Retailer Hall of Fame 2025: Jeffrey Zimmer

Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the print edition of the 2025 Retailer Hall of Fame. Click here to see the full issue. 

The birthplace of the Buffalo wing and a short drive from the majestic Niagara Falls, Buffalo is a beloved upstate New York destination.   

Known as the “City of Good Neighbors,” the town of about 280,000 is home to several long-standing family businesses, like Reeds Jewelers. 

Salesman Samuel Zimmer purchased the independent jewelry business 93 years ago, and it’s remained in the Zimmer family ever since.

Under the leadership of third-generation owner Jeffrey Zimmer, the retailer has since expanded to several locations, but his family’s hometown of Buffalo remains dear to his heart and a central part of his family’s legacy.

The Reeds Up North 
Jeffrey, better known as Jeff, is the owner of Reeds Jewelers.   

Currently, the retailer operates five stores: four along the thruway between Buffalo and Syracuse in New York, and one in Duxbury, Massachusetts. 

The business was founded by the Reed family in 1912, but it’s been in the Zimmer family since 1932, when Jeff’s grandfather, Samuel, purchased the store. 

Samuel worked briefly with his brother, Bill, who eventually moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he bought a jewelry store in 1946. That chain is still in business today and though it shares the name Reeds Jewelers, it operates independently from the New York-based business. 

Samuel was a salesman with a robust clientele in Buffalo, which, according to Jeff, was once one of the largest jewelry manufacturing cities in the country. 

While the specifics of how Samuel acquired the store are lost to history, the Zimmers know he had great support from local manufacturers, who likely helped him with inventory and growing the business. 

When Samuel died in 1963 at age 54, Jeff’s father, Arnold, took over the business.   

At that point, Jeff was only a year or two old, but his close relationship with his father is part of why he eventually followed him into the business.   

As Jeff got older, he’d work in the store after school and during the holiday season. To this day, he can remember the smell of his father’s old store on Main Street, where he sold his first diamond at age 16. 

After high school, he went on to study marketing at Northeastern University, but school wasn’t his strong suit. 

“It was a miracle that I actually got into school. And maybe the second miracle was graduating, but I did,” Jeff says. 

Ultimately, he missed working with his father and was intrigued by the jewelry business, as well as gemstones and diamonds.   

So, after he got his degree from Northeastern, the logical next step was heading to the Gemological Institute of America.   

At the time, GIA was headquartered in Santa Monica, California, a beachside town about 20 miles west of downtown Los Angeles, and it was a bit of a shock to the Buffalo native.

“It was really a lot of fun but so different. The values were so different than where I’m from in upstate New York, which is more like a Midwestern city,” Jeff says. “I was thrown into the middle of LA, where it’s transient and the value system was so tremendously different. It was cool to be there, but it was really great to come home.” 

A New Vision 
When Jeff returned to New York in the early 1980s, his father Arnold was happy to have the support.  

By this time, Reeds had expanded from a single store to four stores.  

“When I came in, it was my father, me, a woman who’d worked for my dad for 40 years doing some inventory control, and a bookkeeper. We didn’t have professional management,” he says.  

“We did virtually everything. From purchasing to inventory control to marketing to store operations. I was thrown in and we just ran.”  

The stores were open seven days a week, from 10 in the morning to 9 at night.  

“I don’t know how we did it. I think youth was on my side and I had the strength to be able to do it. I don’t think I could do that today,” Jeff says.  

When Jeff was in his 30s, Arnold exited the business to care for his wife Barbara, Jeff’s mother, when she became sick. He admired the decision.  

“What a great role model. He put what he built aside and gave himself to my mother until she passed. To this day, his mind is so sharp. He’s questioning me all the time, which I’m so thankful for,” he says.  

Taking over the business was scary, naturally, but Jeff eventually developed his own way of doing things.  

 
Under his leadership, Reeds Jewelers moved out of malls entirely and, as part of a wider vision for more vertical integration, brought all of its manufacturing in-house in 2021. 

Currently, the retailer is relocating one of its smaller locations in Syracuse, set to open later this year, and renovating the flagship store in Buffalo. That upgrade is set to be completed by late 2026. 

No matter how big the project, whenever the going gets tough, Jeff and his team lean on the philosophy of the generations before them—always do the right thing. 

Fair Play 
One of Jeff’s constants is his belief in fairness. 

“He has a passion for the business and what we do, and his overarching theme, which was his father’s and his grandfather’s, is to do the right thing for the customer every time,” says Chief Operations Officer Kristine Weyand, who has been with Reeds for about 30 years. 

“We want to give them a very high-quality piece of jewelry for a very fair price, and that’s always been something that we’ve strived to do.” 

The right way isn’t always the easy way.   

At Reeds, every piece of jewelry is priced according to the exact gemstone weight; there’s no rounding up or down. 

“It’s harder to manage it on the inventory side … but that’s very, very important to him,” Weyand says.   

“It’d be way easier to switch out of that format, but he will never do it. He wants everyone to know exactly what they’re getting with every piece of jewelry they buy.” 

