Broer Freeman

May 10

In their own words

“There’s never a dull moment. There’s a lot of laughter, fun, and we eat well here, too. Several times during the week we send for a nice meal for everybody. If an employee is with a customer and the customer is going to be here during lunch, we invite them to join us. The biggest VIP honor is to be invited in the back to join us for lunch. We have a number of customers that come just for that. And while eating with everybody, one of my employees will draw your ring—her drawings are as fine as a photograph. It’s very fun. If you were here, you would want to stick around for a while.”

-David Cameron

Jason’s Interview with David

Jason

We're back on Meet the Jewelers and today we're talking to David Cameron, the owner of Broer Freeman in Toledo, Ohio. How did you get into the industry?

David

I was going to school and at a job that I didn't like. I decided then and there I would start looking for something else. I found a local Toledo ad for a company then called Max Davis Jewelers, a big jeweler at the time, interviewed with them, and oddly enough, he said, "You're going to have to stop going to school because we need you full time." I told him I didn't think my parents would be very happy about that. He said, "Trust me, it will work out."

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So forty-seven years later, I now have my own jewelry store. It worked out pretty well and I have no regrets looking back. I would like to finish going to school, but what I learned in the jewelry business was like going to school. It was worth the move. I couldn't imagine doing anything else. All the years that I've been in the business, I can't wait to get here in the morning. I'll retire someday, but nothing right away. I'm fortunate. Jason: What's the feeling like when you enter the door?

David
I'll tell you what it's like. I worked for a large corporation called Bailey Banks & Biddle many years ago, a lot of people know that name from around the country. I came here about 30 years ago to work for this independent jeweler. About twenty-five years ago, I bought him out. Through the years, I have assembled this crew—lovely, talented, knowledgeable, artistic ladies that know what style and fashion look like. They have convinced me to do a number of things to keep us current. I keep telling them, "Well, that's not how we did it in the old days." And they keep saying, "But it's not the old days." I'm willing to listen. We have a lot of great ideas about how we market the store, which we've completely changed in the last couple of years, quite successfully. We design a lot of our own pieces. Years ago, we hardly did any custom work and now that's about 80% of everything we sell. I love what I do and what ideas they have. The old model as they say, has changed.

Jason
What's the passion you have? Where'd that come from?

David
The passion builds over the years. The beauty of it all is, we can change our direction at a moment's notice. Make the ring wider, higher, taller, add more diamonds, set your diamonds in something else. In the past, everything we bought was from a vendor. What happens now is not the case. Quite a bit is from vendors, but there's quite a bit that we make ourselves. We have a beautiful inventory in our store, but we create a lot of things to go with what they already have or what they've already bought from us. There's never a dull moment. There's a lot of laughter, a lot of fun.

Several times during the week, we send for something nice for everybody to eat. If a customer is going to be here during that time, we invite them to join us for lunch. In the course of having lunch with everybody, one of my employees will draw a ring, her drawings are as fine as a photograph. As we talk and they describe what they want, we make the exact item that they want to have. From there, we create a wax casting, we set their diamonds in the wax model, and then set the stone. It's very fun. We didn't always have a jeweler in the house, but we do. She's very talented, very artistic.

We have a TV monitor on our back wall, by all the documents for the GA training. On the TV screen is all of our creations. A piece of jewelry is more than just a piece of jewelry. It's an heirloom, it's a remembrance, it's very emotional. And we love working with them, creating these pieces.

Jason
Your team, how long have they been with you?

David
My vice president Rachel has been with me about thirteen years. Mandy has been with us about four years. Kiera about two years. They all bring quite a bit of talent. We all have big corporate experience.

Jason
Tell us a few of the community services, organizations, nonprofits, and causes the team supports.

David
We've gotten very involved with the local Humane Society, with all the rescue dogs. We created some pieces of jewelry that we sell and give the proceeds to the Humane Society. We're big supporters of the Opera and the Symphony in Toledo. We have riding stables for children that are autistic that need that experience riding a horse, it's very therapeutic.

Jason
Tell us about some of the great designers you work with.

David
Suna Brothers, Spark are some of the biggest manufacturers and designers that we've worked with. Stuller. A lot of the people we use are casting houses.

Jason
Why do you think customers trust you?

David
We have a great reputation in Toledo. I've been in this store thirty years. What I've been charged with from the Broer family, who I bought the company from, is maintaining the reputation, the quality. We'd like to think we may have even taken it up a notch or two.

A lot of customers come in and show us their grandmother's ring, and they want to make another one just like it for one of their children. They'll say, "You probably don't have the records." But we do--we go back to about 1910 with records and some even older. We pull out their grandparents’ original records in our backroom. I've been at this so long, the children I was introduced to are now coming and introducing their children.

Jason
Can you tell us about your jewelry radio show?

David
It's on a radio station here in Toledo called WCWA 1230 on the dial. At 11:30 a gentleman named Ragtime Rick calls us. Ragtime Rick owned a restaurant and bar, and he was a sponsor of the radio show, and I was a sponsor of the radio show. It's a little AM station. We talk about everything. We talk a little bit about jewelry, we talk a little bit about some local politics, where the latest traffic jams are, and how long it takes you to get here. We just talk about what goes on locally, and because it's on a Saturday, I might be with a customer, so Rachel might do the interview, Mandy might do the interview, Kiera might do the interview. One day, we had a customer who's pretty fun that was in and I said, "You want to do a radio show?" "Uh-huh." And I handed him the phone and we had a customer do the radio show, and little risk there because we had no idea what he was going to ask them, but they were very complimentary. That was fun.

Jason
What's the best way to get ahold of that?

David
It's Toledo WCWA and 1230 is their signal. And it's on at 11:30 in the morning. You can probably listen to it on your computer.

Jason
What is it that you want to tell us.

David
Very simply, we enjoy seeing you, we're happy to see you, we're very anxious to hear what you have in your mind as far as what you'd like to buy, if you'd like to create something. We love finding the perfect gift for the occasion. My employees, I don't give them a quota that they have to meet. These ladies are intelligent, they care, they bring a lot of ideas to me. We make sure you're very happy.