Jewelry web blog

NORTHAMPTON – Arbel accessories, Thornes Marketplace’s newest business, often has a line of tiffany and co jewelry marked down by as much 50 percent, but don’t mistake those sales for business trouble.

“Every time I offer a new discount, people think I am closing,” said Owner Elisabetta Caputo. Caputo opened her jewelry store in October knowing she would be able to offer deep discounts to clients during these troubled times, when people might find them most attractive.

Caputo and her husband, Hahn Shahar, have been in the wholesale jewelry business for over 20 years, so to them, opening a store in the middle of a recession made sense because they have the ability to offer “a lot of jewelry at a very reasonable price.”

Her store is one of four new shops that opened in Thornes over the past year, including a neighbor of Arbel, another Money Clip jewelry store called Rebekah Brooks. The other new tenants in Thornes are Impish, a children’s clothing boutique, and Jackson and Connor, a men’s clothing store.

Arbel is one of the first stores you see upon entering Thornes. A steady stream of people walks through the market as Caputo moves quickly through her store, pointing out the different collections she carries, including contemporary Italian and Mediterranean styles, vintage costume jewelry, and a line of Judaica items from Israel.

Caputo left Naples, Italy 10 years ago to join her Israeli husband Hahn Shahar in Amherst, and she says she would often frequent Northampton and Thornes Marketplace, where she took notice of the foot traffic.

“I love the atmosphere here, so as soon as this space became available we grabbed it,” said Caputo. “It wasn’t a mistake either; this is an excellent spot.”

She said she and Shahar named the store for the Hebrew name of a mountain in Israel near Shahar’s hometown. The mountain has one side that drops off in a cliff, popular with hang gliders and parachuters.

“We liked that the name sounds like ‘beautiful art’ in French,” she said. She said they also thought it was appropriate because “we are going to do this new thing that is very challenging and this mountain is a place where people throw themselves down into the unknown.”

The store’s front wall is largely made up of windows, showcasing Caputo’s different jewelry lines that are displayed openly throughout the store, hanging from antique furniture instead of being locked behind glass cases.

“Because the jewelry store next door opened before me, I had to be careful to make things look different, to display things in a different way. I get a lot of compliments on the way I have things freely displayed. You don’t have to ask for permission to try on a necklace that you like.”

Arbel’s imported lines of jewelry, however, don’t need special displays to seem different. Caputo and her husband go on buying trips several times a year to keep the lines unique and up-to-date. Some of the jewelry is an Italian line designed by Caputo from the glass beads she has made to her taste in Morano, to the manufacturing she has done at a small family operation in Tuscany.

Like many people involved in artistic business endeavors at this time, Caputo actually credits the tough economic times to some of her more creative ideas.

“In the hard times I feel like people have the chance to be more creative. Especially as Europe was getting more expensive I started to think, you know, let me see if I can design and produce this myself at a more affordable price, I would probably never have done that if everything was good and perfect,” she said.

Richard Madowitz, property manager at Thornes, says Caputo epitomizes the Thornes mentality.

“She’s an entrepreneur, she’s smart, and she has sophisticated buying taste,” he said. “Her merchandise is very unique…and it’s nice for shoppers to be talking to the store owner as opposed to the salaried employee.”

Madowitz said Thornes is “very focused on independent retailing.”

“We want to create a different shopping experience, one that is very unique, instead of sterilized malls that are all the same,” he said.

Caputo says she thought through the issues involved in opening a new store in this economy: lot of times right now I see businesses open that might be the right thing in the wrong place,” she said.

“You have to be very careful right now, it’s good to make decisions based on good knowledge and to not carry a lot of expenses.”

Caputo says her biggest challenge so far has been balancing work and family. pendants “I have two young boys and they still need me so much, I work here in the morning until 2 p.m., then I run and pick them up from school. The challenge is when an employee can’t come in and I need to bring them with me,” she said.

Caputo says lately she has been bringing her two sons Matteo, 7, and Luca, 5, into the store often, and they are, “very, very excited and very proud of me. It is so sweet-they always say, ‘Give me something to do!’ “