Zales (ZLC) announces store closings

My view of retailing, after being associated with them through a college degree (retail merchandising) and some time professionally-- their is just too much greed! (not a surprise, right?) Markups are generally 100 to 200% from wholesale prices.

Zales has awfully sub-par merchandise and terrible customer service. After receiving a gift that was already missing stones and having to fight for weeks to have it fixed, I swore I would never return to that chain. This is one store I'm happy to see go. Its time to take pride in our goods again rather then overmanufacture crap just to get it out the door in an attempt to make big bucks.

The Zales in our area is full of wonderful sales people. Zales even donated pieces of jewelry to a Teacher Appreciation function at our school several years ago. DONATED, NOT SOLD! We were greatful!

you know...any big American business is failing because they just open one every few miles. If you take a look at Chinese businesses including banks, they know not to take in the risks to lose everything all at once.

Zales' jewelry is highly overpriced and I would rather go to Chinatown to purchase some real 18k white gold jewelry that looks way better and at a better cost.

The only different I see is that American companies have that great guarantee, but hey, they knocked themselves down with this.

Oh yea, I also hate seeing the economy take jobs away from many, but the American companies are to blame for all this.

Look at Starbucks opening one store in every corner...

Mall jewelry stores always had higher markups than the mom and pop's. People are just getting smarter.

I have a jewelry box full of jewelry of all sorts from Zales. Some are gifts, some I bought myself over the past 10 years. I have never had any trouble with them, they have beaten or matched prices when I brought them to their attention and I have had no trouble with repairs at all.

Just throwing in my two cents... I work at a family owned jewelry store and I also own jewelry that was purchased at Zales before I began to work there. Zales' customer service is absolutely horrifying and their repair work is sub-par. I picked up my diamond bracelet from the store and lost two more diamonds not even THREE hours later. Their markup is 500% or more - not 100 or 200 like someone else said. Their jewelry is crap and it frustrates me to no end when people see high quality jewelry in our store and don't want to pay our higher prices (with a much lower markup) and walk over to Zales expecting the same quality for their cheaper prices. You get what you pay for, people and their employees pretend to care about you until right after you pay.

My husband is a big Zales shopper. I have lots of diamond jewelry items. All from Zales. I love it all and he would never buy a fake. He would never buy from CVC or whatever that flawed tv buying station is. I love all my pieces and know they are quality. Those of you that are putting down the store are just jealous that you are wearing the fakes and can't afford to shop at Zales. They have treated us very well.

Very few know that zales was doing the same thing as the banks; They were lending money to people that couldn't afford to borrow it but was also charging an interest rate 3 times that of larger stores. all the mall stores do the same thing. i've sold wholesale jewelry for some time. I can assure you that most jewelry items bought at Kmart is the same thing as buying at Macy's which is the same thing as buying at Zales.

bbw4muscles said...
Although I love my Zales diamond rings, my everyday ring is an Epihany Platinum-Clad ring from QVC. When held against my "good stuff" no one can tell which is real and which isn't.
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I'll bet i can.

Most of those leaving comments in regards to this article are so full of pig crap, that they have no idea of what is happening in all areas of retail business in stores open to the public in the United States and most other countries. The point is that anything that can be sold online, or on the shopping channels is sold there and has destroyed millions of businesses. That is a fact, and that in inself alone in this country has caused not just thousands of lost jobs, but millions of lost jobs, also lost sales tax revenue to states and income tax to the fed. Businesses that are surviving are service oriented and manufacturing if the greedy criminal unions haven't destroyed them of forced them to relocate to other countries. The largest gold chain manufacturing was done in Italy, but with huge cost increases and the huge import tax levied on jewelry from Italy, they have relocated most factories to Turkey where the labor cost is much lower and there are not import duties. Our country has caused companies to relocate due to the same problems. Zales is not making it on sales alone and so they have to close. It is not pricing or quality, it simply is that people have changed their shopping habits and it is killing all sectors of retail business.

Face it when your worried about loosing your job, your car, your health insurance, your retirement, your home, a big wedding and a flashy ring aren't that important. Should be a good year for cubic zirconium and passed down relatives rings

I have many diamond pieces of jewelry that were purchased at Zales and all of them are very nice looking. I have always been treated well there also. i am sure that all Zales are not the same, but some locations do have great service. The Zales in my town is one of them!