The ring shopping experience
The idea of ring shopping freaked me out. But that is no surprise to those who know me. Even after I knew that I was going to marry Darren, I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud. That doesn’t mean that nobody knew; there were select people who discovered our intentions through deciphering my secret code. Even yesterday my sister said, “If…oh, what code words are we using now? …never mind …if you and Darren get married…” That’s telling.
I think Spence Diamonds was built just for people like me. I know I wouldn’t have been able to handle a traditional jewelry store! Before going, I watched the video online in which the president explains how his chain of stores is different. That gave me a little more confidence. We also had looked at some ring styles online to get a general idea of preferences. That gave me a little more confidence. But still when Darren parked the car in the Spence parking lot and the engine was off, I froze. The only thing I could say was, “I can’t go in there.” A little reassurance and a little coaxing got me out of the car and into the store.
Once inside, I was completely overwhelmed. There were thousands of rings to choose from and what seemed like hundreds of smiling salespeople waiting to assist us. I hate that! When I worked at a Christian Book Store, the most challenging part was having to approach the customers to ask them if they needed help, simply because I HATE THAT! Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that those smiling salespeople (there were probably 6 of them working on a Saturday afternoon) were more like consultants. One offered us a drink. Another said to pick a ring, wear it around the store, and compare it to others, eliminating as we go. They left us to ourselves, coming over every 15 minutes to just make sure we were ok.
That’s good salesmanship, in my opinion. I definitely didn’t want to have to explain to a diamond expert what I wanted (mostly because I had NO IDEA) nor did I want their help. The concept of choosing something I would wear every day from now until the grave was overwhelming enough. After all, I’m the one who can’t decide on a watch for the same, although much less permanent, reason!
We did end up giving Spence our business that day. That’s surprising considering that Darren’s reason for choosing this particular store was not that it is Canada’s number one diamond retailer, or that it had a great selection, or because of its buy-back or trade-up policies, or that they took the time to educate us about the 4Cs of diamonds (Please don’t ask me to explain; I was too emotionally overloaded that day to pay attention. All I know is that diamonds are pretty!). No, the reason was that he thought the advertisements were interesting and appealed to him on an intellectual level. How’s that for reasoning?
I don’t know if I can say that I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Spence Diamonds. At the end of the day, it is a business and their job is to make money off of people like us. They were sure to give us the spiel about why their store was the best one in which to make a purchase like this. But I can forgive all those things because it’s done, we’re happy and should anything tragic happen in the next few weeks, they’ve got a great return policy!