For nearly 120 years, Croghan’s Jewel Box has been a fixture on the Charleston, S.C., retail scene, selling jewelry to residents and tourists alike. In June, the retailer—the city’s oldest family-owned jewelry store—made a big move when it relocated to a larger storefront at 155 King Street (a 6,000-square-foot, two-story flagship, no less), just a few blocks south of its original home.
“We were in this 1790s reframed single house in Charleston, very historic, but sometimes you’d look in the window and maybe think we were an antique store,” third-generation co-owner Rhett Ramsay Outten, who oversees the business with her sister, Mariana Ramsay Hay, tells JCK. “It was a massive treasure hunt. Now you look in our windows and there’s no confusion about what we are: It’s clearly a jewelry store.”
Founded by Outten and Hay’s grandfather, master jeweler and hand engraver William Joseph Croghan, Croghan’s is now welcoming the fourth generation. “My sister and I are so lucky—her three children are in the business,” Outten says. “Her youngest, Michael, just turned 29. And my youngest daughter just turned 28.”
In keeping with that generational history, the retailer is adept at selling jewelry to all generations, from boomers to Gen Alpha, with a special focus on Gen Z, the engagement ring shoppers of the present and future. Below, Outten shares her takeaways about the products that resonate with younger shoppers, the platforms that work well for this demographic, and how the store helps connect generations through jewelry.
On Bridging the Generations
“Our superpower is generational jewelry. While we may be selling to the 60- or 70-year-old, we just know she wants this to be a piece her 13-year-old granddaughter is going to love. It’s bridging the generations. We’re on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. There’s a rumor we may do a Substack. We’re huge on Pinterest—we sell on it, actually.
“We are constantly pushing the edge in how we can have a presence that goes to Gen Z. But it goes a step further. They have to be comfortable in our store. When they go to our website and search for jewelry under $500, something like 500 items come up. We’re very conscious of having aspirational items. We might put a gold bangle next to a gold-filled charm bracelet filled with antique charms—that relates to everyone. You can’t be everything to everybody, but it is extremely important that children, at 13, feel comfortable.”
On Why It’s So Important to Highlight Meaning
“The other day, this woman came in. She had just bought her mother-of-the-bride dress. She picked up this pair of dangle diamond earrings with four movable flowers. They were very expensive and beautiful. She was trying them on and holding up the picture of her dress. She mentioned that she has four daughters. I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if these were your wedding earrings and when each daughter is ready, we can make put a French wire on them, drop them on a diamond stud if they want them to be a jacket? She bought them so fast because that brought meaning to it.”
On Making the Price Right
“Items under $500—we call it the gateway drug. My niece is 33 and she has a wonderful costume line of jewelry that is very colloquial and speaks to a lot of her favorite things in our town. She’s got something new all the time. She does these wonderful heart-shaped earrings with CZ. Under $500, we have all kinds of pearl studs and gold-filled bangles.
“We have these boys come in to buy their girlfriends presents. Having purchased them on the site, they come in to pick them up, and they’re comfortable. They end up spending $500 next time and eventually it’s an engagement ring.”
The Stacking Sensation
“Gen Z—they all want a stack. They want to stack their bracelets, stack their rings, their necklaces. They are stacking it all. They lean toward smaller jewelry. They would rather wear five little bracelets rather than one big bracelet.”
On How to Reach Gen Z in 2026
“We have several salespeople in that age range, which is so helpful. We’re constantly encouraging them to give their opinion when we’re buying. And we’re also constantly searching for one-of-a-kind things. We love estate jewelry—even the gold-filled lockets and charms and things made really well in the Victorian era. They can be cleaned up and look really good even when they’re not solid gold. And the petite look is serving us well and serving them well. Tiny little huggies with a tiny row of diamonds. They’re not wearing just one earring, they’re wearing a lot.”
Top: In June, Croghan’s relocated to a new space on King Street.
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