Matty Singer made us what we are today
Back in 1948 banks didn't make loans to people starting a new business. So when my wife Berta and I decided to buy Fox's Gem Shop, we scraped together $15,000 and borrowed the rest from our families.
Six weeks passed before we made our first major sale, for $5000. Instead of using the money to buy more jewelry to sell, we paid back the family. That left us short of merchandise, so Berta put out twelve Royal Dalton tea cups we had received as a wedding gift. We had no idea how to price them. Berta arbitrarily marked them at $27.95 a piece, and they were gone!
We scoured every antique shop in Vancouver and Victoria and filled Fox's Gem Shop with tea cups. They took up more space than rings and earrings and pendants and bracelets. At least the shelves were not bare.
One day a woman and her teenage son walked in, leaving a man waiting for them on the street outside. She was from New York, on her way to Alaska, and she purchased several cups and saucers. She left the store and after a few minutes the man came in.
"My wife says you and your wife are a nice couple," he began, "but you can't live on selling tea cups. I'm in the diamond estate business in New York, I am going to send you some merchandise." Two months later a package arrives, insured and registered, with about $50,000 worth of beautiful gems and a note, "Don't pay until you get the money. Sincerely, Matty Singer."
So, truly, he made Fox's what it is today.