It’s safe to say that the world has moved on from the heyday of the great American mall – and, as a result, that most of us are pretty quick to write off names like Kay Jewelers as relics from a bygone era, easily evoked by the smell of a Cinnabon stall or the multi-layered echo of the atrium on a busy Saturday morning.
Sure, there are some great memories attached to those days but, at the same time, they feel a little out of date. Stores that considered the mall their stomping ground – stores like Zales and Kay Jewelers – are, and always were, an obvious choice.
With that being said, is it really so wrong to go with the obvious choice? There are certain things that Kay Jewelers seem to have fallen behind on, but the world of fine jewelry and the process of finding an engagement ring hasn’t left them behind just yet.
In other words, we’re not going to pretend that Kay Jewelers is anything groundbreaking – or that it’s even changed much since the last time you walked through their doors, or stopped to stare into their window. What we’re also not going to do, however, is write off Kay Jewelers altogether simply because it’s part of an ‘older way’ of doing things. The ‘new way’ is, in our opinion, a far worse option…
Kay Jewelers is one of a number of major American jewelry store chains owned by the industry giant, Signet Jewelers. We have reviewed its sister companies, Zales and Jared Jewelers, already at WillYou, and found a number of similarities (as well as a number of differences) between them. While Zales is a good all-rounder for finding gifts for Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, birthdays and Christmas, Jared is a little more up-market – a little more prestigious thanks to its typical placement outside of malls, rather than crammed between a Victoria’s Secret and a Footlocker.
But we’re here to talk about Kay Jewelers – once again, a big name on the mall circuit, but still sufficiently independent from its siblings that it’s got plenty of talking points of its own.
Kay Jewelers was initially founded more than a hundred years ago, in Pennsylvania. The year was 1916, and the business – owned by the Kaufmann family – sold a wide array of items, from furnishings to decorative items and, as you can imagine, jewelry.
Unfortunately, not much else is known about Kay Jewelers’ early beginnings. The store passed into the second generation – brothers Sol and Edmund, who found far greater promise in the store’s jewelry section than any other – and, eventually, became one of Signet Jewelers’ key players in the American market. These days, Kay Jewelers boasts more than 1,000 locations across the country and a name that is likely to be one of the first that pops into our heads when we think of jewelry.
It seems almost inevitable that that represents an Achilles heel of sorts. The obvious choice is the safe choice – and the safe choice becomes, in time, a pretty generic and even unimaginative option, particularly with the industry thriving creatively as it is now.
We can, however, still see a lot to commend in a store like Kay’s. Sure, it’s not one of the highest-rated stores – nowhere near, in fact – but it’s got a lot more going for it than plenty of others…
Kay Jewelers may have branched out into ecommerce in more recent years, but they will probably always be known as a familiar face in the mall. In many parts of the country, shoppers can walk in and have that traditional experience. They can look in the case, see the diamonds move and sparkle on the back of their hand, talk to the jeweler, and experience their options, rather than just pointing and clicking.
Of course, we’re big proponents of online shopping for an engagement ring. That is: when it’s done in the right way. At WillYou, we have carefully engineered the entire process using our JewelerAI to ensure that customers get that experience, even though they’re not standing in a jewelry store. A lot of other online vendors can offer that type of experience.
So, compared with some online vendors, Kay Jewelers has the edge.
Now, Kay Jewelers is not a luxury, high-end brand, but that’s as much a benefit as it is a downside. The high-end luxury brands are overpriced, and not the right places to turn to if you want to get the best diamond possible for your investment.
We’re more than willing to admit, of course, that in order to get the best possible diamond for your investment, you’d really need to have to do your research before heading into a Kay Jewelers. They’re lacking that finesse when it comes to selecting the very best diamonds for their customers and, in our opinion, seem to be taking a more ‘try everything and see what sticks’ approach. Clearly, it works for them – but, in order to make Kay Jewelers work for you, you’d have to prepare yourself with a list of non-negotiables first.
This is where our review takes a downturn. We’ve talked up the in-store experience that Kay Jewelers can offer, but don’t let that make you complacent when it comes to the diamonds themselves.
Buying a good diamond is a combination of two things, alongside researching the basics of quality beforehand. First, you want to be able to see it – second, you want to be able to fall back on the report to understand the things you can’t see (and, to an extent, the things you can).
