Bloomstone Jewelers’ first retail location, in Annapolis, Md., fulfills owner and jewelry designer Constance Polamalu’s vision of a store combining an elegant interior with the warmth she seeks to provide her clients.
There are plush chairs in a variety of seating areas so people feel comfortable hanging out in the store. The custom jewelry cases made by Polamalu’s husband have rounded edges, so toddlers and kids are safe when they come in with their parents.
“I leaned into the feminine because I know a lot of women are making these purchases for themselves. I wanted people to have places to sit and the store to be spacious enough to get a stroller through,” says Polamalu, who has two young sons. “But it couldn’t be so big that I’d worry about losing my children under something. And it had to be durable.… This is a place where life happens.”
Bloomstone, an exclusively lab-grown diamond brand, celebrated the grand opening of its store at 2548 Solomons Island Road, in Annapolis Harbour Center, on April 19. Polamalu says she gave her all-female team two weeks of training before the store opened and had them visit other local jewelry retailers and report on what they experienced there. Her goal is to make every Bloomstone shopper feel educated about the product as well as pampered.
“I’m a people person and a hostess. I love to host a good theme party—that’s just me,” says Polamalu. “It made a lot of sense to bring that feeling into the space. It’s like my home with a posh living room that just happens to be where I sell diamonds.”
Polamalu says lab-grown diamonds and self-purchasing appeal to women like her— millennials, perhaps recently married or with young children. She wanted to ensure people her age looking for lab-grown diamond jewelry felt comfortable in the Bloomstone store: They could ask questions, see a beautiful engagement ring or anniversary diamond pendant, and feel like the staff and owner were supportive of their decision.
“This is not a product that is less than. It’s a beautiful, luxurious product,” she says. “I’m a wife and a mom with two small children who are in private school, and I have a lot of counterparts who are in the same position. We’re doing well in life, but still want to watch our costs. We want to upgrade from a one-carat natural to a two-carat lab-grown. We want something special and substantial.”
Polamalu says the community’s reception to Bloomstone Jewelers has been incredible—the mayor of Annapolis came to the grand-opening celebration. But she remains fully invested in also having an online presence, because she believes consumers prefer to do research at home but buy in person, like she does.
“I don’t think retail is going anywhere. It’s about people. I mean, how good can retail therapy feel from your bed? I love to go in, try something on, see it in person,” says Polamalu. “People want to see things in real life, and there’s not a lot of that in the lab-grown space. I think it needs to feel like an experience.”
Top: First-generation jeweler Constance Polamalu just opened a store in Annapolis, Md., for her lab-grown diamond brand Bloomstone Jewelers. (Photos courtesy of Bloomstone Jewelers)
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