b'Jennifer Gandia & Christina Gandia Gambale Proudly madein the USAherself paying attention to the displays in jewelry store windows, then calling home to share ideas for her parents store.Since 1951 She also spent a lot of time thinking about what she wanted to do next. Initially, Jennifer thought she might like to open her own business, but then began considering how difficult the post-9/11 road ahead was for her parents.The original Greenwich Jewelers was on Greenwich Street, less than two blocks from the World Trade Center. The building it was in sustained structural damage in the attack, forcing Carlos and Milly to relocate.Even though they reopened on nearby Trinity Place, Ground Zero was, and would remain for years, an open pit while companies all over Lower Manhattan were decamping to Brooklyn and New Jersey, taking their office workers with them.So, during one phone call home, Jennifer proposed the idea of coming to work at the store.Carlos rejected the idea at firstthey still felt like, this isnt the path we want you girls to take, Jennifersaysbut she carefully pitched it as a temporary situation. She would stay for a yearjust a yearand use her marketing experience to help the business recover. It was always meant to be temporary, she says. Christina reached her own occupational epiph-any after following her lifelong, left brain-like interest in business, sales and operations (she had a scrunchie business inJennifer, far left, and Christina, far right, joined the family junior high, backed by Mil- business in 2003 and 2007, respectively, and became co-owners in 2008. They are pictured here with Carlos and Milly ly) through to a career inoutside the store on Trinity Place, its home after 9/11. finance, a path she found similarly unfulfilling. I remember being in finance in corporate America and saying, I hate this, Christina says. I hated the idea of having to climb this ladder. I hated the politics of it. By that time, Jennifer already was working with their parents at the store, and it piqued Christinas interest. She put herself through the Gemological Institute of Americas graduate gemology program. While attending GIA full-time, she started to test the retail waters by working at the store on Saturdays. After she earned her G.G. diploma, her parents suggested she work for other jewelry companies to learn more about the wholesale Worlds Largest & Finest Collectionend of the business before coming into the family business.Christina worked for Mouawad and spent a little over a year at ofReligious Jewelry Temple St. Clair before joining her parents and sister, making Green-JA New York Booth# 1335 wich an employer of fivethe four Gandias plus one bench jeweler. A Vision Takes Shape JCK Las Vegas Booth # 20108 Jennifers first few years at the store were just about helping her 516-867-15001-800-229-0006 parents make the business solvent and rebuilding their clientele. sales@randpaseka.com20 RETAILER HALL OF FAME 2022www.randpaseka.com'