Alpha Omega Jewelers seemed to have everything going for it: prime locations, including one in Harvard Square, a Rolex dealership, and a bunch of other fancy watches and other stuff. I walked by the store today, however, to find that they were having a bankruptcy liquidation sale. A sales guy explained that the owner had fled the country, a lender had seized the assets, and the bank had decided that it wasn’t profitable to continue selling $5000 watches to yuppies.
Harvard Square retail seems to be going through a slow patch. Amazon.com and high rents forced Wordsworth books out of business in 2004 and their prime location has yet to be rented to another store.
Harvard Square is typical of inelastic demand to a certain point, i.e., for true high-end goods, the kids have to wait for their parents to buy them for them in the summer and during breaks somewhere other than Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was quite stunned when trying to purchase a “kiddie” cone for my 4 year old, that the ice cream shop across from the Yard didn’t offer it on the menu, and finally they had me pay $3.50 for a child scoop (rather than approx $4.00). The regular size would have been much, much too much for my child to handle.
Maybe the new financial aid policy going into effect for the 2008-2009 school year will rejuvenate some of the retailers. Some of the upper middle class kids won’t be quite so strapped for cash. Their parents only have to contribute 10% of their income, assuming they don’t hold lots of other sizeable assets. We can thank Senator Grassley for this!
But I’m not sure the students will be in the market for Piaget and Cartier watches. And the wealthy Cambridge folks tend toward less ostentatious tastes.
I dropped by the store in Burlington. The watches were 15%, 20% or 35% off the list prices. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there a gigantic markup on watches? Jewelry stores sell a “$500” watch for $300 when there’s no sale going on.
The showcases were still full of watches. When the sale price goes lower than the wholesale price, other dealers will come in and buy them up. So far, nobody’s buying them up.
No bargains to be had there.
I went in their Back Bay branch once to get a battery replaced on a (rather fancy) watch. The customer service was incredibly bad; rude sales people and service staff, very slow turnaround, and they screwed up replacing the band.I resolved never to go back.
I had a terrible experience with them, too. Went in to buy a “normal” watch and was treated like I was bum. The place made me feel dirty and I’ve never stepped foot in there again. Good riddance. I’m surprised they lasted this long. The place reminded me of those seedy 5th avenue scheister shops in NYC, where there is a perpetual “going out of business” sale.
I stopped into the Harvard Square location one morning to purchase a replacement band for a watch of a brand they advertised in their window. I walked through the unlocked front door a few minutes before 10 a.m. and was thrown out of the store, as they “didn’t open until 10.”
I returned a few minutes after 10 and was told “we don’t carry bands for that brand.” Before I could explain that I’d purchased other brands of bands for my watch before and would be happy to do so again, I was dismissed from the store a second time.
I then went to the watch shop around the corner, which is what I should have done in the first place, and they found several bands for me to choose from.
A few days later I received a mailing-list-generated letter from AOJ of the “we’d like to invite you, owner of a [watch-brand] watch, to visit our Harvard Square store, where we’d be happy to be of service.” It was sent unrelated, as far as I could tell, to my visit.
I resisted the temptation to fire back a response, or to visit the store with the letter in hand and laugh at them in person, but I’m not at all surprised to see ’em going bankrupt.