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Fountain Pen Sales In Jewelry Stores


Eoghan2009

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I have noticed that as stationery stores stop selling fountain pens the jewelry stores are selling the more high end items. Obviously you go into a jewlery store looking for gifts for a special occassion but shouldnt they sell ink too!!!

 

My wife often sent toys for christmas that needed batteries - she always made sure that she included batteries. After all what good is a toy with no batteries on Christmas day?

 

Just saying...

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I only know of one jewellers shop that sold fountain pens, they had around six MBs in a glass case including ink and MB accessories. The ink was MB Racing Green, I asked to buy the bottle but they would only sell it with a new MB.

 

I am not surpised that most jewellers don't sell pens, the mark up must be small compared to the shelf space that they would occupy.

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my experience with big chain jewelry stores boils down to this:

 

- the employees don't know anything about the product (watches are a great example of this) and don't CARE about it either.

Just the sale, anything to get the sale...

- management do NOT care about customer satisfaction in ANY sense of the word, just your money.

 

add those two together and frankly, I'm not the least bit surprised they don't have ink.

 

sad, when you consider that Sheaffer's as a company, started in the back of a jewelry store ...

Just give me the Parker 51s and nobody needs to get hurt.

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The sad part is that I've had the same experience in some big-box office supply places. Office Depot was the worst in that regards (back before they merged with Office Max and seem to be the online store while Office Max still has B&M stores (in the Pittsburgh area, at least). A few years ago, when OD still had a few brick and mortar locations, they had this big display of pens for graduation presents. One of them was an inexpensive Yafa. The problem was, that they didn't actually sell replacement cartridges (ironically, Office Max had cheaper Parker cartridges than Staples did). So I asked the guy in the store, and of course he didn't have a clue. Turned out you could ORDER more cartridges (probably International Standard short cartridges). But the shipping (from GREECE!) was going to cost more than the package of cartridges themselves.... And of course they didn't carry them in the store.

Lost a sale, they did....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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my experience with big chain jewelry stores boils down to this:

 

- the employees don't know anything about the product (watches are a great example of this) and don't CARE about it either.

Just the sale, anything to get the sale...

 

Heh -- when I bought my Citizen SkyHawk (first generation) the clerk tried to sell me something like a 5-year free battery replacement add-on.

 

This was less than 5 minutes after having pointed out that the SkyHawk was one of Citizens "Eco-Drive" watches where the face plate is a solar cell recharging a large capacitor like storage unit.

 

{Strange -- Quicken shows that I bought one in 2001 from Kay's, but my current one is from 2007 from Sears -- wonder what I broke on the first one; either way -- 2007 to 2020 is 13 years without "battery changes"; though I do have to leave it under a bright light a few nights in January/February when it doesn't get enough daylight to keep a full charge}

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Heh -- when I bought my Citizen SkyHawk (first generation) the clerk tried to sell me something like a 5-year free battery replacement add-on.

 

This was less than 5 minutes after having pointed out that the SkyHawk was one of Citizens "Eco-Drive" watches where the face plate is a solar cell recharging a large capacitor like storage unit.

 

{Strange -- Quicken shows that I bought one in 2001 from Kay's, but my current one is from 2007 from Sears -- wonder what I broke on the first one; either way -- 2007 to 2020 is 13 years without "battery changes"; though I do have to leave it under a bright light a few nights in January/February when it doesn't get enough daylight to keep a full charge}

i have several solar watches. my first was a citizen eco drive that i spent two weeks pay on as a graduation gift to myself.

sadly, i've only worn one watch in over a year now. my apple watch... i just dont want to break my streak...

 

all my solar watches require an 8hr trip to a well lit window... i should do that tomorrow. all of them are dead. :(

Just give me the Parker 51s and nobody needs to get hurt.

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The last Jewelry Store I knew of that sold Fountain Pens was Service Merchandise. I have one of their catalogs with MontBlanc, Parker, Sheaffer and Waterman Fountain Pens in it my Sister inlaw bought me a Waterman from there.

 

The catalogue is from 1996.

 

Where is my time machine?,

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What, you want to resurrect Service Merchandise? :lol:

My experience with them was hit or miss. I think there's now a Walmart in the space the one close to Pittsburgh used to be (over across the river in Aspinwall).

Of course, I didn't know about fountain pens back then....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Actually, other than a handful of consumer goods including mobile phones, digital flat screen televisions and various personal computers/laptops/ tablets and their accesories there have been no changes of note between what that catalog has in it and what is available today.

 

In the pen world, there have been both good changes and bad changes as related,to,the pens they sold.

 

So, yes I would be happy to see a return of Service Merchandise, along with a lot of other retail from that period.

 

As example, I was not interested in Fountain Pens enough to visit either the Parker or Sheaffer factories when they were still in the U.S. And the last time I went shopping in NYC I had only a mild interest in Fountain Pens. It was 1975 or so and my interest was in HO Model Railroading then, oh the mistakes of youth, minor, but I still regret the time and money I spent on that hobby.

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I can tell you all about the time that staples managed to mess up quite nicely.

I ordered a pilot metropolitan in black I mean totally black with black ring so black that it would out black the Frogstar Fighter.

I specifically said, I'm only hear for two weeks then I am off on a job and will not be back for a while.

No problem they say we will have it in 24 hours. But you have to pay upfront on special orders and fill out a bunch of paper work.

