[May 05, 2007]

Ginger's prepares to close 2 stores: The jewelry store owner has no plans to sell the business for now and will keep the Ginger's name.

(Roanoke Times, The (Roanoke, VA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 5--After 25 glitzy years of selling diamonds, jewels and other flashy adornments, Ginger Mumpower, owner of Ginger's Jewelry in Christiansburg and Roanoke, is closing both her stores and taking a break from the business.

A Radford University graduate, Mumpower bought her first jewelry shop at age 22 and grew the enterprise into a regional gem with multiple locations and a loyal customer following. Running the two shops has been no easy feat for the 46-year-old Roanoker who has also been highly active in the community.

"It is a heavy load for a single mother of two teenagers," Mumpower said.

While she admits it may be difficult to stay away for long -- especially after the swell of support she has seen from customers this week in the stores' final days -- right now, she said, it's time to take a step back. "A lot of what I've done I've done on instinct," she said. "And my instincts tell me this is right."

Selling the business, however, is not in the plans for now, Mumpower said, and she will keep the Ginger's name. "I've always been very guarded about my name," she said, adding that at some point she would like to reopen in one location, but has yet to decide when and where.

Nor would she say for sure when the two stores will close for good, adding that the business still has millions of dollars in inventory to sell.

To this end, both locations have launched storewide sales with discounts of up to 70 percent.

Mumpower said she is not sure if she's going to sell the Roanoke location, a squat brick building with an atrium-like glass entrance and royal-blue rooftops that the company built in 1995. It and the land in Towne Square Shopping Center are worth about $759,000, according to Roanoke property records. The retail space in Christiansburg, which she opened in 1993 after consolidating two stores in Radford and Galax, is under lease, she said.

By late Friday morning, the parking lot in front of Ginger's in Roanoke was so packed that one customer remarked he had never seen it this full, even just before Christmas.

Inside the store, yellow sale banners hung on the blue walls, and shoppers browsed the labyrinth of glass cases looking for deals. There were couples and mother-daughter pairs -- and the occasional lone boyfriend or husband awkwardly browsing the white-velvety displays. Many of them had faithfully shopped at Ginger's for years.

"It is where I plan on my boyfriend getting my engagement ring," said Kelly Baker, 19, who was at the store Friday doing some pre-emptive shopping. Her hand stretched out, she admired a diamond-encrusted ring marked down 70 percent from $8,000. Nearby, her friend was on the cellphone dropping not-so-subtle hints to her boyfriend.

Meanwhile, store regular Bill Tucker was standing by one of the cases waiting for Mumpower to come out to the floor. For years, he had been trying to coax her into selling him one of the fist-size crystals that the store uses as showpieces in its displays. He has been shopping there since 1999 -- always returning for anniversaries and birthdays -- and wanted to give the crystal to his wife. Mumpower said she would call him when the closeout sale was over to make a deal.

After all, for her, jewelry is an expression, a story, a marker for life's milestones. Even her own pieces -- a necklace given to her by an industry pal, a massive diamond ring she's saving for her daughter, a flower brooch that came along with a string of pearls once owned by Jackie Onassis -- all have a history. She can't point to one without telling its tale.

And it is this philosophy of connecting with the client that underlines the store's approach to selling its wares. "Diamonds are formed by pressure," she said, flashing a smile. "They shouldn't be sold that way."

Copyright (c) 2007, The Roanoke Times, Va.
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