BY JENNIFER REYNOLDS | CONTRIBUTOR
In 1964, Anthony “Tony” Skatell Jr. and his wife Helen Skatell opened Skatell’s Jewelers on Poinsett Highway.
They took no salary for the first five years. All their earnings went back into the business, no easy feat since there were four small children at home.
Helen opened the store in the morning and was home in time to meet her children when they returned home from school. Tony met her at the store around 2:00 or 2:30 p.m. to run the store for the afternoon and evening.
Tony spent his mornings doing accounting for companies to support the family and the fledgling store. The store closed at 5 p.m. and Tony was home in time to eat dinner and help the children with homework.
“It was a long day and a very hard day, but at the end of the day it was rewarding to be with my family,” said Helen Skatell. “I loved being a mother and I loved working.”
From the ground up
They believe their hard work and reinvesting paid off. After Greenville Mall opened in 1978, Skatell’s moved there, which Helen Skatell said made a big difference to their success.
“We were not well known [at that time],” Skatell said. “To get into Greenville Mall was a challenge to get in there and build it.” Everyone, including the children, who were now adults, chipped in to pay for the building.
“All they give you is a dirt floor and two walls,” Skatell said. “We had to build it from the ground up.”
Years later, Tony Skatell bought a parcel of land, and in 1984, Skatell’s Jewelers moved to its current location on Congaree Road.
“When you look back on those days you wonder, ‘How in the world did we do that?’ But we did,” Skatell said. “We had our ups and downs, our trials and tribulations, but we came through it.”
A major setback
Before the move to Greenville Mall, an incident in 1978 threatened to shut the store down for good. Still in its original location, Skatell’s sat in a strip shopping center. Robbers entered the shopping center through a restaurant at the end. They crawled through the roof and down into the jewelry store.
The thieves “almost stole us right out of business,” Skatell said. The thieves emptied the showcases. They even stole the jewelry that was in for repairs and the pieces that Helen had sat up late carefully engraving for customers’ Christmas gifts.
A single ruby ring was the only item ever recovered. Because it still had the store’s sales tag, the mail carrier who found it lying in a yard was able to return it to the Skatells.
It took five years to catch the robbers.
Sheer determination and help from friends saved the store. Joe Lacher, owner of JB Lacher Jewelers, a small jewelry store in downtown Greenville, invited the Skatells to his store to borrow anything needed. Anthony Joseph III, the Skatells’ oldest son, returned home from college to help. The jewelry vendors the family had come to rely on, Sommers and Sommers in Atlanta, let them take whatever stock they needed and pay for it when they could.
“Everybody was just wonderful to us,” Skatell said, “because we were just devastated. My husband I don’t think spoke for three days after the robbery.”
Family bonds
On May 29, 2014, a second tragedy struck when store cofounder Tony Skatell Jr. died at the age of 84.
“My husband worked up until the day he passed away,” Skatell said. “I guess you just couldn’t keep [him] away from the store.”
Though she said she’s too old to run the store or to work in the showroom as much as she once did, Helen Skatell can’t stay away from the store either.
“I still love to come to the store,” said Skatell repeatedly. “I love to be around people. I just don’t think I could stay at home all day long. I like to go home early, though,” she laughs.
Since Tony’s passing and Helen’s exit from the main leadership role, the store has been in good hands – family hands. All of the Skatell children are involved in the jewelry business.
“They all became involved because they worked for us growing up,” said Skatell.
Daughters Cindy Dacus and Debbie Chelsted run the current location of Skatell’s. Cindy, as CEO, oversees the bulk of the business.
Daughter Beth and her husband Doug Owens own a jewelry store in Spartanburg. Son Tony and wife Janie own three jewelry stores near the coast. Helen’s granddaughter Amy also works in the Greenville jewelry store.
Changing times, fresh challenges
Being successful and remaining successful in the jewelry business is challenging, Skatell said. “The jewelry business is hard especially with the Internet selling everything from diamonds to watches; so you’re really competing against other jewelers and the Internet. To stay in this business this long and be a success is challenging.”
Styles of jewelry change yearly. Vendors have to travel to jewelry shows to see what will be in fashion. Jewelry shows used to be a small, almost family affair that occupied a small space. Now, Skatell said, it takes days just to see everything at a single show.
“Every year they’re going to have something different and you go to the shows to see the newest trend. [The shows are] very large now, it’s overwhelming,” she said.
To stay relevant in the face of the changing industry, Skatell said they mainly carry engagement rings and colored stones.
“They love this business”
Skatell gives the bulk of the credit for success to her husband and her children. Her own children worked in the store after they started families and also had small kids at home.
“They were diligent in everything we did, anything that had to do with the company, they were a part of. They love this business.”
The other factor of their success lies with excellent customer service, Skatell said. “We try to make friends out of all of our customers. Even to this day some of the customers come in that came in 45, 50 years ago and their children come in. We’ve just always loved the people, our customers.”
Skatell said the best part of being in the jewelry business is “you see happy faces because it’s either an anniversary or a birthday. …It’s always a happy occasion when someone comes in the store.”
The family plans to celebrate 50 years in business with a large dinner.
“I can’t say that there weren’t any [challenges], because in 50 years you’re gonna have challenges, but you live through them,” Skatell said.
