Activists conduct conflict diamond poll
Saturday, October 16 2004
Published on AllBusiness.com
New York—Amnesty International polled jewelry retailers in 40 cities to determine whether they were complying with the Kimberley Process, the voluntary program designed to stem the flow of conflict diamonds.
The "Conflict Diamonds Day of Action," conducted in 26 states on Sept. 18, concluded a two-part initiative by the human rights group. First, Amnesty sent letters and a survey to 40 large jewelry chains—including Costco, Bulgari, Macy's, Target, Sears Roebuck & Co., Helzberg Diamonds, Ben Bridge, and Whitehall Jewelers—requesting their corporate policy on voluntary compliance with the Kimberley Process.
Secondly, 40 Amnesty groups fanned out nationwide to multiple locations of the same chain stores, to question floor personnel and determine how corporate policy was filtering down to consumers who asked about the origins of their diamonds.
Survey results were not available until mid-October, after press time, but retail response seemed good, according to Amnesty associate Amy O'Meara.
"We feel it was a successful survey and we think we should have a good distribution of results and we should have some interesting conclusions as to what is happening at the headquarters level versus the shop level," she says. "We are interested in how consumers can be assured they know what they are buying."
Jewelers of America issued a press release before Sept. 18, advising jewelers to be prepared for activists questioning the origin and supply chain of their diamonds. Most jewelers were aware of the survey, and some recited the response suggested by JA verbatim, while in other cases, there was a wide range of responses, even within a single chain, O'Meara says.
—Glenn Law
The "Conflict Diamonds Day of Action," conducted in 26 states on Sept. 18, concluded a two-part initiative by the human rights group. First, Amnesty sent letters and a survey to 40 large jewelry chains—including Costco, Bulgari, Macy's, Target, Sears Roebuck & Co., Helzberg Diamonds, Ben Bridge, and Whitehall Jewelers—requesting their corporate policy on voluntary compliance with the Kimberley Process.
Secondly, 40 Amnesty groups fanned out nationwide to multiple locations of the same chain stores, to question floor personnel and determine how corporate policy was filtering down to consumers who asked about the origins of their diamonds.
Survey results were not available until mid-October, after press time, but retail response seemed good, according to Amnesty associate Amy O'Meara.
"We feel it was a successful survey and we think we should have a good distribution of results and we should have some interesting conclusions as to what is happening at the headquarters level versus the shop level," she says. "We are interested in how consumers can be assured they know what they are buying."
Jewelers of America issued a press release before Sept. 18, advising jewelers to be prepared for activists questioning the origin and supply chain of their diamonds. Most jewelers were aware of the survey, and some recited the response suggested by JA verbatim, while in other cases, there was a wide range of responses, even within a single chain, O'Meara says.
—Glenn Law
