Supporting & Expanding Your Legacy Business

From our CEO, M.D. Chau

Dear McCarty’s Jewelry valued customer,

When I was first considering purchasing McCarty’s Jewelry from Page, many told me it was too risky to do so. But, my conviction that McCarty’s Jewelry was something truly special prevailed against any doubts or naysayers.

It’s not every day that someone gets the opportunity to carry on a legacy business - especially one that can claim to be “the oldest jewelry store in Southern California”. We are over 100 years in business - built from scratch by Victor and Marie McCarty in 1923 right in the Belmont area.

I consider myself as simply a new steward of your legacy business (as Page had been when he took over in 1982). I realized how important McCarty’s Jewelry is to the community. Since taking over the reins, I’ve worked to:

• Improve our systems and processes

• Give younger people the opportunity to enter the jewelry business and to gain mastery through experience and empowerment

• Create an experience-centric business instead of an owner-centric business (this will help McCarty’s Jewelry go strong into the future, even beyond me)

• Strengthen our relationship with current vendors and brought more vendors and experienced jewelers to make McCarty’s Jewelry more stable as a business

• Create a continuous improvement culture, always accepting feedback from our customers and coaching/training our team to be better each day

Now, we need your support as a customer more than ever…

We actually had one or two people come in and say in gest to our team members, “Page is no longer here, I have no loyalty to you guys.” To which, we had no response and were certainly disheartened. I thought to myself:

How else does a legacy business stay open if someone new does not take the tremendous financial risk to do so? No one can work/live forever.

I’m glad I was able to step up to the plate and take the risk to keep McCarty’s Jewelry in business - and, to expand it as a business.

Recently, I also purchased a large, upscale hair salon in the Nellie Gail Ranch area (Laguna Hills) called The W Salon, which has been in business for over 20 years. In just 2 weeks, McCarty’s Jewelry will have a shop inside of that salon, where salon customers can purchase and RENT fine jewelry for special occasions and events. (By the way, we are making jewelry rental available now at McCarty’s. Ask a team member about it.)

I’m doing exactly as I said I would do - expanding McCarty’s Jewelry footprint in the marketplace. McCarty’s Jewelry is something we should all be proud of and more people need to know about. I believe that with my whole heart.

I know many of you are loyal customers and want to see us succeed. I want to thank you for shopping with us and for continuing to support McCarty’s Jewelry as your legacy business.

We need YOU in order to continue the legacy started over 100 years ago. As you shop with us, you will see little changes here and there as we slowly update the store with the small budget that we have. And as our younger team members get better and better at what they do, please give us your feedback and help us to build a strong team FOR YOU!

Come shop happy at McCarty’s soon! Thank you, again, for your continuous support.

Sincerely,

M.D. Chau
Owner/CEO

A New Chapter in McCarty’s History

From our CEO, M.D. Chau

Dear valued McCarty’s Jewelry customer,

I wanted to introduce myself, though many of you have already gotten to know me over the last couple of years. My name is Minh D. Chau, though I go by “MD” to most everyone. You can call me Minh or MD, whatever you’re most comfortable with. I have the honor and privilege of being the new (and 4th) Owner and CEO of McCarty’s Jewelry. I’m a 42 year-old entrepreneur, owning a few companies with previous success in the jewelry business also, starting with when I worked for Kay Jewelers as an 18 year-old. I never thought I would be here now.

Our previous owner, Lonnie “Page” Henley, was also just 42 years old when he took over McCarty’s Jewelry in 1982 under the leadership of Frank Rooney and Gary Borden of Rooney & Borden Jewellers, renowned for their store in Main Place Mall, back before South Coast Plaza existed. Our store’s founders, Victor and Marie McCarty, had sold McCarty’s Jewelry to Bob and Ann Weeks when Victor retired in 1964. When Bob and Ann Weeks retired in 1982, they sold McCarty’s Jewelry to Rooney and Borden. With Rooney and Borden Jewellers still in operation at Main Place Mall, Frank and Gary assigned the newly acquired store to Page Henley, who has been the face of McCarty’s Jewelry ever since. Eventually, Page became a partner with Frank and Gary.

