Local Business Highlight - Jackson Jewelers

A couple months ago, around the time that I decided to start this blog, when I was thinking of ways to embrace living downtown, I had this idea that I should start checking out all the cool little local-businessy downtown shops. There are tons of cute stores all around me and there are so many that I've never even set foot in, or I hardly even realize exist.

So I made a goal of visiting one new store a week. Aaaaannnnd then I promptly failed to do anything to fulfill that goal.

Despite the fact that I haven't successfully embraced the downtown commerce area to the extent that I want to, I recently had a need for a jeweler to resize a ring and decided that this would be the perfect time to knock one business off my list. There are actually two jewelers on my very block, but I went with Jackson Jewlers because 1) it's the closest since it's just three doors down from my apartment's door so it seemed the most neighborly, and 2) I once rode the parkade elevator with one of the Jackson Jewelers' owners who was a really nice guy and asked if I lived downtown and told me that his dad used to pay the business' electric bill in the building that now houses my apartment.  So, I felt an old timey connection to Salem's roots and had to try them out.

Everything about my experience was awesome and urban and Salem. I was just coming back from being out, so I parked my car on the street and popped into the store on my way to my apartment. They waited on me right away when I walked in the door. When I told the guy who helped me that I was their neighbor, he not only immediately mentioned and praised my landlord by name, but could name one of my neighboring apartment tenants too! Cool! And when I described my apartment to him including the lofted bedroom, he said it sounded like a tree fort, and I had never thought of it that way :)  Oh, and he complimented my Portland shirt, which always earns local/Oregonian points in my book.  He was super helpful when I didn't even know what finger to get the ring sized to (he told me what's popular), and made sure that I picked the smallest size possible because he was afraid the ring was going to turn. Before I left, he gave me an estimated date that it would be finished.  Super fast and a nice experience, and a very short walk home :)

Before the pick up date even arrived, I had a call from Jackson Jewelers to tell me the ring was already ready! When I went in, they were really nice again. This time a lady helped me out and the guy from before said hi like he remembered me. The ring looked great - and they had had some work to get it looking good because they had to remove an inner ring in the middle that had been there before (to help stabilize the ring I assume). She gave me the extra gold back to either keep or apply towards my bill (I picked the latter) and she even asked for the story behind the ring so I got to tell her about my grandma and how she'd passed it down to me. As I left, another one of the workers grabbed the door for me and held it open.  How nice!  Overall, it was a super easy and pleasant experience.  I'm glad I got to know my neighbors!