Most passers-by at the mall don’t realize it, but America’s big, ubiquitous jewelry store chains are designed to serve different needs. Zales, for example, is more focused on fashion and trends and gifts for oneself—the kind of jewelry you might wear to the office, or to a casual party in your neighborhood. If you were looking for something more out of the ordinary, a gift for someone to celebrate a big life event like an anniversary or an engagement, you’d probably be more likely to go to Kay. And if you were going shopping with a substantially bigger budget and dip into quasi-luxury, willing to spend, say, $3,000 or more, you might leave the mall and go to a nearby Jared, which tracks higher-end.
Another thing most shoppers don’t realize is that all three of those chains—each a national brand with hundreds of stores—are owned by the same company: Signet Jewelers, a jewelry-retail behemoth headquartered in Ohio and incorporated in Bermuda. It’s a company celebrating a resurgence, thanks in no small part to Gina Drosos, a longtime Signet board member and consumer-goods veteran who became CEO in 2017.
