All that glitters is diamonds

They sparkle and shine not only in the case but on the sign, and if it’s all in a name like they say Albert’s Diamondland says it all.

Barb and Rod Alberts opened their jewelry store in 1991 after several years of service to the Kirby Vacuum Company, him in sales and her as a secretary in Scottsbluff.

“My husband had been with his previous company for 20 years,” Barb Alberts said, “and he wanted to be a jeweler. He was the Kirby vacuum area distributor as he had seven counties (in Nebraska) and a couple in Wyoming. We would hire all those guys who came knocking on your door. And after 20 years, he couldn’t win any more awards, he had already won the top ones he could, and I think he just wanted a change.”

“Something different,” Kim Thorson said. She’s the Alberts’ daughter and these days the go to woman at Albert’s Diamondland.

His influence, according to Mr. Alberts widow, came from several of the friends he regularly spent time with on the golf course.

Choosing Sidney to open his business venture, well that was more strategic.

“This was the only town that didn’t have one fairly nearby,” Mrs. Alberts said.

So they opened doors with “three wedding rings, a little case of black hills gold and some watches,” Alberts said reflecting back to the days when they occupied the building on the corner of Illinois Street and 11th Avenue.

“We only had the front (of the building) behind us was an insurance office.”

Mrs. Alberts recalled the break in they had while occupying that building, saying the thieves made their way into the jewelry shop from the insurance store.

She chuckled when recalling the event, even remembering the thieves were from Puerto Rico and Mexico, but mostly how grateful even then they had an alarm to ward off such people.

“They took some watches,” Mrs. Alberts said of the loot the thieves were able to make off with. “The alarm was very, very loud, so they ran off. The cops said they could follow all the stuff they dropped to the motel.”

An interesting story of the early years the couple was in business and one for the grandchildren to be told.

Nonetheless, the jewelry store would occupy that corner shop for just over a year, because the business would begin to grow and they would need more space for even more inventory.

Mrs. Alberts referred to the move as “musical businesses,” since theirs was not the only one to change places along main street; Helen Gs, Rilla Draper and Alberts Diamondland all found new homes during that time.

The Alberts weren’t just moving their store though, they were also moving from one house into their home.

“We moved the house in one weekend and the store the next. I couldn’t find anything,” Mrs. Alberts laughed. “But we survived it.”

They not only survived the moves but more pressing business issues such as a faltering economy and the opening of a second jewelry store, many years ago, in Sidney.

Something mother and daughter attributes to the late Rod’s love for what he did even though he spent many years in an industry far different from jewelry, both agreed jewelry design and know how were in Rod’s blood.

This natural talent would create a business that would not just survive but thrive and become a valued business in Sidney.

A grand business idea that blossomed into an annual promotion for the Alberts was the Birthday sale, on Barb’s birthday the whole store had a sale, her age would determine the percentage off; though she admits for about five years she was 40.

Why not Rod’s birthday?

The answer is quite simple, especially to those who have kids, “Rod’s birthday was in September, and it wasn’t as great,” month wise, for sales.

“As the years went by we learned from our mistakes, what not to buy, what days were better than others,” Mrs. Alberts recalled the ups and downs of the early years.

“Like, if you’re going to have a birthday sale September isn’t a real good time, everyone is going back to school.”

These days, the Birthday Sale is now done for Kim’s birthday, in October, over Oktoberfest weekend.

In 2009, Rod and Barb’s daughter Kim and her husband Jeff Thorson took over the business.

However, the importance of grooming Kim to take over was something that began as soon as the doors opened, ensuring the business would not just stay open but stay in the family.

Kim was in 8th grade when her parents went into the jewelry business and from that time on she learned all the ins and out of the business right alongside her folks and as many children groomed to take over, she started from the bottom up.

“I went to high school here, and would come in after school and help, Help with Valentine’s Day, help with Christmas; wrap presents all that stuff. Even when I was in college, every time I came back I’d help,” Kim said. “I started well, vacuuming and sweeping, and then I moved up to helping customers or wrapping. I learned from the ground up.

Kim recalled coming to the store after school and being able to see the merchandise the vendors were showing her father.

“Coming in here after school there would be a vendor in here and my dad would be picking out jewelry for Christmas or Valentine’s Day or something, getting to look at everything and saying ‘dad I like that,’ was nice,” Kim smiled.

The hands, eyes and ears on experience she was able to gain through seeing her parents work helped prepare her to make decisions for the business with confidence once her father passed.

“I would listen to what they would say to the customers or learning about gem stones and birthstones,” is experience she would not trade for the world.

Even though she was being groomed to take over, and her parents both knew the business would eventually be given to Kim, she didn’t know for sure that this was what she wanted to do until her father passed in Jan. 2006.

“It was one of those moments that I knew I needed to help my mom. My dad wasn’t there anymore and I wanted to be able to help her if I could.”

She said the prospect was both exciting but scary and a little sad all at once, especially under the circumstances in which she became an even stronger force within the family business.

“I have always done my thing. I did Graphics at Cabela’s for five years,” prior to taking over.

“I have a degree in Graphic Design and that was what I was doing at the time, so to do something completely different, in a sense even though I knew what it was, was a little scary. But also comfortable because I knew it.”

“The year before he passed, and Jeff and I started dating, my dad knew that was the guy I was going to marry,” Kim explained. “He came to the store the day after we had him over for dinner and told Cindy (an employee) ‘I just met my future son-in-law that is who she is going to marry.’

“He wanted us to take over the business at some point and that summer (prior to his passing) he was going to start teaching Jeff jewelry design and how to do repairs, stuff like that. But then he passed.”

He passed so suddenly that he was unable to pass on all his knowledge to his future (at the time) son-in-law or daughter, but it seems Kim lucked out and married a man who like her father has a natural talent in jewelry – recognizing quality, beauty and able to pick up on manipulating metal quicker than most.

Jeff Thorson has been learning from the master jeweler they use how to size rings and eventually do many if not all the things Rod did as well.

Having her soon to be husband by her side and the understanding that the business would be theirs, Kim said the transition from her father to her still “had a few bumps” along the way.

“There were a lot of things that only he knew, so we tried to understand them,. I think the community was really great, everybody still came and trusted us. Cindy knew a lot of stuff so that helped too, but I think it was just a bumpy road for all of us,” thanks to the circumstances.

But as all things for the Alberts everything worked out – because Kim said she knew that was where her father wanted her to be.

Kim said she thought the artistic abilities her father had was also in her blood, as she now does designing of pendants and rings, something she loves as her father did.

As it was for her father, the business being a part of a service to the community, according to Thorson, it is for them as well.

“It wasn’t about making money. It’s more about the small town jeweler atmosphere mentality. His whole thing was the service, do what is right for people,” Thorson said.

“You’re only going to get that at a family owned shop. The box stores don’t do that, and if you really knew him that is really what he was about, taking care of people.”

“Helping the customer, that young couple,” Kim said, “that maybe doesn’t have a whole lot of money in their pocket but really wants to get married, maybe they can only do a lay-a-way for $25 a month, we can help put some rings on their fingers.”

An attitude the family says for as long as the business is within the family will continue, because helping their customer is the most rewarding for them.