Next day no one knows what I am talking about. Then I am told that they don't order pens. I'm holding a sales receipt saying that I paid for the pen. no one knows any thing but they will call me in 24 hours.

To no ones shock they...never called.

So I'm back a few days later and no one knows and thing.

Eventually I found out, the pen had shown up but the people on staff did not know why so they sent it back.

 

I will cut the story short, They said that they would reorder it BUT by that time I was to close to leaving and not willing to take another drive out to a the staples store that was in the opposite direction of every thing.

 

I got my money back got on the plane and that was how I did not get a pen at staples.

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What, you want to resurrect Service Merchandise? :lol:

 

Service Merchandise, Best Products (not Best Buy), and "Consumers Distributing". (Hmmm, per wikipedia, Best and Service Merchandise used a joint catalog and had non-compete regions in play).

 

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It was 1975 or so and my interest was in HO Model Railroading then, oh the mistakes of youth, minor, but I still regret the time and money I spent on that hobby.

Ha. My cousin does model railroading (he's about 8 years older than me and has been a train fan since he was 3). He used to visit my parents at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas when my husband and I were down there as well (mostly because he didn't get along with his stepmother), and would talk at great length about N scale and Z scale, as well as O and HO.... At one point, when we lived in Massachusetts, my husband traded his old SCA armor to a guy just getting started in SCA combat for a model train set. :huh:

The conversation went something like this:

Steve: "OMG, I've cheated him!"

other guy: "OMG, I've cheated him!"

other guy's then wife: "No, you were supposed to get cr@p OUT of the apartment -- NOT bring more cr@p INTO the apartment!"

me (muttering): "I'm going to kill my cousin...."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Don't knock it too much..

 

Quite often these shops have "Black Friday" or New Years Sales that include MontBlanc!

 

So you can walk out with a brand new le grande/146 with 20% off the ticket price.

 

I'm having that!

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I got my money back got on the plane and that was how I did not get a pen at staples.

I remember when the Staples location by me was selling the Metropolitans. They came in blister packs, and they ONLY came in F nibs. Which meant I wasn't going to buy one. I had gotten mine up at the Bromfield Pen Shop in Boston, and had been able to try both the fine and medium nibs on the tester pens that had available at the counter, and found the F nib to be fairly scratchy. So for that pen I got the M nib, and have been very happy with the pen, for the most part: I blew the sac in the original converter trying some really nasty to the point of "gone" vintage IG ink. I only paid a buck for the ink (Sanford Pen-It Blue Black) but then had to get a replacement Con-B converter for the pen.

If I was to get another Metropolitan (I'm waffling because I don't like the animal print barrel trim, or the various trims in conjunction with the pen colors on most of the Retro Pop colors), I'd get a stub nib, to try it.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Customer service is a rare and disappearing skill.

I can understand it, people want it cheep, and you can not pay a skilled and knowledgeable salesman to stand around to inform the "customer" who orders it of the internet at half price.

 

on the other hand you hire some one who gets paid to little to care and lacks any manners and you will loose sales.

 

do let me know how that stub nib works out.

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I notice fountain pen stores turning into jewelry stores. They started with bags, cuff links, belts by MB, etc. and now it's all necklaces and bracelets.

>8[ This is a grumpy. Get it? Grumpy smiley? Huehue >8[

 

I tend to ramble and write wallotexts. I do that.

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i have several solar watches. my first was a citizen eco drive that i spent two weeks pay on as a graduation gift to myself.

sadly, i've only worn one watch in over a year now. my apple watch... i just dont want to break my streak...

 

all my solar watches require an 8hr trip to a well lit window... i should do that tomorrow. all of them are dead. :(

This is the best watch I have ever owned. It's never off my wrist. $45. https://www.casio.com/products/watches/classic/mdv106-1a

 

I added a NATO band/black and grey strip that sort of matches.

"Respect science, respect nature, respect all people (s),"

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Don't knock it too much..

 

Quite often these shops have "Black Friday" or New Years Sales that include MontBlanc!

 

So you can walk out with a brand new le grande/146 with 20% off the ticket price.

 

I'm having that!

 

Or 30%+ off from a car dealership any day you like.

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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Customer service is a rare and disappearing skill.

I can understand it, people want it cheep, and you can not pay a skilled and knowledgeable salesman to stand around to inform the "customer" who orders it of the internet at half price.

 

on the other hand you hire some one who gets paid to little to care and lacks any manners and you will loose sales.

 

do let me know how that stub nib works out.

I found knowledgeable sales personel disapearing from consumer goods stores well before the Internet became used for retail. Basically they aged and either retired or died and were not replaced by a younger generation of bright knowledgeable and interested persons who instead sought other types of employment as lifetime careers. Many reasons for this factored in, but over all it was and is that retail is not seen at the sales floor level as leading to a well paying pleasant occupation with good hours and opertunities for advancement.

 

Important factors I believe include the expanding of hours well beyond daytime hours Monday through Friday, the instability of retail stores, such that it is difficult to identify any specific potential employer as providing good pay and long term employment and perhaps most importantly, higher rents and lower margins, which means that those who get into retailing with the hope of one day having their own live in person retail store know once exploring it that doing so is very difficult and will try alternatives. The alternative in the recent past was typically the mail order store, started in someone's garage, basement or other cheap space. Today added to this are the Pop Up store, a Store Truck or Trailor and the alternative of the mail order store, an Internet one.

Edited by Parker51
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