Our Jewelry Shopping Waterloo

TRAVEL THERE: WE FOUND WHAT WE WANTED AT BOBBY’S JEWELERS, ST THOMAS VI

Still giggling over the ugly chotskie a rude jeweler had shoved at us in Charlotte Amalie, Deb and I pulled out our shopping map and tried to locate the next place to redeem coupons. Out of the corner of her eye, Deb saw a huge poster for Belle Etoile jewelry, something she’d drooled over in one of the shopping guidebooks.  Like moths to the flame, we delivered ourselves to the slaughter.  Luckily, we’d chosen the right place to shop: Bobby’s Jewelers.  They’re not giving anything away, but we had a wonderful experience in their store.  Once Deb found the Belle Etoile counter, she was hooked, but it really wasn’t my cup of tea.  I wandered toward the next counter.

Aquamarine Earrings Set in Gold

The only thing I was even slightly interested in was aquamarine earrings and they were only on my wish list, not my shopping list.  Aquas are my birthstone and my sweet husband has given me both a ring and cross pendant of aquas set in yellow gold.  For several years we’ve been on the lookout for matching earrings when occasions like Christmas and anniversaries came around,  but for some reason, all we could find were aquas set in white gold.  Some jewelers tried to convince me to look at blue topazes set in yellow gold, but I was having none of that.  I know aquas when I see them.

Asking for aqua earrings in yellow gold is also a great way to make jewelers leave you alone and let you browse.  They figure out pretty quickly they don’t have what you came in for, so they move on to the next potential victim customer.  We’d been using the request in other shops on Mission Coupon and, except for the chotskie guy, it worked wonders.  But at Bobby’s they whipped out a selection of aquamarine earrings set in yellow gold.

The first pair they brought out made me laugh.  I’d need an invitation to the Academy Awards to justify wearing them.  “That’s not me AT ALL,” I told the sales lady.  Then she pulled out exactly what I was looking for, beautiful oval aquas on posts.  While Deb salivated over the Belle Etoile jewelry, I salivated over the aquas.

The first price was out of the ball park.  Well, my ballpark anyway, even though it was a fair price.  Since I’d been shopping aquas for a while, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect price-wise and they offered an amount that was right in line with what I’d seen for aquas set in white gold.  But it wasn’t an amount of money I’d spend without my husband’s approval.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I calculated whether there would be time after the shore excursion to come back to the shop with him, but I didn’t tell the saleslady that.

Then they knocked the price down about a hundred dollars.  My shopping arm was itching to grab my credit card, but Bill and I have an agreement.  If I’m going to spend over a certain dollar amount, I’m supposed to run it by him first.  He understands there are situations where it’s impractical to do this and with him somewhere below the ocean on another part of the island, I was beginning to speculate whether this was one of those situations.  Still he’s a pretty good guy and he’d dropped a sizable chunk of change to get me to this shopping opportunity, so I wanted to play fair.

Meanwhile, Deb’s love of Belle Etoile narrowed down to one particular ring and she was having a conversation similar to mine.  The buying urge circled my head and I was in a world of hurt.  That’s when they dropped the price to the floor.  I was in a quandary.  Had Bill been available, I would have called him.  I began to measure just how much trouble I’d be in if I bought the earrings. I was having a birthday in just a few days.  Certainly that justified the purchase.

That’s when Deb spoke up.  She’d share the purchase with me for my birthday and that would put my cost WAY below my personal shopping limit.  Still I hesitated.  The price was beyond right.  This was duty free shopping, so there were no taxes to worry about.  It was the US Virgin Islands, so there’d be no money exchange rate to confuse matters.  And the earrings were gorgeous.

The fear of commitment bug bit me.  What if we walked into the next store and found an even better deal or a pair of earrings I liked even better.  I edged towards the door, but Deb was still interested in her ring.  That’s when Bobby himself walked over and offered to take another $10 off each item if we’d go ahead and buy them.  From many years of shopping, I knew, when the manager shows up, you’ve pretty much found the sweet spot on price.  The aquas glowed on the counter and Deb’s face told me she really wanted to do this – so we did.

The joy I felt was way beyond the two digit investment I’d made.  Deb keeps reminding me that she only bought half the earrings, but without her contribution, I’d never have them at all – so I give her credit for the whole purchase.  We were both so happy our feet weren’t even touching the sidewalk.

However, Mission Coupon was still active and we had time to kill before we had to be back to Sunny’s bus.  Come back next week to shop with us some more.