I tried posting this a few days ago and it didn't go through. Anyways, Friedman's doesn't look too bad at first glance. They're really built up their diamonds under Pam Romano, and their newest collection (Belgian Star) is quite nice (it looks very sellable). They seem to be catering well to their clientele (low to middle income). With higher quality than discount department stores and more of a selection that mid-range department stores, Friedman's should have a niche. Friedman's main competition for their demographic is changing (Samuels going more upscale) or weakening (Sears especially), leaving only a few hardier players (JC Penney, Kohl's). The only chain that I can think of that seems to have somewhat the same customer profile as Friedman's is Fred Meyer, whose pricepoints and merchandise mix seem to be going higher market (at least at the mall stores I've seen). So why isn't Friedman's cornering their market? Or if they are, why aren't they doing it profitably? It really does look like it's the back-end and behind-the scenes of the company that needs to be worked on. Each Friedman's/Crescent location should be doing about a million dollars in sales, so where is all the money going? It's difficult for me to make a call having only seen and shopped two Crescent locations (one being in an outlet mall), but it really does seem extremely strange that they list debt at "over $100 million" and assets "between $100 and $500 million". How in the world do they arrive at such a crazy range? Are they just saying that to discourage those who want to liquidate the company? I just don't understand Friedman's since they went private.

And since Whitehall is brought up here too...I don't really like or approve of Dayoob turning Whitehall into a carbon copy of Fred Meyer, right down to the way the catalog looks. Granted, the company was going downhill when he came, and he's doing what he knows how to do: run Fred Meyer Jewelers. But he's also lost some of Whitehall's brand power by changing not only the advertising, but the store logo and even the spelling/wording ("Whitehall Co. Jewellers" to "Whitehall Jewelers"). I had this fantastic argument/rant about the new dark reddish-colored store remodel they're using too, but looks like they realized it really was bad, as they've posted a grudgingly beautiful and well-lit new store concept on their store locator page on their website (though they took the cases off the leaseline, one of the main things they used to call out as an advantage, along with their small size of ~800sqft). The biggest change is the gigantic change in merchandise mix and pricepoints. Whitehall was trying to be one of the more upscale mall jewelers, not a guild store but comfortably between Zales/Kay and Ben Bridge/Baileys. That position is now far behind the company, and even the one remaining program from the heydays (their "White Star" branded diamond cut) has been phased down to a small collection of a handful of solitaire rings. Inexpensive color jewelry abounds. Dayoob may be doing his best, but customers are probably confused with the store's brand message, plus it's definitely hurt whatever unique cachet the company had.