Keenan Jewelers

Feb 1

In their own words

“When I was nine-years-old, he and my mother decided to open a full-fledged retail store and get out of doing repairs and service work for other jewelers. I sat at the dining room table with my parents and sales reps from manufacturers picking out inventory for the store. It was pretty exciting. I remember liking the great big synthetic colored stone rings that were popular in 1971. My tastes have changed a bit.”

-Rhonda Lee

Jason’s Interview with Rhonda

Jason

We're back on Meet the Jewelers and today we're talking to Rhonda Lee from Keenan Jewelers. How did you get into the jewelry industry?

Rhonda

I was born into it, I guess you'd say. When I was born, my dad had a manufacturing shop where he did trade work for a number of jewelers in what is referred to as our uptown area in Butte, what most people would call downtown. He had a manufacturing and trade shop. When I was nine years old, he and my mother made the decision to go into a full-fledged retail store and get out of doing the repairs and service work for other jewelers and open up their own stores. At nine, I was involved in sitting at the dining room table with my parents and sales reps from a couple of manufacturers and picking out inventory for the first store.

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Jason
What was it like to be part of this?

Rhonda
It was pretty exciting. I was just very casual and fun, and I can remember as a nine-year-old that I was of course attracted to the great big synthetic colored stone rings that were very popular in 1971.

I liked the big flashy colors stuff at that point in my life. But my tastes have changed a little bit.

Jason
Do you still work with your family right now?

Rhonda
Everybody that's working in the store right now is family. My sister-in-law works here in the store with me. She's married to one of my older brothers, and she’s been in the store for forty-three years.

And my son works in the store. He is our goldsmith and jeweler. My brother has stepped away from the business somewhat. He's only here sometimes in the evenings and works with the bench a little bit. He helps behind the scenes. He has an environmental engineering degree and he took a job with the water treatment plant here in town. He's still involved somewhat, but not as directly as he used to be. My daughter also is involved in the store right now. She's working here predominantly in sales, but she's also recently gotten into repairs and starting to carve a few waxes.

My dad is still living. He's just recently celebrated his ninety-forth birthday.

My mom passed away in 2016, but my dad still likes to come hang out around the store a few days a week. He’ll have my sister drop him off and he'll hang out here. He still faithfully calls and checks every evening to see what kind of day we've had.

Jason
What are some of the stories or experiences you remember your dad teaching you as you were coming up the ropes?

Rhonda
Just to treat everybody the way that you'd want to be treated. Not to judge a book by its cover. Some of our best clients are people who come in here with greasy boots or cow manure on their boots.

Jason
As one of the great jewelers in Butte, Montana, what differentiates you?

Rhonda
I guess it's trust. We’re very much a trust industry and when people don't know a lot about something, they want to go to somebody that has been around a long time. The same people that they see in the grocery store and the people that they see in the restaurants on the weekends. Someone that they know isn't just a chain store that's going to be here and maybe gone in a couple years if we're not profitable. We are somebody who has been here through the ups and downs, and the good times and bad times. Our town has gone through lots of hard times, and we have managed to stick around, because of the good, faithful, loyal people in this town that have trusted us with their repairs and their purchases. There's customers that are second and third generations of families that are purchasing from us now.

We also draw from a lot of the small surrounding areas in several county areas. People will drive forty-sixty miles to come to Butte because there's not a lot of shopping in the small towns.

Jason
What's the experience like when you get into the store?

Rhonda
I hope it feels comfortable, casual. We're pretty casual. Everybody here is business casual, as far as attire. We greet everybody and treat everybody that comes in like a friend. There's a lot of people that have just become friends. We have always tried to be no pressure. We don't work on commission. We want to have every customer feel like they are making the most informed decision that they can when they make a purchase from us.

Jason
I’m sure there's been many nonprofits and charities you've been able to help. What are some key ones that you want us to know about?

Rhonda
Most recently, the town built a new carousel in one of the local parks. A carousel that was in an amusement park that was unfortunately swallowed up by one of the mines. The mining company owned the property that the amusement park sat on years ago and it was shut down in 1973. It was called The Columbia Gardens. Recently, volunteers hand carved all the carousel horses and they reopened the carousel here in Stoughton Park in Butte. We donated to all of the fundraisers to open the carousel last summer. In addition to that, we also have a canister on our counter for Jewelers for Children. Through Jewelers of America, we send the check of donations that we get from the tips that people put in that on the counter. When somebody has an illness and or a tragic accident, we always donate store prizes and gift certificates. For a number of years, we donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. We try to give back as much as we possibly can.

Jason
I'm sure you've heard a lot of great proposal stories. What are a few that you'd love to share?

My son, a couple years ago—it was kind of a funny one.

The ring was with him for a week, trying to find the perfect moment. He and his girlfriend had gone swimming at a local hot springs, not far from here and when she came out of the dressing room in her wet hair and sweats, he just couldn't stand it any longer, and got down on one knee and proposed to her in the hallway of the hot springs. He just couldn't wait any longer.

Another customer recently did it at the top of the ski hill with his girlfriend. We've got some pictures from that.

And another one recently, he tied it to the collar of a new puppy that he presented the girl with. A little note on the dog collar said, “Will you marry me?” That was pretty sweet.

Jason
When you think through your jewelry styles and designs, what do you see trending in Butte, Montana?

Rhonda
Rose gold has been a popular trend. We're getting to see it slowly, seeing a little more requests for yellow gold. We're beginning to see a little more of a trend toward simpler designs, maybe not quite as many halos and micro-pavé intensive things, although they are still very popular.

More solitaires. Bezel set pendants, simplicity. Definitely kind of seeing a little resurgence of that.

Jason
Do you have a lot of customers coming in with grandma and grandpa's jewelry? Do you repurpose it into something new?

Rhonda
We do. We do a lot of remounting and redo the settings. We do a lot of custom and CAD design. Also, a certain amount of carvings, some wax occasionally.

Jason
This is your platform to say whatever you like.

Rhonda
We try to focus very much on being affordable yet high quality. We focus as much as we can on companies that are made in the USA. We make sure every piece that goes into the cases has been thoroughly examined. That's a big advantage for us over a lot of chain type of operations where things just get shipped in and put into the cases.

We frequently reject something if it's going to be an issue for our customers, whether it be thin prongs, hollowed-out shanks, or whatever the problem may be. We don't want our customers to have to deal with problems. We focus on affordable, yet high-quality inventory.