November 30, 2010 in News by Phil Foster

Does it get any better than this?

I enjoy my profession! I enjoy helping people. And specifically I enjoy help people finding things that help reflect and celebrate significant events in their lives. And engagement ring is the obvious topic of choice, its a symbol of the love and commitment in a relationship, that symbol can be magnified and reduced based on available finances but never by the imagination and symbolism of that relationship! Recently a friend of these past 8 years or so came in at the request of her boyfriend to narrow down what her wishes and desires were for an engagement ring. Well she text me again on Sunday and wondered if she could show him the rings she had tried on the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. Well we shared a few times and I was happy to drive over to Winchester and open up just for them! She showed him her favorite 2 rings and I introduced a new ring to the collection and we had a wonderful visit together!  We talked about style, quality, size and shapes of diamonds and rings. They asked well though out questions and I gave them well thought out answers! I was very rewarding for me! Its as good as it gets as far as I am concerned.  You see my chosen profession is a happy one! Full of happy occasions needing gifts and symbols to anchor memories. And every time I succed to some degree or another in accomplishing it gives me a great satisfaction in being a part of their celebration. Not one that will ever be discussed in family pictures 20 years from now, but a part of the celebration none the less….. behind every great gift of jewelry is a GREAT JEWELER! And those are the shoes I strive to fill!  or is that Phill……. come see me for your next great symbol of love and celebration! AT PHANTASTIC ANNIVERSARY SAVINGS NOW UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

November 23, 2010 in News by Phil Foster

Sneak preview a success!

As we kicked off our HUGE anniversary sale this past week I can measure success in several ways! The one that is most important to me of course is the dollars that a sale or promotion generates and second is the profit on those dollars! And my dad and I are pleased with the Pre-sale! We sent out over 4000 postcard/invitations for a sneak peak of the extra merchandise we acquired with Trade Partners for this enormous sale. And to our friends, previous customers and followers on this blog, twitter and facebook we offered an extra 10% discount for four days! Four days that the general public was not aware of the sale, the selection or the extra savings! 

The most rewarding way for me to measure the success of any event is by how many gifts are purchased and how many men and women are going to be “ROCK STARS” (pardon the pun) this coming holiday season! AND WE CREATED A FEW ROCK STARS last week, without spoiling the surprise or the identity of the super heroes i can say that we sold almost a dozen pair of  large pair of diamond earrings, a beautiful sapphire and diamond pendant with more than two carats of stones and several diamond rings with 1/2 carat in diamonds up to one gentleman that bought his woman a one carat diamond ring for Christmas-Anniversary!  He is going to be the man! Many other “Santa’s” are going to be well thought of too! As they took advantage of the extra savings and selection to put a spectacular gift on layaway till closer to Christmas!

November 19, 2010 in News, Uncategorized by Phil Foster

Huge Trade Liquidation Partnership Sale

My name is Phil Foster, my Dad and I own Fosters Jewelers in Front Royal and Winchester VA. (check out the sparkling history category for more) And I want to tell you about the sale that is so special that it has been 25years in the making!

For the 25th celebration of our first anniversary we wanted to really do something special! So we started planning this event in the spring of 2010! We interviewed several companies to run a special sale for us. Our goals were to create an atmosphere of enormous value, savings, uniqueness and urgency. We of course wanted all of this while protecting our image and reputation that we had cultivated these last 30 years!

We finally settled on this sale! Trade Partners buys all sorts of close outs, overstocks and assets of closing companies. They brought in for the purpose of this promotion, THE CELEBRATION OF FOSTERS JEWELERS 25TH ANNIVERSARY, hundreds of rings, hundreds of necklaces, hundreds of pairs of earrings and hundreds of watches at HUGE savings UP TO 60% OFF!

We have all the bright colors of the of the holiday season too! Reds of rubies and garnets, greens of tourmaline and emerads, the bright sparkle of diamonds and even the cool blue hues of sapphires and blue topaz!

Pleas stop by between now and Christmas and see a great selection, save some money and buy your loved one that special something for the holidays. Buy a sparkley treasure and become a “ROCK” star today!

November 19, 2010 in News by Phil Foster

Sparkling History continues

Fred continued his jewelry career with The Jewel Box  Stores Corporation for a total of 25 years, managing stores in Strasburg, Front Royal, Asheville, Wilmington and supervising many others. He eventually went on the road selling Seiko watches after forming a partnership and opened the Diodon Seiko Distributorship in Atlanta. They service 7 states for Seiko USA. After selling his share of the distributorship he parlayed his industry contacts into a multi state company that sold to the Jewelers and Department stores direct   the southeast. Major accounts included Belk-Legget, Friedmans, Reeds, Carlyle and Co and several hundred independent jewelry stores.

Traveling more that 45 weeks a year is a challenge  and in 1984 Fred and Betty decided it was time to return home to Front Royal and opened a jewelry store on main street where it stand today! Fred and Betty had both graduated from Warren County High School and both had mothers living in town so it seemed natural to come back home and stop traveling those 13 states.

Check back for the next blog and see when and how Phil joined forces with his dad!

November 17, 2010 in News by Phil Foster

The earliest sparkle for Fosters Jewelers!

Dorothy eventually married a young man from Long Island, NY via the Civilian Conservation Corps initiative of the great depression! Fred Foster like almost 20million other unemployed men of his time joined the CCC to provide for himself and his family in NY. He came to Front Royal as a fitness instructor from the CCC in Fort Dix, NJ. He met Dorothy shortly after singing at the Murphy Theatre in downtown Front Royal! They married soon after and had two children, Robert and Fred Jr. Robert died as an infant and is interned at Prospect Hill Cemetery. Fred grew up and graduated from Warren County HS where as a member of the Distributive Education class at the high school began his jewelry career working as a greeter at the Jewel Box on Main Street in Front Royal in 1955. Soon after graduation he married his high school sweetheart Betty Blakely and became Manager of the Jewel Box store in Strasburg, VA. And so the seeds that would become the sparkles of Fosters Jewelers were sown!