Where Business Is Beginning to Normalize Jewelry Trends at Hospital Stores

By Carimé Lane

As life settles a bit, we thought it was time to check in on the hospital gift shop industry – both for their pandemic story, and to hear about jewelry sales.

Gwynne Gillette, COO of Cloverkey (a full-service hospital solution start-up with seven operating stores by the end of August), and veteran in the hospital gift industry, explained there are two ways hospital gift shops have dealt with the pandemic. The first was to shut down their gift shop to control infections and keep the number of people in the hospital to a minimum. In addition, many hospital gift shops are also staffed by senior volunteers, so many closed to protect these vulnerable people.

Other hospitals chose to keep their gift shop open, primarily because they would sometimes be the only source of prepackaged consumables prepared off site. The hospital gift shop could function as a backup in case a staff member in the cafeteria became infected and the cafeteria was shut down for the cleaning process.

One of the shops Cloverkey runs is Paoli Hospital Gift Shop located in Paoli, Pa. They were among the shops that closed during the pandemic in April 2020, said Gillette. The shop re-opened in June of 2020. Now, the hospital is permitting one visitor per non-Covid patient. The gift shop is also located next to a closed entrance, which has impacted traffic. Outside shoppers–which are not common in hospital gift shops, but can be found in Paoli, as they cater to a smaller community in a suburb of Philadelphia–also aren’t allowed.

At Paoli, earrings with a broad appeal, or with niche appeal like Alex and Ani, for instance, and a low price point (around $9 to $10) sell best. While the jewelry selection at Paoli isn’t huge, they also stock bracelets and other types of jewelry. In Gillette’s experience, if customers are looking for a more expensive jewelry piece, they will search for these at a speciality jewelry store.

“Most expensive jewelry is very much about individual taste and that’s a niche that’s hard to include in a hospital gift shop because you have to cover so many other types of product,” said Gillette, who has seen past sales as high as $350,000 in Paoli’s 1,800-square-foot shop.

Display is key to selling more jewelry. “It has to look good on the shelf,” commented Gillette. Knowing your clientele is another essential factor. “There’s jewelry I would wear, and there’s jewelry my mom would wear,” said Gillette. “You have to know your

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