b'STAN & INGRIDRAZNYHe understands high-quality diamonds as well as market dynamics and where pricing is at any given moment. He also knows luxury and brands, and how to market a premium product. Its rare to find jewelers who are good at both. Stan is probably the best at combining these skills, Kwiat says. Its this perspective that contributed to one of the Raznys more recent, and some would say pivotal, merchandising decisionstheyve opted not to carry lab-grown diamonds in any of their stores. Stan likens lab-grown diamonds to the la-ser-drilled diamond craze of the 1980s, which turned into a disaster because the stones had zero trade-in value. Klein, of Grandview Klein, has another compar-ison: For him, lab-grown is cubic zirconia. He describes Stan as a diamond aficionado who wants to know the origin of each stone and who touched it along the way. He doesnt just sell diamonds but also, the journey, the story, where the diamond comes from. They leave no little detail out. Everything is the highest caliber possible, Klein says. He compares Stans love for diamonds and exper-tise with that of Harry Winston. Klein, admittedly, never met Winston, but he heard stories about the famed diamantaire from his grandfather. [Stans] up in that league. His keen eye, his appre-ciation for the industryeverything has to be top, top notch. If its not top notch, youre not going toOpened in 2016 on Oak Street, the retailers downtown Chicago store was the fourth and final store to join the fleet. find it at Razny.Stan says he and Ingrid discussed the issue of stocking lab-grown diamonds at length. They even brought their three children, all young adults, in onEVERYTHING HAS TO BE TOP, TOP the discussion. NOTCH. IF ITS NOT TOP NOTCH,Collectively, they decided against it, seeing theYOURE NOT GOING TO FIND IT AT stones as a short-term play that would end up hurting the store in the long run.RAZNY.MOSHE KLEIN,Ingrid says they never want to be afraid to takeGRANDVIEW KLEIN DIAMONDSback merchandise theyve sold, and they wouldnt feel good about offering a customer pennies on the dollar for something purchased from Razny Jewelers.on Sept. 9, 2001, two days before 9/11. It really comes down to, theres no value, she says.That was probably the scariest week of our lives when that all We never look to sell gimmicks, Stan says. We always take thewent down, says Stan.long-game approach.But plans for the store moved forward and it opened in 2003, Its an example of what retail experts repeatedly recommend whenbecoming the second Razny Jewelers location. it comes to merchandising: Dont try to be everything to everybody.Five years later, the Raznys experienced more bad timing that Find your niche and stick with it. turned out OK.After years of work and planning, the third Razny Jewelers store ANOTHER KIND OF DIAMOND opened in Hinsdale, Illinois, in November 2008, two months after About four years after the Raznys opened their big new store inthe collapse of Lehman Brothers intensified the Great Recession.the western suburb of Addison, they had the opportunity to openEarlier that same year, Stan says they had an opportunity to open another location, this time directly to the north of Chicago inwhat would have been the fourth Razny Jewelers store, on Chicagos Highland Park, Illinois.famed Michigan Avenue. They opted not to given the state of the econ-They bought a city block in the tony community, closing the dealomy, which was already struggling even before Lehman went bankrupt.Continued on page 4644 RETAILER HALL OF FAME 2023'