After Frank passed away and when Gary retired, Page purchased the entire business from Gary and became the new sole owner of McCarty’s Jewelry in 2002, which leads us to now: We are the oldest jewelry store still in business in Southern California at 101 years old. As its new Owner/CEO, I intend to make sure McCarty’s Jewelry keeps that title and thrives as a business. And, I also have a vision to grow it to more locations and make this gem of Long Beach renowned for its unique down-to-earth fine jewelry shopping experience - the kind of experience Victor and Marie McCarty created, entrusted to Bob and Ann Weeks, and carried forward by Page Henley up until now.

Page brought McCarty’s Jewelry through its 100th year in business (2023) before retiring this year, in 2024. Since November 2021, I’ve had the privilege of working with Page to help McCarty’s Jewelry transition into the future. To honor Page’s work in keeping McCarty’s Jewelry in business, I worked with the Belmont Shore Business Association to name the service street behind our store “McCarty’s Henley Way”. We revealed this special street sign during our Anniversary Celebration in 2023, which we now know was actually our 100th year anniversary… we were founded in 1923, not 1932!

Before I get into what we’ve done over the last few years to prepare McCarty’s Jewelry for the future and what my vision and plans are… I want to share with you my journey up until now. How I became the new owner and CEO of McCarty’s Jewelry was quite a serendipitous story. Please expand the sections below to read about it as well as my personal journey in business and my extensive experience in jewelry. Or, you can skip the expandable sections and continue reading below to learn what’s new at McCarty’s Jewelry and what our future plans are.

• How I became McCarty's new Owner/CEO

  McCarty's Jewelry became a client of my marketing agency in 2018. My marketing agency was thriving, with big clients such as Maglite, the world renowned flashlight company. In late 2019, Page attempted to retire and sell the store to Ron and Carol, a couple that worked with him at the store, announcing a major "out of business/retirement" sale at the advice of some jewelry industry friends. Unfortunately, the sale of the store to Ron and Carol did not work out - creating quite a bit of confusion when Page "un-retired" himself to keep the store open.
  
  One night, on the way home from my marketing agency office, I received a phone call from Ron, who proceeded to tell me that things did not work out for them buying McCarty's Jewelry and that he and his wife would retire back to Minnesota. Ron suggested that I should consider coming on board to help Page run McCarty's Jewelry and purchasing it from Page so he can retire.
  
  This proposition really intrigued me because, at the time, I was beginning to transition my marketing agency towards being a business consulting and acquisition firm - I was looking to fully purchase or take equity positions into existing companies that I could improve and grow.
  
  I had parked at Trader Joe's in Aliso Viejo to grocery shop before heading home. I sat in my car for 20 minutes just thinking about everything Ron had just proposed to me. When I got out and walked into Trader Joe's, I was still thinking hard about it all and I heard someone calling out my name, "MD? What are you doing here?" To my surprise, it was Aleta... who was an employee at McCarty's Jewelry. I told her I lived down that way and that I was just on a call with Ron (though I didn't tell her what we talked about).
  
  At that moment, I knew in my heart that this was something I needed to give attention to. So I texted Page and we got lunch together at Open Sesame on 2nd Street and agreed that I would come on board to run the operations with the path of purchasing the business from Page to carry it on into the future. That was November 2021.
  
  Over the last few years, I made a number of improvements to the business and put it in a stronger position to endure and grow through the economic and market changes happening all around us. In June 2024, Page and I walked to Open Sesame for our final lunch working together, as Page entered full retirement. We reminisced about our journey together, that started almost three years ago, right there at Open Sesame on 2nd Street. As he handed off the baton to me, I made him a promise, "I'll make you proud."
  
  The legacy of McCarty's Jewelry will be carried on and made even stronger. The unique down-to-earth luxury shopping experience that Victor and Marie McCarty began in 1923 will be renowned - the gem of Long Beach and Southern California.

• My journey as an entrepreneur and experience in the jewelry business

  I was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1981. I was 9 when I immigrated to the US and settled in the DC area (on the Northern Virginia side) with my family. It was my father, mother, younger brother, younger sister, and myself. My father fought in the Vietnam War as a naval captain against the Vietcong, alongside the US military. My grandfather was a successful import/export businessman, who was ultimately killed by the Vietcong. I've always said that I might have gotten my business acumen from my grandfather and my aptitude for risks from my father.
  
