Breitling PAN Frecce Tricolori QUARTZ Chronograph BT-99

Meanwhile, instead of simply announcing a store sale on Facebook or tweeting about their next trunk show, some jewelers are bring the latest and greatest technology in-house to lure tech-sawy Breitling Navitimer Quartz Chronograph BT-22.

For example, Murphy's Jewelers has two iPads: one from vendor Tacori that is loaded with the bridal manufacturer's latest catalog offerings, and another just for general store use, Williams says. Now when a customer is looking for an engagement ring, a salesperson can pull out the Tacori iPad and virtually thumb through the newest collections, going tar beyond wbat is available ~n stoEc.

Consider the barometer of the jewelry industry for 2009 officially read. Jewelers of America's latest Cost of Doing Business Report shows that jewelry sales slid again last year, marking Breitling PAN Frecce Tricolori QUARTZ Chronograph BT-99 third straight year of declines. Have U.S. jewelers seen the worst of this downturn yet and what will the recovery will look like when it arrives?

If there is any solace to be drawn from Jewelers of America's (JA) 2010 Cost of Doing Business Report, if is this: Last year's sales results were not positive, but last year's sales results were also not shocking.

The report, based upon a survey that JA conducts annually as an industry benchmarking tool, showed that retail jewelry sales declined again in 2009, as retailers battling to sell luxury put on a brave face Breitling PAN Frecce Tricolori QUARTZ Chronograph BT-99 an economy scarred by unemployment, foreclosures and general uncertainty. The median sales decline was 4.5 percent, worse than the 3.5 percent slide recorded in 2008 and worse than the 0.3 percent dip noted in 2007, which was, incidentally, the first recorded sales drop in the surveys twodecade history. To put last year in perspective, a typical independent mid-range store that netted $788,094 in 2006 saw its sales shrink by 8.3 percent to $727.696 in 2009, just three years later.

It's a grim but not surprising trend, with JA noting in the report that 2009 was "a year in which the national economic crisis left no industry unscathed."

From the high-end retailers on Worth Avenue in Breitling Professional Emergency Mission BT-172 Palm Beach to the chain stores in the malls around Pittsburgh, very few jewelers will look back upon 2009 fondly.