Occasions Fine Jewelry named one of America’s coolest fine jewelry stores

MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) - Occasions Fine Jewelry in Midland was named one of America’s coolest jewelry stores by Instore magazine.

“I always said that this was kind of my love letter to Midland Texas so for it to get this kind of recognition was exciting,” said President and CEO Michael Fleck.

Fleck grew up in jewelry stores, he says Occasions is both his passion and his home.

“Midland is just such a cool town, it gets a bad reputation a lot of the time and I don’t understand why so to get a chance to say ‘hey no we do have cool in this town and we do things that are neat and are interesting’ is everything that I wanted,” said Fleck.

Fleck’s father founded the store in 1989.

The store was renovated and expanded in 2021 to be symbolic of Midland.

“A lot of taupes and a lot of browns because Midland has a lot of taupes and a lot of browns but then little splashes of green and a lot of splashes of orange and purple kind of like a West Texas sunset,” said Fleck.

Occasions competed against more than 80 stores across the country with seven or more employees for the recognition.

“Jewelry stores have had a reputation for quite a long time as being stuffy and intimidating and if a store concentrates on its vibe, its appearance and everything to do with social media marketing it lowers the threshold for entering a jewelry store,” said Instore Managing Editor Eileen McClelland.

Mcclelland says they recruit a panel of judges to select the winners.

“They were graded on store design, marketing, online presence and individuality and Occasions scored high across the board in those areas,” said McClelland.

Fleck says he thinks if you’ve never been in and gave them a chance you’ll find a friendly face and feel at home.

Copyright 2023 KOSA. All rights reserved.