News

Dale's Jewelry: a longtime local success tale
The Blackfoot, Idaho, News - Thursday, February 26, 1981
By David Neiwert of The News

A Jeweler and his wares - Dales Jones, owner of Dales's Jewelry, stands before some of the items for sale at his store. Jones has been the store's owner since the early 1960s.

Like many other businessmen, Dale Jones faced an uphill struggle when he purchased his own business. He persevered, though, and nearly 20 years later, his store is one of Blackfoot's most successful and stable.

A Jeweler and his wares - Dales Jones, owner of Dales's Jewelry, stands before some of the items for sale at his store. Jones has been the store's owner since the early 1960s.

Jones bought Kugler's Jewelry from Ken Kugler in September 1963. He changed the name to Dale's Jewelry and combined hard work, a perservering attitude, and sound advice from other successful businessmen to turn his little jewlery shop into a relatively shop into a relatively big one. Now, says Jones, jewelry salesmen come into the store and are agog at the size of his inventory for a city the size of Blackfoot.

It hasn't been easy getting there, however. At the time he opend Dale's Jewelry, where he had worked for five years under Kugler's tutelage, the shop was about half the size that it is now. It also had a relatively small inventory.

Jones began putting in the long hours needed to make a small business go --"You'll never make business go nine to five," he says. His only previous experience with the business aspect had been his work in the store. Fortunately, he had gone to college at Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, and had studied jewelry work and repair. So he was at least well-versed in that part of his work.

"I went about the business of hard knocks," says Jones. "When you start out, you need financial help. You need a banker who'll help you out. Having a Daddy Warbucks who'll help you doesn't hurt, either."

Jones' personal "Daddy Warbucks" -- referring to the comic-strip tycoon who always came to Little Orphan Annie's rescue -- was a jewelry supplier who offered Jones ideas on how to make his business go, gave him inside tips on the jewelry trade, and who came to his rescue on occasion to save him from financial woes.

"It took a long time," says Jones. "It just took perseverance. Most of all, it took a willingness to put in the long hours. Fortunately, I had a family that was willing to make the sacrifices, too."

The long hours have contributed to Jones' success in other ways, too, because it's been an important factor in his customers' satisfaction.

"I still do the jewelry work and repair myself," he says. "It takes a lot of work, but that way I know that people are getting what I want them to get -- quality work. Giving your work the personal touch really does help make people happy."

He's done other things with his business that have helped keep people coming, too. For one, he's never charged interest or put a finance charge on his accounts. For another, he's made sure that both he and his employees treat their customers right.

"Everyone who works in this store has to be friendly and helpful," he says. "I want all of us to treat people right. I think we should treat people in this store the way we'd want to be treated if we were customers ourselves."

His personal management of the business has helped make things go a long way, too. He's enlarged the inventory, doubled the size of the store, put in stock of a gift and clock shop, and purchased the rest of the Kugler's building, which stretches most of the way down the block on Broadway Street, with the jewelry store located at the prominent corner on Bridge Street.

Jones also has been sensitive to the trends in the jewelry business. "You've got to watch the market fluctuations," he says. "You have to kind of roll with the punches, because this is an up-and-down business. You certainly have to watch the trends." He cited changes in watch popularity -- from electric hand-style watches to electronic digital watches -- and the rise and fall of turquoise's popularity as examples.

Wedding rings and bands probably will remain his mainstay as far as inventory goes, but he'll continue adding and deleting other lines as trends changes.

Working in Blackfoot has been important to him, too. "Blackfoot's a good business town," he says. "We've done very well; we've had steady growth since the day it opened. It's certainly different doing business in a small town. I can't help but think that its size has been a factor in the way people treat us and the way we treat people."

All in all, it's taken a number of important factors, the greatest being hard work, to make a strong business for Dales Jones. It's all paid off for him now, he says.

"I stand back and look at things now," he says. "A kid just fresh out of school is able to come in and start up a business, and he winds up buying a whole block of stores.

"I have to be grateful. Only a good town would let someone do something like that."