riverside, next to Aux Delices. It is a small space, but Camche hopes it is ideal for her brand. She said its proximity to the popular Aux Delices and the new Greenwich Seafood Company should pay off with a lot of traffic going through the plaza.
“There’s going to be one- stop shopping,” Camche said. “Women are going to come there to get their nails done and go to Aux Delices or the fish market. Then they’ll buy some jewelry. … I love my neighhbors.”
The new JL Rocks store in Riverside has been “a year in the making,” Camche said, with some delays in the permits because of the coronavirus. After the store opened its doors Monday morning, she said she is “very excited” to be in Greenwich and take on this challenge.
“We’re going against the tide,” Camche said. “But we’ve got a built- in customer base from being in Westport. We have customers from Greenwich to New Canaan to Darien. Women who shop along the Merritt come to our store in Westport. I think this is going to be a home run.”
The store is only 150 square feet, but she said that was a deliberate choice at a time when brick- and- mortar shops are a risk to open. She wanted her new shop to be nontraditional in size, and it also means less overhead.
“Because we are direct consumer, we manufacture all the jewelry ourselves,” Camche said.
“We’re able to turn the inventory very quickly,” she said. “We don’t work on the same margins as a traditional jewelry store. Jewelry can have a massive margin but we don’t. Since we opened, we worked on a smaller margin and can offer prices that are very, very competitive for fine jewelry. We don’t do any fashion jewelry or costume jewelry. It’s all fine.”
Given the small space, Camche has taken steps to ensure safe social distancing in the shop. That includes a limit of two customers at a time and mandatory masks.
The jewelry designs are all inspired by the current culture, she said, which means looking at trends and evolving with them. Camche said she has been inspired by people walking around in sweats. She called that a “completely different mindset” that inspired her to put forth more casual designs for fine jewelry with pieces that “you can run out with while wearing a mask.”
With black- tie events canceled because of the virus, her designs reflect that change, Camche said. She is making pieces that can be worn every day that don’t need to be stored in a safe. Jewelry that can be used only on special occasions and are othewise carefully stored away are not what customers want right now, she said.
She also gets feedback through Insatagram and Facebook, which are a major part of the marketing strategy at JL Rocks. Interactions over social media is even more valuable when shoppers are not out as much, she said.
Her jewelry appeals to customers of all ages, starting in the middle school range, Camche said. A lot of her business comes from graduation gifts, but people of all ages are interested in her fine jewelry, she said.
“Because we are retail, we get a lot of feedback every single day,” Camche said. “Before COVID, women were in the store every single day giving us that feedback about what is and isn’t working. We see the pieces on the shelf and we see what key items turn very quickly.”