“Chamber Spotlight: Red Velvet Luxe” |
| Chamber Spotlight: Red Velvet Luxe Posted: 09 Dec 2010 11:05 PM PST By Aimee La Fountain  PHOTO COURTESY OF RED VELVET LUXE Red Velvet Luxe, located at 59 E. Ridgewood Ave., is a dream come true for owner Randi Shinske. Randi Shinske has always had a "personal passion" for watches and jewelry. That passion turned into a career. Shinske is owner of Red Velvet Luxe in Ridgewood, a store that sells designer brand watches and jewelry for 40 to 70 percent off retail price. Shinske started her career as a dress buyer for Macy's. Later she worked as a senior executive for brands such as Montblanc, and served as president and CEO of Ebel & Maurice Lacroix before ultimately deciding to open her own store. Shinske has planned to open a store of her own since she was a young professional, and Ridgewood provided that opportunity to her. "I have always considered Ridgewood to be my town to shop, but was always amazed that there were no branded jewelry stores in beautiful Ridgewood," she said. "I thought it would be fabulous to not only bring luxury brands to the town, but offer them at incredible discounted prices every day." Naming the store was a thoughtful process for Shinske. "The color red has always had a special meaning for me, to me [signifying] love, warmth, success and good luck," she said, adding that she put velvet in the title because "the feeling of velvet is sexy. Luxe is an abbreviation that says we are always about luxury." "I am very glad that I waited until now to fulfill my dream, because now I am able to bring over 20 years of vast professional experience running a corporate business to a small local business model," she said. Shinske's experience in handling personnel, finance and marketing has proved helpful in running her own store, and she said the human interaction involved in managing Red Velvet Luxe is her favorite aspect of having her own business. "I love being so close to the consumer. I listen to their comments and needs and react accordingly," she said. "Achieving high level positions in the corporate world is very rewarding monetarily, but [it] tends to remove you further away from the point of sale [and] to the consumer. I enjoy spending more time interacting with consumers rather than pushing papers, working numbers and going to meetings." One service at Red Velvet Luxe that Shinske particularly enjoys is custom jewelry work. "I work with individual customers to re-design their old jewelry or come up with innovative fresh new looks for them on eternity bands, diamond hoops, engagement rings or anything else they are dreaming about," she said. "I enjoy sharing my experience and knowledge to educate consumers on all luxury watches and jewelry." Additionally, the store offers watch/jewelry repair and buys gold or jewelry. The process of finding new jewelry to sell in the store can be unpredictable. Her inventory changes often because she usually cannot reorder the same items. "I am in the market every week hitting the pavement for incredible deals on fabulous luxury merchandise," she said. "I never know what I am going to find. I need to react quickly to great finds and keep the inventory unique and fresh all the time." Shinske said that Red Velvet Luxe is for "savvy consumers who love luxury watches and designer jewelry, [but] most of all love a great deal every day. "We really get to know and care about our customers. We'll do everything and anything to make sure that they're happy." Red Velvet Luxe is located at 59 E. Ridgewood Ave. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays. For more information, call 201-689-1800. By Aimee La Fountain Randi Shinske has always had a "personal passion" for watches and jewelry. That passion turned into a career. Shinske is owner of Red Velvet Luxe in Ridgewood, a store that sells designer brand watches and jewelry for 40 to 70 percent off retail price. Shinske started her career as a dress buyer for Macy's. Later she worked as a senior executive for brands such as Montblanc, and served as president and CEO of Ebel & Maurice Lacroix before ultimately deciding to open her own store. Shinske has planned to open a store of her own since she was a young professional, and Ridgewood provided that opportunity to her. "I have always considered Ridgewood to be my town to shop, but was always amazed that there were no branded jewelry stores in beautiful Ridgewood," she said. "I thought it would be fabulous to not only bring luxury brands to the town, but offer them at incredible discounted prices every day." Naming the store was a thoughtful process for Shinske. "The color red has always had a special meaning for me, to me [signifying] love, warmth, success and good luck," she said, adding that she put velvet in the title because "the feeling of velvet is sexy. Luxe is an abbreviation that says we are always about luxury." "I am very glad that I waited until now to fulfill my dream, because now I am able to bring over 20 years of vast professional experience running a corporate business to a small local business model," she said. Shinske's experience in handling personnel, finance and marketing has proved helpful in running her own store, and she said the human interaction involved in managing Red Velvet Luxe is her favorite aspect of having her own business. "I love being so close to the consumer. I listen to their comments and needs and react accordingly," she said. "Achieving high level positions in the corporate world is very rewarding monetarily, but [it] tends to remove you further away from the point of sale [and] to the consumer. I enjoy spending more time interacting with consumers rather than pushing papers, working numbers and going to meetings." One service at Red Velvet Luxe that Shinske particularly enjoys is custom jewelry work. "I work with individual customers to re-design their old jewelry or come up with innovative fresh new looks for them on eternity bands, diamond hoops, engagement rings or anything else they are dreaming about," she said. "I enjoy sharing my experience and knowledge to educate consumers on all luxury watches and jewelry." Additionally, the store offers watch/jewelry repair and buys gold or jewelry. The process of finding new jewelry to sell in the store can be unpredictable. Her inventory changes often because she usually cannot reorder the same items. "I am in the market every week hitting the pavement for incredible deals on fabulous luxury merchandise," she said. "I never know what I am going to find. I need to react quickly to great finds and keep the inventory unique and fresh all the time." Shinske said that Red Velvet Luxe is for "savvy consumers who love luxury watches and designer jewelry, [but] most of all love a great deal every day. "We really get to know and care about our customers. We'll do everything and anything to make sure that they're happy." Red Velvet Luxe is located at 59 E. Ridgewood Ave. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays. For more information, call 201-689-1800. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Content Keyword RSS To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment