Boudreaux’s Jewelers

May 16

METAIRIE, MANDEVILLE, AND BATON ROUGE, LA
EST. 1933

In their own words

“We are a big diamond store, a big bridal store—a great percentage of what we do is in those categories. We’re more of a comfortable, warm, fuzzy feel jewelry store. It’s not that mass-produced, get them in, put them in car-selling mode selling a commodity. It’s more about relationship-building, understanding what the client is after, and being good listeners. Guiding with experience, but getting a sense of who the person is and what they came in for. We’ve been around for a long time, and we want them to feel welcome. We treat everyone the same, they’re all going to get the Boudreaux’s touch.”

-Donny Boudreaux

Jason’s Interview with Donny

Jason

Here we are from Meet the Jewelers talking to Donny from Boudreaux’s Jewelers. Can you tell us a little bit more about your history?

Donny

Boudreaux’s Jewelers was founded in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1933 by my grandfather. We've continued the family tradition now into our fourth generation. We've had our bumps and bruises along the way--nothing's easy in the business. When you're working with family, it's challenging, but there's a lot of benefits as well. Carrying on a family tradition and trying to serve our clients, we expect that tradition to continue into the next generation.

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Jason
Can you tell me, how do you feel that people can trust you and your brand?

Donny
It's really on us. It's a family. If any problems arise that don't go quite to plan, they have a Boudreaux family member to resolve it. We're here to provide fine, quality jewelry and have it passed from generation to generation. That family name is important for us to protect.

Jason
Where do you do your manufacturing and how do you source your jewelry?

Donny
We manufacture here. We offer CAD design in-house and we do 3D printing. I don't touch everything—our fourth generation is very tech-savvy. My nephew graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans, went to GIA gem school, and has picked up the CAD quickly, promoting that one-of-a-kind, handmade process. The casting is still handled through a caster in New York.

Jason
Tell us about the three stores?

Donny
We've really tried to model each location similarly. The Baton Rouge store is the newest of the three. We've actually just made arrangements to do a pretty serious renovation to our oldest location, our Metairie headquarters, to bring it up to speed. All of them have a similar feel—warm, welcoming. It's a very comfortable environment.

Jason
What's your customer experience like?

Donny
The showrooms are nice, the seats are comfortable, and we treat everybody in that same welcoming manner.

Jason
Who would you say your ideal customer is?

Donny
We are a diamond store, a bridal store. A great percentage of what we do is in that category. It's not mass-produced. It's more relationship building, getting an understanding of what the client is after, being good listeners. We sell from entry-level all the way to very expensive. One of our catchphrases is, “Your gift takes on a whole new glow under a Boudreaux’s bow.”

Jason
What color is the ribbon?

Donny
We have a sort of taupe-colored ribbon on a gold-wrapped box. It has the name throughout the ribbon.

Jason
Can you talk me through a moment where you made somebody's day?

Donny
I don't think it's necessarily a specific instance, but it's more about each individual and helping them. For some people, it's stressful—it could be a young guy that's thinking about this next chapter in life. We're here to make them more comfortable in what they're doing.

Jason
Talk about an exciting proposal you've been a part of.

Donny
My nephews have developed Wedding Wednesday, or Proposal Wednesday. Each Wednesday, if we have some information from one of our clients that they've shared with us, we like to give them some exposure. Here in south Louisiana, we love fishing and the outdoors. There've been interesting ones, where people have gone fishing and got down on that knee with a nice redfish that they've caught and proposed. Obviously, this couple is very much into the outdoors. There's been some making a nice trip out of it, whether it be to Europe or some foreign destination. There’s so many, it's hard to remember just one.

Jason
I always like to ask at the end, what do you want us to know?

Donny
I think there is still that strong tie to standing face-to-face with that person, that long-time jeweler that is going to be in the celebrations of your life and when something needs to be repaired. We're here to do it all and establish that relationship.