Virgil Eide knows a thing or two about jewelry, and after 45 years in the business, he continues to offer friendly jewelry sales and repair at Eide’s Jewelry.
The store offers fine jewelry and accessories including diamond jewelry, pendants, earrings, rings, necklaces, watches and more from its location in the EasTen Shopping Center in Moorhead. The business also offers a popular collection of Russian diamond earrings.
Virgil Eide entered the jewelry business unexpectedly. Born and raised in Hitterdal, MN, he originally planned to join the Air Force with a friend.
“They took him but they didn’t want me,” Eide explained. “So he went into the service and I took his old job.”
Eide’s friend happened to be a watchmaker at Hanson Jewelry in Hawley. Eide took over the position and began a three year apprenticeship at the store.
In 1978 he was hired as a watchmaker at Neubarth’s Jewelry in Moorhead, where he worked until the stored close in 1993 following the owner’s death. A year later he bought the store’s inventory and opened Eide’s Jewelry in a former Domino’s Pizza location at 3222 Highway 10 East in Moorhead.
“It took about a year to get rid of the pizza smell,” Eide recalled with a laugh. “I wanted pizza every day, because the smell was there for about eight to 12 months. But we finally got rid of that.”
For the last 17 years Eide has operated the store with Judy Kvamme, his sole employee, who also worked at Neubarth’s Jewelry and then came to work for Eide. Kvamme does bookkeeping, works at the front desk and helps in sales.
Eide prides himself on the fact that his store also provides jewelry repair with a short service time for damaged items.
“We repair everything,” Eide said. “When a customer brings an item in, we’ll have it back to them in a week, sometimes less.”
Also, the store is different from other jewelers in that it keeps the items within the F-M area during repair.
“We don’t send any repairs out of town anymore,” he said. “We do in-store repair. I think that’s one of the things we have that a lot of stores don’t (have). We do it well and we do it less expensive.”
Because the business is in a strip mall, Eide said he receives less foot traffic than other stores. However, he works to promote the business with billboards and ads.
“Word of mouth is our best advertising,” he said. “It’s better than any radio or TV ads you can put out there.”
Over his 45-year career, Eide has seen many changes in the jewelry industry. Because he started as a watchmaker, he has especially noticed the switch from windup to battery-powered watches.
Another change has been the rising cost of gold. Eide recalled that gold was available for $135 per ounce when he began his career. Forty-five years later, the price has risen to $1,800 an ounce.
The change is apparent in items like men’s wedding bands. Eide has dealt with the increased cost by no longer selling gold bands and instead offers rings made of alternative metals like tungsten, cobalt and titanium. The store also sells more combination gold and silver women’s jewelry to save money.
“Now we have to buy smarter,” Eide said. “That’s how we’ve kept the cost down.”
Eide’s Jewelry has customers from across Clay County and beyond, including the Fargo-Moorhead area, Ada, Detroit Lakes and Barnesville. Many are longtime buyers that keep coming back for the service they’ve enjoyed since the mid-’90s. Eide said that customers often recommend the store to engaged couples who are shopping for rings.
“We do have a lot of repeat customers,” Eide said. “Once we get them we want to keep them. We take pride with the one-on-one relationship we give to the customer, that’s just so important.”
Eide said he continues to enjoy the act of selling someone a piece of jewelry and seeing the customer’s happiness.
“That’s the best part of the business, I think,” he said. “We care about every customer that we have. We just want to give them the best price and the best service we can. That’s what’s keeping us in business.”
Eide has worked with jewelry for nearly half a century, but he currently has no plans to slow down.
“I’ll keep working as long I can provide a service for the customers,” he said. “I enjoy it too much not to. I don’t know what else I’d do.”
Eide and his wife, Kitty, have lived east of Glyndon since marrying in 1972. Their sons, Darrin and Darek, live in Fargo.
“We’re an old-fashioned jewelry store,” Eide said. “The old adage ‘Big City Savings, Small Town Service’ is exactly how we work it.”
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