When Weyand, a longtime family friend, first started working at the store, she had just returned to Buffalo after a stint in California. Jeff’s wife Robyn Zimmer asked if she’d like to help out in the store for the holidays.   

She stayed on part-time after Christmas, and when a position opened in the buying office, she took it. 

It was new to her, but Jeff guided her at every step. 

“Because I was a finance major, I was in a totally different line of work. Jeff really taught me the business from ground zero,” she says. 

“Everything I’ve learned about the jewelry business—negotiation skills and how to foster vendor relationships that are healthy and productive for both sides without being abusive on either side—Jeff Zimmer is a master at that.” 

She’s accompanied him on buying trips to India, Thailand, Switzerland, and Hong Kong, and sat in on the meetings. 

“Whether he was meeting with the head of Honora and we were going to a pearl farmer to search through 5,000 pearls to come up with 20 pairs of earrings, or I’m sitting in Thailand with a sapphire vendor and we’re trying to put together a bracelet or a special ring, Jeff’s always included me in all of those things.” 

She adds, “It helped me learn, to see what’s involved in making each piece from the very, very beginning.” 

When it comes to teaching, Jeff is gracious about sharing his passion and insights with all team members, she says. 

New hires for the stores, the factory, and the office all come and tour the company headquarters, located in Amherst, New York, for a day. They meet everyone, learn what they do and who to reach out to with questions.   

“If you’re a new marketing person in the company and you’re interested in our factory and want to go back and learn about manufacturing, he is always there to walk people through, so they understand what’s involved with manufacturing a piece of jewelry,” Weyand says. 

One of her favorite memories is Jeff encouraging her and Reeds Marketing Director Ashley Hall to explore a design idea while on a buying trip to Jaipur, India, a few years ago. 

“Jeff was sorting to make selections of tanzanite, emeralds, and aquamarines, but he allowed Ashley and me to pick some stones we really loved, like an uncleaved emerald, a 14.50-carat ocean blue tanzanite, and elongated aquamarines,” she says.   

“While these stones were outside of his projected purchases, he allowed us to take some chances and build some unique one-of-a-kind pieces.” 

All of the pieces they designed sold, she says.

“It highlights what he has let me do. As a finance major, I wasn’t really creative or anything like that, but I always had a feel for what looks nice and what’s salable; that was just something within me. Jeff really fostered that and let me grow with the company that way and then implement it.” 

“I’d made lots of other things, but I’d never done it from start to finish right at the source. So that was really incredible.” 

Bringing the World to Buffalo  
Jeff is often praised for his foresight over the course of his career.  

His colleague, the now-retired owner of Honora Pearls Joel Schechter, recalls how, in the economically challenging ‘80s, Jeff was thoughtful and resilient, working out the issues with his suppliers and adjusting his business model.   

This remained his mindset about change, including the decision to shift out of malls to build standalone stores.  

“Looking at the world and saying, ‘I need to shift, I need to change,’ took him from a struggling business into a super retailer,” Schechter says. “This kind of foresight in business to see the future, to skate not to where the puck is but where you think the puck is going, is a talent he really has.”  

Jeff’s unique approach to inventory and sourcing gemstones also sets him apart.  

He built his own factory, and he travels to the source for diamonds and colored gemstones. 

“Many [retailers] build factories, but I don’t know any of them who travel to India and Thailand and these other areas to get the raw material,” Schecter says. 

Jeff and Schechter have a nearly five-decades long relationship, and the two share a love for traveling to the source.  

Their fathers did business together, and they eventually formed their own bond when, in Thailand in the ‘80s, Schechter introduced Jeff to one of his suppliers and he began to really learn how to do business directly at the source. 

“Jeff got so good at this that not only did he form these incredible relationships with people over in Thailand, but he actually jumped past a lot of the dealers in Thailand and found his way to the mines in Chanthaburi,” Schechter says. 

He adds, “I think [Jeff] is one of the most knowledgeable, significant retailers in the U.S. with so much knowledge of buying not only diamonds directly from the source, but rubies, sapphire, tanzanite, pearl, and many other gemstones.” 

“This is a difficult skill that is usually relegated to the wholesale side of the business. He is as talented as a buyer as anyone I’ve ever come across in the industry. Quite a gift.”

 
Jeff understood that, along with creating quality pieces, he needed to partner with the big brands for the sake of the business. 

Weyand remembers when Reeds first started carrying brand name lines. The customer desire was there, but it meant more changes to the business.  

“You’ve got to foster those relationships,” Weyand says.   

“You’ve got to focus your attention specifically on each individual brand and figure out how to optimize that for both you and the brand.”   

Jeff was open-minded, not only to the value of adding brands to the store, but in all business decisions, Weyand says.   

“He’s always been willing to evolve with the pressures of the business, and the changes of the business. He has a great foresight and a great feel for where the business is going, what might need to be done, and what we need to do in the face of adversity to keep everyone employed, to keep the business healthy.”  

