Located at 516 W. Riverside in downtown Spokane, Dodson’s Jewelers has been doing business in Spokane since the city’s formative years, and owner Penn Fix says you aren’t likely to find a retail store that’s been operating here longer.

The Journal sat down with Fix and his wife, Debra Schultz, to talk about the family’s business history in downtown Spokane and the changing jewelry industry.

Journal: Dodson’s Jewelers is a 130-year-old company. Which generation are you and how has it been handed down?

Penn Fix: I’m fourth generation, so my great-grandfather was George R. Dodson. He had two daughters, Dorothy and Lois, Lois being my grandmother. My grandfather, John Penn Fix Sr., married the boss’s daughter. He came in through the back door, so to speak, and it’s very fortunate, because Fix’s Jewelers doesn’t sound as good, I don’t think.

My father, John Penn Fix Jr., came into the business in 1950. He was in the business until the year 2000. My brother and I—my brother is Barney Fix and I am John Penn Fix III, but I go by Penn—got involved. I came into the business in 1979, and my brother came into the business in 1985. He retired after working 20 years. He left in 2005, and my wife came into the business and assumed a lot of the duties that Barney had done.

Journal: Has the industry changed since you entered it?

Fix: Like every industry, I think it’s changed dramatically, and that seems to have accelerated in the last 10 years.

What’s important and why we’re successful in business is we haven’t forgotten who we are and what our roots are. We’re a small business and we have the ability to react and adjust to the times. In our industry, major stores are buying a year, year and a half out. If something happens in terms of a change of style, they might not be able to respond. We can very quickly.

But there’s also a danger in that. You want to make sure you stay in the realm of who you are and what you stand for.

Journal: How has the industry changed over the years?

Fix: One of the ways it has changed is the control of the diamonds, which is the heart of any jeweler’s business, including ours. We have remained consistent over four generations by looking at the quality of diamonds.

But the access to diamonds by the public has become much broader than when we first started. When I first started, the traditional place to purchase a diamond would be at a jewelry store. At that point, you started to see department stores start to carry jewelry. And then places like Costco would carry jewelry. And finally, you have the internet.

During that time period, the world changed enough too. When I first started, it wasn’t uncommon for people who had been shopping with us for generations to come in and introduce their son or daughter. We still have some of that. We’re very fortunate. But on the other hand, people get moved around so much that the connection to community has changed dramatically. What people rely on then is not the jeweler. They have to seek out something else.

My grandfather used to say, if you don’t know jewelry, know your jeweler. While that tenet is still very important, people don’t always have the opportunity to do that. So, who do they trust?

My dad was on the board of governors on the Gemological Institute of America, which is the educational arm for the industry. While he was on the board of governors, they created a common nomenclature for how to describe diamonds.

Journal: A grading system, essentially?

Fix: Yes, a grading system. Along with that, they created a lab. I don’t think any of those board of governors thought that the lab would become as important as it is. Where I’m leading with this is, people seeking trust begin to trust lab reports, as opposed to whom they are buying from. The issue with diamonds is that they’re all one of a kind, and there’s no set price. It’s not like buying an iPhone.

People started to gravitate toward grading reports. The issue is, because they’re all blind values, you can cut corners, and our industry is famous for cutting corners. That’s one of the tenets that’s important to us is that we don’t cut corners. Quality remains important, and transparency is even more important. That’s what creates trust.

In this industry today, there are probably five or six labs, of which two are worth a damn. The rest aren’t.

That opened the door to the internet. And people are buying a piece of paper. They aren’t buying a diamond. They’re buying what it says there.

Journal: What else has changed?

Fix: Fashion changes, and what we sell changes as well. If you came in here in 1980—we were across the street then—we had 3,000 square feet dedicated to table top. All of these panels in here would be shelves filled with China and crystal. You don’t see that anymore.

Thirty years ago, when we moved across the street, we carried some of that with us. We saw even then that it was changing, so about 10 years ago, we decided to make a change here. Now, we carry regional art.

Interestingly enough, I can show you a picture of my great-grandfather in 1892, and one side of the store is jewelry, and the other side is art.

Schultz: The other thing we did is, instead of going with lots of different brands, we handpick fun, interesting jewelry that has a story. It’s very much wearable art. The price point is anywhere from $5 to $50,000. It’s maintaining that integrity and relationship and selling merchandise that’s fun.

