If sales of engagement rings are any indication, a growing number of couples hunkered down in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic are asking themselves: why not?
In Connecticut, jewelers say they’ve seen a noticeable spike in demand for engagement rings from mid-March to July compared with previous years.
For the first two months of quarantine — if things were going well — couples browsed online. In May, as jewelry and other retail stores opened under Gov. Lamont’s Phase 1 guidelines, future brides and grooms scouted in person.
At Lux, Bond & Green’s six retail locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts, co-owner John Green estimates his engagement ring business is up 25% from the same period last year.
“When we shut down in March, we got emails and an appointment requests,” John Green, co-owner of Lux, Bond & Green, said. “We made special appointments and lots of social distancing and masks and gloves and the whole business.”
“Many couples are saying, ‘Who knows when we’re going to be able to get married, or maybe we’ll just do a small civil service, but let’s get engaged,‘” Green said. “They’ve talked about getting married, but in this generation, there’s no rush. Now, it’s like, ‘We’ve talked about it: why don’t we just do it?‘”
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