2. Synthetic Diamonds – There were several talks about this topic during the week.
From the panel that was moderated by Rob Bates, the Martin Rapaport breakfast, to the round table “discussions” this was one hot topic.
Our very own Abe Sherman attended all of these talks and definitely made his voice heard. If you have not heard, there is quite a bit of controversy and discussion around the fact that manmade diamonds are in fact and should be called, according to GIA, synthetic.
Regardless of the name, there are some retailers that have embraced this new product category, and yet others that agree with Abe that this will be a disaster for our industry.
Some points made were the uncertain long term value for synthetic diamonds, as well as the confusion this may cause with the consumer, leading to possible legal issues in the long term.
No matter what your position on the subject may be, ultimately it will be the consumer that will dictate the market. It is up to us as an industry to be properly educated on the subject, make sure we are fully disclosing the products we decide to sell and train our sales teams to understand the market. |