Fix: Another change from 1979 is a lot of jewelry has become branded. There are designers, and there are fewer manufacturers making jewelry. It used to be a manufacturer would come in, and we would buy one or two pieces. Now they come in with a brand of jewelry, and they say, you’re buying 50 items, and we’re going to give you the displays for it. We’re going to call you every month and find out what you sold and replace it.

Young people become less merchants buying one-of-a-kind pieces. They become systems analysts. They have their computers in the back and look at, this brand is doing really well. This brand is not doing so well. They lose touch with what they’re selling. 

Journal: The dynamic you describe, in terms of the expansion in retailers and the effect of the internet, applies to other kinds of retailers. But it seems, at least in the Spokane market, there are still a number of locally owned jewelry stores, as opposed to chains. Why do you think that is? 

Fix: I think it’s because, ultimately, our business is a relationship-building business. People really do seek and want community. 

Also, one of the most important things in our business is service. People don’t understand service until they need help. When you buy a piece of jewelry, it may need servicing over the course of years. It may need cleaning. It may need retipping of the ring. There’s a reason for people to continually come into a jewelry store as opposed to some of the other things they might need to buy where it’s one and done. 

We’re in that kind of business of celebration, in which people want to show their love and appreciation of someone. Jewelry is a great symbol of that.

Schultz: We see people that aren’t necessarily loyal. They shop here, and they shop at our competition as well. They’ll buy pieces at other stores.

When some of our customers have really significant pieces they’re buying, they’ll come in here because they have the trust factor. And the relationship factor. And the knowledge.

Spokane is a different community for a lot of purchases, not just jewelry. I’ve never done an analysis. Are there more independently owned businesses in a city this size than in other cities?

What I can tell you about the industry in general is that independently owned jewelry stores are a dying breed. 

Journal: How would you describe your customer base?

Fix: I think it’s a reflection of our community. Partly, it’s our decision not to get into brands. The problem with brands is, you’re locked into their price points. A lot of times, brands think they’re very great.

Subsequently, our ability to offer price points from $5 to $50,000 really allows us to help people.

The people who shop with us, their one connecting thing is their appreciation for service and the quality we carry.

That’s where estate jewelry has played an important role for us at both the high end and the lower end. We can buy something that was made 50 years ago and sell it for $5, but back then, it was considered a nice piece of jewelry.

In a bigger town, you might have the opportunity to zone in on a certain kind of client. In Spokane, you really can’t. 

Journal: You’ve mentioned estate jewelry. What does that mean and how does that fit into your business?

Fix: In 1990, we decided to open a store in Coeur d’Alene. At one point, we had six stores. We can get into all of that, but basically, we de-malled a number of years ago. And we look pretty darn smart for doing that. 

We were at the Coeur d’Alene Resort, in the mall there, and the feeling was that there would be a lot of tourists. Tourists don’t need necessarily wedding rings and that sort of thing because they have their own jeweler. We decided to provide something different, which was estate jewelry. We opened the store there with estate jewelry, and we started to carry more and more of it here. 

Estate jewelry can be divided into two groups. It can be defined as anything that’s previously owned. It could be something that was bought last year. But where I really get excited is in vintage and antique jewelry. Antique would be anything that’s 100 years old. Vintage is anything from recognizable periods. 

Schultz: Also, jewelry has intrinsic value. We’ll have people come in with their grandmother’s ring and not like the style, so we can take out the stone and put it into something they really love. It has emotional value and intrinsic value. 

We don’t go out hunting for estate jewelry, but it comes to us. 

Journal: Have you always had a presence downtown?

Fix: Yes. We have been on Riverside Avenue for 130 years, in three locations. We started out in the Crescent Block. That was 1887 to 1892. 

My grandfather went down to the Mohawk Building, which was across the street. We were there from the 1890s to 1987 in two different buildings—the first Mohawk Building burned down at some point. 

We’re fiercely loyal to downtown. 

Journal: You’re fourth generation. Is there a fifth generation that’s involved in the business?

Fix: (points at dog) You’re looking at it right there. (laughs)

Not yet. We have two children. One of them is still in college. One of them is working here right now. Who knows? I used to kid them that they’re too smart for retail, but it is certainly available to them if they’d like it.