  Like most immigrant families, I grew up in a low-income, gang-ridden neighborhood. When I was just 17 years old, I was fortunate enough to meet a businessman who became my mentor. When I had free time (which was a lot), I worked for him doing little things to help lighten his load while he brought me to business meetings at the highest levels and taught me how to be a businessman. He owned an advertising/publishing business as well as several nonprofits in DC. I learned business and marketing firsthand through the exposure my business mentor gave me. While I was doing this, I landed a "real" job at Kay Jewelers at the age of 18 through a friend of my mother, where I outsold even the older, more experienced sales team members during the holiday seasons. Kay Jewelers kept me on until I accepted a position as a director for a youth nonprofit (offered to me through the networking I did working with my business mentor).
  
  As I was building up that nonprofit, other people asked for my help marketing their companies or organizations. Next thing I knew, I had a handful of clients. I turned those clients into a marketing agency business of my own. For nearly a decade, I operated my own marketing agency in the DC area, helping small businesses across various industries launch or grow. I also spent my 20's traveling around the world doing nonprofit humanitarian and outreach work, in countries such as Haiti, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Uganda, Jordan, and Israel.
  
  As a kid, I always had a dream of being a singer. So in my mid-20's, as a side hobby, I self-produced an album that caught the attention of major music industry people. I ended up releasing 5 independent albums, opened up for legendary acts such as The Isley Brothers and Frankie Beverly. I even performed at least 4 times on the same stage where Elvis Presley held his Las Vegas residency. As a result of my momentum in the music business, I merged my marketing agency with another partner company and relocated to Southern California. The year was 2014.
  
  As I was starting up a new marketing agency in Southern California, my mother called me. The Kay Jewelers manager who was her friend had called her. He saw that I moved to California and told my mom that I should rejoin Signet Jewelers, the company that owns Kay Jewelers. They also owned Jared The Galleria of Jewelry, and in 2014, they were opening 5 new locations in Southern California. To humor my mother, I went for an interview. Long story short, I ended up becoming an award-winning General Manager for Jared, reversing negative sales trends for a couple of locations and responsible for the training and promotion of several team members into management. I was then recruited to run Traditional Jewelers in Fashion Island after they were bought by Hyde Park Jewelers. I was there only briefly before going fully back to operating and owning my own marketing agency, which by that time was fully set up and ready to go.
  
  In 2018, McCarty's Jewelry became a client of my marketing agency, which leads us to now. Outside of being the new Owner/CEO of McCarty's Jewelry, I still operate my agency, Chau Agency, though now we are focused fully on business acquisitions. I'm also a co-founder and co-owner of a vegan restaurant chain growing in popularity known as Vegan District Asian Eatery.
  
  My focus now is on growing and expanding McCarty's Jewelry through opening more locations or acquiring other jewelry stores as Victor McCarty did in the early days.

Over the last few years, I worked with Page to implement several improvements at McCarty’s Jewelry. Here are some of the key things:

• Better Record Keeping and Repair Jobs Intake: I implemented a new digital Point-Of-Sale system that allows us to easily track repair jobs and sales history of our customers. Prior to my arrival, everything was still done on just paper. It was near-impossible to track any previous repair jobs or sales records past a certain timeframe. Not anymore. We are also now able to take a picture of jewelry items being taken in for repair and attach them digitally to each job, which will allow us easy access in the future for reference. You, as a customer, also get a text with a link to the invoice for the job that has all attachments and information regarding your project.

• More Sales and Promotions: It’s always fun to shop for a great deal. Since I came on board, we’ve done more sales and promotions to keep the “treasure hunt” fun! We will continue to do so. I’ve also created a FREE Diamond VIP Club, so that our loyal customers can get exclusive discount offers and Flash Sales that are announced only to them. Shopping for fine jewelry should be fun like this, in my opinion.

• More Master Jewelers and Vendors: I have also brought on board more master jewelers - some of whom have done repair work for major brands such as Tiffany, Cartier, Le Vian, David Yurman, and others. This is to ensure that quality workmanship on jewelry servicing is improved and sustained for a long time to come at McCarty’s Jewelry. I also onboarded more vendors and jewelry manufacturers with great stocking arrangements to provide our customers with more unique and trendy jewelry selections at great pricing - you can expect more great new jewelry every month at McCarty’s when you shop.

• Global Diamond and Gemstones Inventory Access: I implemented the use of a new platform that allows us to access diamonds and gemstones across the world, directly from diamond and gem producers. No diamond and gem dealers as a middleman, which means our customers get a better price than anyone else! You can actually see and pick a diamond or gemstone from anywhere in the world in store with a team member now!

