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Broad Run couple bring jewels to Warrenton Village
Broad Run couple bring jewels to Warrenton Village
By Bill Walsh
Times-Democrat Staff Writer
There is still an interior wall to finish and shipments from suppliers to unwrap and display, but Erin and Jim Driver are hoping that all will be in readiness for Warrenton Jewelers soft opening in early October.
The Warrenton Village Shopping Center shop represents the first foray into retail proprietorship for the Broad Run couple, but they are certainly no strangers to jewelry.
A fourth-generation jeweler, he has had a trade shop in a jewelry store in Vienna, the same location wherein his father has worked with gems and watches for 58 years.
A goldsmith, Jim Driver's niche in Northern Virginia has been repair. Erin collects the damaged pieces from nearly every mall and jewelry shop in the area, bringing them to her husband for his expert restorative touch. They also service clients in North Carolina, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, receiving and returning the jewelry by FedEx and UPS courier.
Driver has done a great deal of repair work for other Warrenton jewelers. That service will continue after his own shop opens, he said.
Repair will be a specialty, and, with his goldsmithing skills, making custom jewelry will figure prominently in the mix. But in terms of items the shop will carry, there will not be a particular specialty, Erin said.
"We are trying to appeal to everybody; not too expensive, not too cheap," she said. "We anticipate that this will be a place where you can come in and spend $20 or where you can spend $20,000."
The store will offer a selection of children's jewelry, watches, and sterling silver, as well as the more traditional items.
The Drivers both said that they are committed to helping young couples shopping for a first diamond, doing what they can with the price to help make an engagement ring as affordable as it is memorable.
Engagement and wedding rings aside, a jewelry purchase seems pretty easy to put off if the troubled economy is striking close to home, but the Drivers said they are relatively unconcerned.
"Women are still coming in and treating themselves to new purchases," at the Vienna store where he has set up his workbench, Jim said.
"I think a lot of people think that 'I've been scrimping, scrimping, scrimping, and I deserve a treat,'" his wife added. "And if they're not buying new, they are going to get the old fixed, and that's good business for us, too."
The shop is located in Warrenton Village Shopping Center. Once the wall is finished and all the stock is unwrapped and put on display, the doors will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.
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