Lisa’s Gold and Diamonds owner Lisa Edge shows a Pandora Bracelet for sale in her store.Lisa’s Gold and Diamonds is celebrating its 25th anniversary April 15.
“Customer service is our No. 1 thing, which is why we’ve made it for 25 years,” said owner Lisa Edge. “I just want to say how much I appreciate my customer loyalty and patronage. I appreciate my customers.”
The store buys scrap gold and silver, though, as its name suggests, specializes in diamonds, even carrying Le Vian chocolate diamonds, some of the rarest in the world. Semi-precious and precious gemstones, pearls and more make up the glittery inventory as well.
“I agree that diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” Edge said. “We carry a lot of one-of-a-kind pieces.”
The store also carries sterling silver bracelets from Pandora and watches from Seiko, Pulsar and Citizen, including Citizen Atomic Timekeeping watches which are run by a satellite. Seiko musical wall clocks and mantel clocks can be found at Lisa’s too.
The Fort Oglethorpe store has been in the same spot, at 501-B Alamar St., the entire time, though two walls were knocked out at one point to add more space as the store grew.
Edge said that for the anniversary special, most everything in the store is 25 to 50 percent off.
“Being a local store, we give really good prices because we don’t have the overhead like at the mall,” she said. “We have a very large inventory. We have lots of different types of jewelry. We have something for everybody’s budget. We do interest-free layaways. We work with customers on a plan that works for them.”
Lisa’s Gold and Diamonds has won the Chattanooga Times Free Press’ North Georgia Best of the Best Award since the reader-voted awards’ inception six years ago.
“Our customers trust us,” said Edge. “We maintain customer satisfaction. We treat our customers like family. We know our customers and their children and grandchildren.”
Building on that family atmosphere, Edge said employees have been at the store for a long time.
“We started out with two people and now we have six,” she said. “My son Zack Edge is the repairman. Everything is done in house. We have an excellent watch repairman. He picks up three times per week.”
The store is open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“I originally worked at Rossville Bank and handled new accounts,” said Edge. “I started working part time at Lewis Revels Coins. When the business slowed down, I turned it into a jewelry store. Then, I went to work at Classic Coin and Jewelry. I was the jewelry buyer. Then, he retired and I opened this business on my own.”