Dear Customer,

I

have a secret to tell you.

I couldn’t share it when you were in my jewelry store the other day, because I wanted to make a sale. But now that you left without buying anything, I’ll tell it to you.

You and your husband were looking at my display of diamond earrings, trying to choose a pair that suited your taste and your budget. The few pairs that you liked were way out of your price range, so you wistfully passed them up. Your husband looked disappointed — he wanted you to have something new for Yom Tov, but you didn’t like any of the earrings that were under $3000.

I overheard you quietly ask your husband, “Maybe we can spend another $500?”

I could see your husband’s inner torment when he answered that $3000 was the absolute maximum you could spend; buying the $3500 earrings would mean that he’d have to borrow money.

Then you said something that I didn’t hear, and your husband whispered back, “I can’t! Don’t do this to me!”

I’ve witnessed exchanges like these many times, and overhearing these conversations almost makes me want to open a fish store. I busied myself wiping the display cases, trying to pretend I had no idea what you were talking about, even though you were seated across the counter from me.

You took one last, long look at the $3500 earrings you liked so much, and then stood up to leave.

Before you left the store empty-handed, you pointed to the earrings I was wearing and said, “Those are nice — do you have another pair like that?”

I smiled and said that no, I didn’t have another pair.

Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about you, and hoping that you weren’t angry with your husband for insisting on staying within his budget.

I couldn’t tell you my secret then, because it could put me out of business. But I’ll tell it to you now: Jewelry styles change. Just as you probably won’t be wearing the same clothing you’re wearing now in five years from now, you probably won’t be interested in wearing the same jewelry. Your old clothing goes out of style, and you also get tired of it. The same is true about jewelry, except that you can afford to update your wardrobe every now and then — but how many people can afford to update their jewelry collection as often as jewelry styles change?

My advice? Don’t spend a lot of money on your new earrings. If you spend thousands of dollars on diamond earrings, chances are you’ll be stuck with those earrings for decades, if not for life — unless you lose an earring, in which case you’ll suffer tremendous agmas nefesh.

If you buy something cheaper, on the other hand, you’ll be able to wear it for as long as you like it, and then replace it with something newer, something that’s in style. And if it gets lost or stolen, you won’t care that much.

Jewelry is a not an investment, because it loses most of its value the minute you walk out of the store. It’s not even something you can pass down to your children — no one’s interested in wearing hopelessly outdated heirloom jewelry. Think of your jewelry as just another article of clothing, and spend accordingly. The same goes for the kallah jewelry you’re going to buy your daughter-in-law, by the way. Eventually, she’ll get tired of it, but if she knows you mortgaged yourself to the hilt to buy it, she’ll feel too guilty to ever replace her kallah bracelet.

Oh, and I have another secret to share with you. My earrings, the ones you admired so much — I wouldn’t be able to sell those in my store, because I bought them for $40 in the costume jewelry store two blocks down.

The Jewelry Store Owner