Robbins Diamonds closes two stores

Robbins Diamonds - perhaps best known for its TV commercials featuring owner Jerry Robbins and the diamond stud in his beard - has closed its stores at Eighth and Walnut Streets and in Allentown.

A third Robbins store, an 8,300-square-foot space at 101 Geoffrey Dr. in Newark, Del., will stay open, Jerry Robbins said in an interview Monday.

Robbins, 73, blamed the "horrible economy" for the decision to close all but the Delaware store, which opened 15 years ago.

"We ran into tough economic times and needed to go back to the bushes," he said.

The Newark store is "huge," Robbins said. "It has 12 semiprivate rooms and six private rooms, is close to I-95, and has plenty of free parking."

The biggest thing, however, is that "Delaware has no sales tax, which is valuable because it can reduce the cost of a diamond ring by $800 to $1,000," he said.

"We're sorry to leave Eighth and Walnut," Robbins said. "We had a great time there. But when you look at jewelers who have closed - Jack Kellmer, Bailey, Banks & Biddle, and Caldwell's - we are glad to still be in business."

Of course, there's still a lot of competition for every sale. On Jewelers Row, 37 stores remain, according to its merchants association, and national mall-based chains such as Kay's (10 stores in the region, according to its website) and Jared's (four stores, its website says) also have had an impact on the industry.

Robbins declined to single out a competitor.

"Every jewelry store in the market is selling the same product," he said.

Robbins Diamonds opened its store at Eighth and Walnut Streets in 1952, moving from 137 S. Eighth St. Robbins' great-uncles started the business in Strawberry Mansion in the 1920s, moving it to Jewelers Row in the 1930s.

Robbins' grandfather had been killed in a czarist pogrom in Russia, and his great-uncles took his father, Leo, and uncle into the business.

Robbins has been in jewelry since he was 12, working with his brother, Ron, who retired nine years ago. The brothers began doing their commercials 40 years ago, said Jerry Robbins, "the marketing person" responsible for the idea.

At one time, Robbins Diamonds also had locations in central New Jersey and Northeast Philadelphia. Its Broomall store ultimately was relocated to Allentown.

Robbins said he was "in the process of retiring." Sons Jason and Gordon represent the fourth generation of the family in the business, while the fifth generation, a granddaughter, is "24 and already in it."

Jeweler Jerry Robbins, well known for wearing a diamond in his beard, will do business from his third store, in Newark, Del. D2.