The Modern Jeweler - All Jewelry Information For The Modern Era!

This post will address most questions many people have about buying jewelry at Costco. If you have never thought about buying a piece of jewelry from Costco, well you better think again!

Before we answer the jewelry question, we need to explain the Costco Model. This recession may really challenge Costco’s business model. The company has built itself around being the upscale warehouser–paying premium wages to its workers, while carrying premium products. You really don’t want to be the high-cost provider in a deflationary environment–at least, not as long as wages remain sticky. It’s also less broadly distributed, centering itself near relatively affluent areas. In most cases, that’s a good place to be. But so far, the recession has taken a disproportionate toll on those with substantial assets. Regardless, Costco continues with a very standard markup structure ranging from 20-30%. How can Costco survive at 20-30% markup? Simple, they make a huge profit on the membership fees. The 20-30% markup on merchandise basically covers about 100% of their fixed costs, the rest including the membership fees is all profit.

Now that we know they are selling jewelry at about 20-30% over their cost, lets discuss their cost basis. Like any other major merchandise buyer, they put incredible demands on their jewelry suppliers, guaranteeing their members consistent quality at the absolute best prices available. Costco purchases in such volume, that they can demand the absolute best prices.

Costco’s Jewelry Quality Control department may be the best in the world of fine jewelry.

Each and every piece of jewelry in a Costco store has passed a rigorus inspection process involving 25x magnification scopes with a massive video display. Costco guarantees diamond clarity to be VS-2 (Very Slightly Included) and color to be I (Near Colorless) or better. To ensure their quality is never compromised and their orders are prompt, their vendors often supply them with higher quality diamonds. Costco maintain one of the world’s largest staff of certified gemologists. They check every diamond to ensure their minimum quality is met. Inferior diamond and gemstone qualities, and/or imperfections in stone settings and metal color are returned to the vendors.

Still not convinced, look at the Costco Return policy, it speaks for itself. You can return any item beat up and abused and they will still take it back, that’s customer service!

Get a diamond or any other piece of jewelry from Costco and have a real independent jewelry appraiser look at it. We guarantee that you will not be disappointed by the results.

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