Two Michigan jewelers win 'coolness' award

InStore, a national magazine for jewelry store owners, recognized two MRA members in its third annual “America’s Coolest Stores” issue. Wattsson & Wattsson Jewelers (above, left) in Marquette won first place in the annual review, with its gold mine and museum at the back of the store cited as a truly innovative draw.

McMartin Jewelry (above, right) in Milford garnered the eighth-place award for its store decor and merchandise props, along with its Round Table Gem Talks, a series of informal gatherings for people to learn about gems six times a year.

Hats and Haberdashery, a Suttons Bay specialty retailer, is celebrating 10 years in business with a year-long celebration centered on a monkey theme, to tie in with the Chinese Year of the Monkey.

Beginning with a kickoff event this past spring and continuing for a year, the store will donate 25 percent of the sales on monkey-related products (cards, gift wraps, soaps, stuffed animals and other gift items) to Primarily Primates, a non-profit animal protection organization.

In its 2004 Retailer Excellence Awards competition, Gifts & Decorative Accessories magazine named international retail strategy and design firm JGA Inc. of Southfield the gold medal winner in the Store Design category of stores over $1 million in sales. It won for its design of the Mikasa store in Schaumberg, Illinois.

Also, JGA recently named David Nelson vice president. He will be responsible for business development and client strategy for the firm.

Downtown Charlotte lost a historic retailer when Smith’s MensWear, an 86-year-old business and the last hometown clothing store, closed its doors in late June. Customers lamented the store’s closing and noted its exceptional customer service and unique services, such as tuxedo rentals.

Two metro Detroit malls, Laurel Park Place in Livonia and Macomb Mall in Roseville, are up for sale, according to Schostak Bros. and Co. Inc., the firm that currently owns the malls. Laurel Park Place was one of two local malls that replaced vacant Jacobson department stores with Davenport, Iowa-based Von Maur, Inc. last year.

Frank’s Nursery & Crafts Inc. has appointed Walter S. Spokowski as its new president and CEO, replacing Bruce Dale, who left the Troy-based retailer in January after nine months. Frank’s emerged from bankruptcy in 2002.

Electronics retailer Circuit City plans to open two new stores in Michigan this fall, one in Brighton and one in the Lakes Crossing shopping center in Norton Shores, near Muskegon. The store at the Lakes Crossing site, which replaces a smaller store in Muskegon, is expected to open in mid-September when the old location closes.

Best Buy is rolling out a new on-site computer repair service, called the “Geek Squad” in over 600 stores, including 27 in Michigan. For a fee, the electronics retailer will send a computer technician to a customer’s house to perform computer repairs or installations.

Target will open a new store in Fenton in 2006, less than a mile from the Silver Lake Shopping Center, home to a Wal-Mart and a Kmart. Fenton is currently considered the fastest growing midsize city in the state.

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