ALL ABOUT
FOREMOST JEWELRY & GIFTS
Our Mission Statement
"At Foremost, value
is the highest quality merchandise at a practical price with superior personal service"
Hello. My name
is Don Mead and I AM Foremost Jewelry & Gifts. I am the owner, buyer, sales manager,
shipping and receiving department, human resources department, customer service department,
web master and secretary. I make the coffee and, occasionally, clean up the place.
On January 1, 1996 I founded Foremost Wholesale and Promotions, wholesaling gift
items to commercial accounts in seven northwest Michigan counties, when not working
on my regular job. A year later I added a little mail order business. Convinced that
the internet was the future of mail order, I had a web site built in 1999 and went
online in March of 2000.
By the end of 2001 I had taken over as web master and deleted all mail order and
wholesale accounts to concentrate on the internet retail jewelry sales.
Since then some things have changed and some have not.
One of the parameters that I set when the site was designed, was that it had to load
quickly. That is why the pages have a "flat" no design background. There
is little text. Only what is necessary. The text and pictures are large enough for
people with sight difficulties to view. Those of us with better sight still need
to be able to see as much detail as possible if we cannot actually hold the products
in our hands. Foremost Jewelry's web site is easy to view.
In 2004, Foremost went to an all black background. Reviews were mixed. Many people
see black as a "depressing" color. Still others find it "classy".
However, the actual reason for the change was to better show the majority of the
products. A black background makes detail stand out and jewelry "shine".
Without the ability to physically examine the merchandise, this is very important.
I concentrate on the product and your satisfaction, not sales subtlies or tricks.
I want you to look at the products, not a bunch of graphics.
Jewelry was chosen as the product that I most wanted to sell because, though I am
not a jeweler, in my over 30 years of sales experience, including the sale of jewelry,
I enjoyed working with jewelry more than any other product. However, Foremost does
offer other types of gift items, for our customers, as an added choice for their
gift shopping needs.
I began with gold animal theme jewelry . Sports themes and eventually other gold
theme and non-theme items have been added. To accommodate more people, silver and
then pewter products came later. More is added all of the time. At this writing,
we deal with nine jewelry manufacturers. Two foreign and seven here, in the U.S.,
with tens of thousands of individual pieces available to Foremost Jewelry & Gifts.
With so much product not shown on the site, I encourage people to ask me to help
them shop for just the right piece.
To offer such a large selection and keep the prices as low as possible, Foremost
does not stock most gold or all silver and pewter items. I made the decision, in
the beginning, to trade a little time for selection and price. Most of our products
are ordered, from the manufacturer, as needed or by the week. Merchandise that we
have in stock, is marked as such. Holding down the inventory holds down the price.
When you call or write to Foremost, you do not have to figure out what button to
push or which department to address. If you have a question, rest assured that you
are talking to the person with the answer or, at least, the one that will get the
answer. Should there be a problem, I am the only one you need to contact for a resolution.
Most decisions are made on the spot.
Sometimes I get backlogged and it may take a little time to respond, but rarely more
than a day. There have been times that I have made mistakes, but I am the one with
the power to correct my errors. Dealing with the "boss" can have it's advantages.
I have really enjoyed operating Foremost Jewelry & Gifts. Over the years I have
had the pleasure of dealing with thousands of very nice people (and a couple of stinkers),
some with whom I still correspond. I hope that you will have, if you haven't already,
a good shopping experience with Foremost Jewelry & Gifts and return to shop again
and again.
Thank you!
Don Mead
