We’VE Moved!!!!

| Gem & Bead Mall Mesa

It was time and the lease was up. Best laid plans seldom work out and I should have known that. It was a harrowing experience. The first time we moved it was easy. We didn’t have much inventory, and the build-out was minimal. This time around it took us 10 days to pack and 3 weeks to unpack, and we’re still looking for some stuff. I’ve recorded some of our progress on the Nextdoor App which you can follow if you have access to it. Every time I turned around I tripped over another monkey wrench. We had to deal with organizing, paint, carpet, hanging slat wall and grid wall, buying more fixtures, assembling storage shelves, marquee sign, monument sign, AC units, installers, workers, city codes, and a variety of other, smaller issues. When all was said and done, my husband threatened me with divorce if I ever made him do that again (tongue-in-cheek of course). One thing I must say, our landlord was very accommodating and helpful.

Now, we’re happy to be here. It is a nice location, easy to find and to get to, close to the AZ-202, parking right outside the door, lots of foodie places around and a grocery store.

The store is bright and open and we filled up 2,000 square feet with stuff. We have a small library with many books and articles for in-store-perusal.

We have a nice teaching nook for classes and groups to hang out and do their thing and you don’t have to pay for use of the space. If anyone is interested, just call the store 480-985-2207 and we’ll talk. Building community is one of my greatest desires. There’s so much we can learn from each other and be of help to each other.

With that being said, we had quite a few people who helped us, and I would like to thank them here. All that they did for us was greatly appreciated and we could not have done this without them.

Foremost, my husband Jim, who kept me from the brink of insanity and tears more than once. He also freely gave the blood sacrifice to the building gods when a slat wall panel slipped and gouged his ankle. It took months to heal. My employees Judi and Renee who showed up every day and Judi even when she wasn’t feeling well. Kara, our resident jewelry artist, who wrapped everything she could lay her hands on in bubble wrap. My daughter Sophia and her husband Colin, friend Andy and Judi’s husband Jeff who helped with the buildout, painting and moving heavy objects and so much more. Our faithful customers Evelyn and Darryl who came to help whenever they could. Our teachers Kathy and Albina who lent a hand when it was possible. Travis and Kristin who helped with the build out, put in the internet cable and helped with setting up the computers. My eternal gratitude will be forever yours.

Please come in and admire our new location and handiwork. Let’s have a nice chat and we’ll show you around. Our 11th anniversary is coming up middle of the month, so stay tuned for exciting announcements.

Hope to see you soon!

Monika

GBM Membership

| Gem & Bead Mall Mesa

We’re a little retail bead store but we have one big thing going for us: a membership club. You know, like at some other stores like Costco or Kroger. Well, maybe not quite the same as that.
This is how it works: there is an annual membership fee (of course, there always is) of, get this, $20. Pretty low, right.
So, we give you a member card, nothing fancy though, and put your info in the computer. When you come and shop with us we can pull your info at check out and, CLICK! you get a 30% discount.
Now, I must admit that I can’t give you a 30% discount on everything. There are exemptions like stuff that costs a buck or less. Sterling silver and gold fill is always only 10% off and some other items. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent and my health insurance and the girls would be out a job.
But there is another perk that makes up for that. Yes, I know, I sound like a car salesman. Just bear with me.
Once a month, on a long weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun), usually around the middle of the month we have a special sale of 50% off most items. That’s when you want to buy the pricier items like tools and fancy stone beads and so on.
Not too bad, don’t you think.

Hello Mesa Arizona!

| Gem & Bead Mall Mesa

It is January 2023, new horizons and a good time to start a blog, I guess. I’m not a writer. Never claimed to be so this could become interesting. Once I get going it may be overwhelming or underwhelming, we’ll just have to wait and see.

We are Gem & Bead Mall located in Mesa AZ, in short, we’re a bead store. A rather small one in comparison to others. We serve the local community and we’re fine with that. I never aspired to have multiple locations or make a million bucks the first year – really now, who can – and besides, I’m getting too old for all that stress. So, we’re a Mom-and-Pop bead store who like to support our locals and have fun doing it and, we like to spread the word that we’re around. We’ve been in business over 10 years and plan on sticking around for a few more. After all, I need something to do since now DH (Darling Husband) is fully retired and playing golf.

Our inventory is quite large for as small as we are but I like to have a little bit of everything for most people. Of course most of the stuff is beads…glass, crystal, stone, some plastic/acrylic, seed beads, shaped beads and so on. Naturally with that comes findings of all sorts and colors and stringing materials. And then we have tools to help put all that stuff together into necklaces and bracelets and the like. We have lots of rocks for the metaphysical people. They come in rough and polished and all sorts of shapes and sizes.

So, somebody needed craft wire, so we got enameled copper wire and sterling silver wire. And the wire wrappers came and were looking for cabs and stones and pretty things to wrap, so we have these now too. Now, I like to make chainmaille jewelry so we got some jumprings and tools for that. Then somebody came in and was looking for Kumihimo stuff, so we got disks and bobbins and weights and S-Lon and rattail and findings and so forth. Then the bubblegum bead craze hit and we added them.

It didn’t take long to build a decent inventory and we keep changing it up and adding things and phasing other items out. You know how it goes. I can’t keep up with all the new trends. If I did, I’d have to have a bigger store and pretty soon would end up with sad and unwanted beads once the trend is over and that just won’t pay the rent, you know. We have the basics and we can look for interesting bits if someone asks. As it stands we have quite a collection of interesting bits and it is always best to peruse these bits and pieces with one’s own eye. I have customers who spend hours sometimes peeking into all the nooks and crannies.

That all being said, I’m inviting you to come and visit us, for a chat, some beads, a cold glass of water or just to say Hi 🙂

Monika