We’re talking, of course, about diamond certification – those independently created reports provided by third parties, detailing the specifics of a diamond’s Four Cs (Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat weight) as well as other aspects impacting its appearance and light performance, like proportion and fluorescence. These third-party gemological laboratories are all aimed toward providing the same service, but their methods are totally different from one another’s, and the results often wind up being wildly different depending on what lab your diamond is sent off to.
At WillYou, our diamonds are GIA certified. The GIA is widely regarded as the best choice, primarily because of its fair and unbiased approach. It was initially founded to bring transparency to shoppers who didn’t know much about the diamonds they were buying and remains true to that original philosophy to this day.
Shoppers who look at GIA diamonds can feel sure that they’re not being led to believe that the diamond they’re being shown is worth more than it is, which, as you can imagine, is an invaluable lifeline for many, many people around the world who aren’t trained in gemology.
At Kay Jewelers, the majority of their (certified) diamonds feature reports from the IGI, rather than the GIA…
The IGI, or the International Gemological Institute, is geared up to produce reports on much higher volumes than the GIA. They invest less time into each diamond, which reduces turnaround time for vendors looking to acquire certification and, as a result, represents an ideal alternative to the slower, more exacting (and more expensive) labs.
The trouble with churning out reports like a factory line is that it risks increasing the opportunity for human error, or general inconsistencies. In the past, independent investigations have demonstrated evidence of these inconsistencies. Even our own investigation made clear the trouble with using the IGI rather than the IGI.
For more information, you can read our full guide to IGI diamonds. While it’s not the worst lab we’ve discussed at WillYou, the service it offers seems to offer significantly more benefit to vendors (i.e., in this instance, Kay Jewelers themselves) rather than the shopper. The only apparent benefit is a slightly reduced cost since certification is cheaper and not so highly regarded, but you’ve got to question whether that reduced cost will be offset by the potential overinvestment shoppers make into IGI diamonds.
As you can probably guess, a store of Kay’s size and prominence offers an incredibly wide range of ring settings. There are plenty of classics – halos, solitaires, three-stone settings, and budget-friendly clusters – but we didn’t see anything truly innovative or groundbreaking. It’s not that we expected to – stores like Kays are successful at what they do and don’t need to revolutionize jewelry design when so many of their customers turn to them because of the fact that they know exactly what to expect. Plenty of jewelry stores stick to the tried-and-tested favorites, so we’re not going to fault them for that.
One of the most impressive parts of their offering is their Custom Jewelry Design studio, where you can bring a sketch – or even just an idea – into one of their stores, and consult with their craftsmen to bring it to life.
They offer a digital version of this – an online ring builder almost identical to those of the big online vendors – but it’s limited.
That is, after all, another issue all the big stores have – the pressure to ensure consistency across more than a thousand stores. Zales employs many, many sales associates, consultants, and jewelers to man their stores, and working toward a strong and consistent experience across the entire country inevitably means that they won’t be able to equip their staff with the same levels of expertise, passion, or creativity that you’ll find in a smaller, local jewelry store.
Kay Jewelers is a definite giant of the industry. It is impressive how they have grown over the years, and there’s no doubt they have helped to create countless perfect moments between couples, friends, and family members. We can’t help but feel a little nostalgic when we happen to find ourselves in the mall, walking past their doors, for the holiday seasons and Valentine’s Days past.
With more than a thousand locations and a sentimental pull that many Americans feel, it’s a shame we can’t give Zales – or their sister companies – higher ratings.
IGI diamonds are poor investments and, given the fact that the overwhelming majority of diamonds on sale at Kay Jewelers seem to have been graded by the IGI, it stands to reason that we would consider them to be poor investments.
Kay Jewelers also sell pieces featuring low-cost diamond alternatives like cubic zirconia, moissanite, and white sapphire. These three gemstones all offer relatively convincing alternatives from a distance – although, up close, the differences between them and real diamonds are clear to see, even if you’re not an expert (or even particularly experienced with looking at diamonds).
While they don’t carry quite the same weight in the jewelry world as the luxury, high-end retailers, Kay Jewelers do offer a more accessible option for anyone looking to fit their budget to a beautiful engagement ring.
There’s plenty to like about these stores, even if they are a little ‘cookie cutter’. It’s not the ideal experience for someone looking to buy the most beautiful engagement ring possible, but it’s not the worst, either.
What lets them down most is the emphasis they place on IGI diamonds. This lab is nowhere near as beneficial to shoppers as the GIA or AGS, and we can’t recommend you opt for a diamond graded in this way.
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