We're experiencing a perfect retail storm in the U.S. jewelry business: soft economy, weak dollar, pricey gasoline, dismal housing market, tight credit, and sharply rising prices for precious metals. The weak dollar makes foreign-produced jewelry more expensive, and costly metals may boost the prices of some jewelry beyond the reach of today's “average” consumer. So let's recall an old saying in fishing, which applies to today's jewelry retailing: “The weather we get, the weather we got, we gonna get weather, whether or not!” By now you've begun revamping your product lines, trimming costs, and hunkering down to stay afloat during this patch of bad retail weather. Even the best jewelry merchandisers and retailers endured slow sales over the last several quarters, but what's most interesting is that, despite gloomy economic forecasts, they haven't stopped doing what they do well