Private jewelry store in Disneyland set to close

A private jewelry store inside Disneyland, where visitors often buy engagement rings, is scheduled close because of the poor economy.

The Jewel of Orleans has operated inside the theme park in New Orleans Square for about 12 years. But the recession has cut into business so much that the store plans to close as of April 15, said Lucretia Jacobs, whose family owns the shop.

“It’s been a tough year, a couple of years, all around for luxury good retailers, like ourselves,” Jacobs said. “It was primarily an economic decision. It was a tough decision because that store has a lot of sentimental value.”

The estate jewelry store sells pieces costing from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, once selling an emerald pendant for $65,000. About once or twice a month, a Disneyland guest buys an engagement ring there and usually proposes in the park, Jacobs said.

Private stores within Disneyland are unique: Just six other park locations are run by outside operators, said Betsy Sanchez, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman.

The store is run by Dianne’s Estate Jewellery, a family business with two other locations in San Francisco and Healdsburg that will remain open.

Owners Dianne and Charles Jacobs were approached by Disneyland officials to open up a location inside the park in a spot where the perfumery used to be.

Their son, Alex, left his job to launch the new Disneyland location in 1997. He met Lucretia, an employee, there and they began dating after she left the job. Later, she picked out her engagement ring at the store.

Last week, the owners told six employees about the planned closure.

“Disney has been great. They extended an incredibly, unique invitation to us and we’re incredibly grateful to them,” Lucretia Jacobs said.

Sales have plummeted in recent years as the economy has soured, she said. Most of the store’s customers are annual passholders. Because theme-park business is also down, the store also has lost sales.

“It’s such a unique location with its own limitations and challenges. It doesn’t compare to almost any other retail space on the planet,” Lucretia Jacobs said.

Disneyland Resort officials have yet to decide what will go in the store’s spot, Sanchez said.

Photos by Joshua Sudock, the Orange County Register.

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Post from: Around Disney

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