• New Custom Jewelry Design Team and Process: I onboarded a new team to handle all of our custom design projects. This new team and process allows us to provide the initial custom design process as a FREE service. Within 48 hours of design conception, you get a full interactive 3D visual of your design to play with… for FREE! Upon approval of the 3D visual and spec sheets and payment for production, your jewelry piece is completed within 14 days (if there is no extra sourcing or shipping time needed).

• New Daily Hours of Operation: I also hired on new staff in order to be OPEN DAILY to serve our customers, young and old, still working or retired. McCarty’s Jewelry is now open every day from 11am until 7pm.

• No More Individual Commissions: I got rid of individual commissions as a pay structure. Our core team members are all on a well-paid salary and the entire team shares a team bonus at the end of each month. I did this so that no one on our team ever feels the pressure to sell something. And that our entire team works together to make sure the store stays in business and thrives. Each team member knows that I judge their performance based on how friendly their interactions are with our customers and how friendly they are with each other. We had a Yelp review recently that said our staff seemed more like family members than co-workers. This is the exact kind of environment that I want to exist at McCarty’s Jewelry, always! We are like family to each other and we treat our customers like family.

• New Staff Structure and Continuous Improvement Culture: To better serve our customers, train more young people into the jewelry business, and make our operations more efficient and smooth, I’ve implemented a new staffing strategy. While each team member have specific roles for which they are trained to do, everyone is in customer service. Every team member is there to make sure your experience in-store is easygoing and fun. Each team member goes through continuous training and coaching as part of our “continuous improvement” company culture. We greatly appreciate your support and encouragement as our team gains more mastery in this business every day. As I tell them regularly: Our business isn’t rocket science, but rather “information and memory” - it’s simply about what you know and what you can retain/recall to help a customer. With this understanding, we continuously train and coach our team members every day. Our store team now consists of:

  • Operations Manager - Skylee Critchfield

  • Assistant Operations Manager - Skyylar Perdomo

  • Assistant Operations Manager - Sasha Semeniuk

  • Showroom Manager - Milca Connolly

  • Assistant Showroom Manager - Marisa Strange

  • Shop Assistants - Katy Moynahan, Sydney Blodgett, and Kayla O’Connors

As the new Owner/CEO, my aim is for us to always continuously improve and serve our customers better every day. We know that our customers want us to succeed - you want us to be financially successful, stay in business and to thrive… to make Long Beach and Southern California proud of this legacy business, McCarty’s Jewelry. If I’m successful with achieving my goals, this would be reality 5, 10, 15, or even 20 years from now:

• McCarty’s Jewelry will have locations all across California and the country.

• McCarty’s Jewelry will be one of the most sought-after retail stores to work for and build a career with. We will be the first retail store (to my knowledge) to implement a 4-day workweek for core full-time salary team members, starting October 28th, 2024. We also pay for our core team members’ medical benefits 100%. Between this, our generous pay structure, and “family” culture, we hope to lead the way and be a shining example to other retailers that it is possible to give a retail workforce a great quality of life.

• McCarty’s Jewelry will be known for bringing more young people into the jewelry business (there is not enough of that happening today, hence why many jewelry stores are closing due to retirement) and giving them a fulfilling career.

• McCarty’s Jewelry will be a launching pad for new jewelry designers and trendsetting jewelry designs.

• McCarty’s Jewelry will be renowned for its unique down-to-earth fine jewelry shopping experience, not its owner. Our retail brand would not be owner-centric, but experience-centric. The experience at McCarty’s Jewelry should transcend its ownership as it has since Victor and Marie McCarty founded it in 1923. They created a very special company culture and shopping experience. I intend to make sure it gets carried on way beyond my years in leadership.

I want to thank you, in advance, for your support as we embark on this new chapter at McCarty’s Jewelry. Every month, we serve hundreds of NEW customers. There are many who are just now discovering the McCarty’s Jewelry shopping experience. We have never been perfect as a jewelry store, but have always aimed to make our customers happy no matter what. When McCarty’s Jewelry was first just a client of my marketing agency, I came up with a new slogan for the store back in 2018… “McCarty’s makes the moment happy.”

It is serendipitous that I would be the one to carry out that slogan for the many years to come, God-willing. With that said, here is my promise to you, our valued customers: We will do everything in our power to make your moment a happy one. And this is our renewed mission statement:

MAKE THE MOMENT HAPPY.

I hope you’ll come and shop happy with us soon. Thank you for your faithful support over the years! With you, we will grow to new heights.

Sincerely,

M.D. Chau
Owner and CEO