I arrived at the Knoxville headquarters of Jewelry Television (JTV) at 9:30am Tuesday. My new book The French Blue was scheduled to be debuted that evening and I had come to town for the kickoff . For those of you who have never heard of it, JTV is a 24 hour a day, 500 million dollar a year on-air TV gem and jewelry selling juggernaut. I am not sure what I expected, but I was certainly not prepared for what I saw.
JTV is doing pretty well but it was not immune from the economic slowdown, laying off about one third of its workforce since the economy hit the wall last November.
Adam Bedwell, the book and tool buyer, had made the arrangements and my visit began with a tour. Anyone who has an e.commerce website would be basically familiar with what goes on at JTV. The product arrives, is examined, inventoried, stored, photographed, described and generally made ready for sale. The difference is, at JTV the scale is best described as colossal.
We entered the warehouse. There were gemstones in bins, gemstones in bags and gemstones in well 50 gallon plastic cans all together in a room the size of a basketball court or maybe a football field.
I toured the media department. I have one digital camera, JTV has a bank of them with half a dozen photo technicians clicking away. They have built there own photo setups and some truly remarkable gizmos that show the gemstone or jewelry piece in all sorts of ways including one that they take particular pride in that shows aerial views.
They take quality control seriously at JTV. I met one woman who, using a 200x digital microscope examines every stone sold on air. Every stone? If true, this is truly remarkable given the incredible volume of gemstones that are sold by JTV. Stones that are cracked or chipped are photographed and sent back to suppliers.
The call center is located in a separate building of astonishing dimensions. This is the front line of JTV, when the phones start ringing. Spent some time signing books and talking with several of the representatives. I was impressed by the fact that many of the employees I spoke, phone reps, drivers, security personnel, went out of there way to praise the management of JTV and to tell me how much they enjoyed working for the company.
The JTV offices are setup on an open plan in a series of cubicles. The layout is egalitarian. If you didn’t know who was who, it would have been impossible to tell. No one, it seems, rates a fancy private office.