Today, Reeds Jewelers carries more than a dozen jewelry and watch brands, including David Yurman, Lagos, John Hardy, Heather B. Moore, Monica Rich Kosann, Rolex, Tudor, and Breitling. 

Family Support
As he grew into a leader, Jeff leaned on his family in the retailing business. 

His second cousin, Alan Zimmer, is the CEO of the Reeds Jewelers based in North Carolina, or, as Jeff calls it, “The Big Reeds.” (The New York state Reeds has five stores; the North Carolina Reeds has more than 60.)   

They grew up in the business together and often talk through ideas with each other.   

“He’s been a beacon for me,” Jeff says of Alan. “He’s made our failures a lot less painful because his advice has been sage.”  

Both businessmen, Jeff is more active on the buying side.  

“I’m a retailer,” Alan jokes. “He’s like a real jeweler, if you will.”  

“He loves the art of buying, he loves to get to the source,” Alan says. “He likes to go to the mines and see where the rubies are coming from and the emeralds ... He likes to travel the world to bring the best back to Buffalo.”  

Alan said when his daughter Brittney—who, along with his other daughter Genna and nephew Mark, are the emerging third-generation leaders of the Reeds in North Carolina—was coming into the business, Jeff took her on a trip around the world with him.   

Jeff and Robyn have two kids, Sam and Rachel, who both have played a role in the evolution of Reeds in their own ways.   

Sam, his oldest, now in his 30s, was born with special needs. Growing up, he loved construction, so Jeff would take him to construction sites to talk about the trucks and cranes. One Sunday afternoon, he asked Jeff, “How come we don’t build our stores?” 

“The kid couldn’t write his name, couldn’t read, at that point. [But] it made me think,” Jeff says.

“That was such a pivotal moment because we were mall-based. From that moment, it shifted us from mall-based to family-owned stores, so that was a tremendous moment. An ‘aha’ moment.” 

Rachel is Reeds’ vice president of strategic development. 

She grew up working in the stores, tying ribbons at Christmas time. In the ‘90s, she remembers Jeff traveling a lot and being allowed to stay up late to talk to him on the phone. 

Before he would leave, they would kiss each other’s hands and then give each other a hug. 

“You can’t open your fists until he walks away, until you can’t see the other person anymore. And that was just kind of our thing,” says Rachel.   

“As a kid, it was a little scary having your dad travel so frequently overseas or for long periods of time. But it was so nice being able to hear his voice over the phone, and then when he would come back, he would always bring me a soap from the hotel he stayed at.” 

In 2016, after graduating college, she accompanied him on a trip to India.   

“It made me realize how special our business is and how everything we do has our fingerprint on it, how we touch every piece that goes through our doors,” she says.   

“To see how he was doing this for 20 years before I went, and the conditions and those countries then, and how he’s seen it completely develop. He went over there not knowing anyone, knocking on doors. Seeing what he does over there, it just made me so proud.”

Following that trip, Rachel went on to get her MBA and, later, with her father’s encouragement, a law degree.   

The two have a special bond. 

“He always has a great perspective. Whenever I’m stuck and don’t know what to do, he’s the first one I look to, because he’s right there,” she says. 

“And I just love seeing how he handles day-to-day challenges. He’s not always positive, but he’s always extremely generous, always extremely fair.” 

Though Rachel’s children are young now, she shares her father’s passion for keeping the business in the family for generations to come. 

As she was growing into a leader in her own right, she once asked Jeff, “Dad, how did you get the business to this place?”   

He responded, “I took what [Arnold] handed down to me, and I put my own spin on it. You’re going to do the same thing; you’re going to put your own spin on it.” 

Home Sweet Buffalo 
While Jeff and Rachel are close in the business—they literally share an office—they’re also close at home, living right around the corner from each other. 

There’s no place they’d rather be than in Buffalo. 

According to Jeff, the city is seeing a resurgence.   

“We had a tremendous drain of population, young, educated population, when our industry started to fail in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, but Buffalo is back. It incubates a lot of tech now. M&T Bank is here. We’ve got professional sports teams, like the Buffalo Bills and Sabers, and we’re the official jeweler of both,” he says. 

Buffalo’s nickname is the “City of Good Neighbors,” and for the Zimmers, community is personal, playing an important role in their kids’ lives, particularly Sam’s. 

“He’s like the mayor of Buffalo,” Jeff says. “Anywhere we go, people come up and hug him. He knows people in every restaurant and walking down the street.” 

“He certainly taught us that it takes a community to raise a child.” 

Jeff says his main focus as Reeds continues to grow is to be a good citizen, build relationships, and give back to his community. According to his team, he’s achieving that every day. 

“If you come to Buffalo and go to dinner with him, he knows the chef, the waitress, and the bartender. Half the people who are in the restaurant, he’s buying them dinner or drinks. He’s a beloved person in this community, and his family is as well,” Weyand says. 

The Zimmers philanthropy is extensive, she adds. 

There are endowments to local universities and hospitals in the Zimmer family name, and they make annual donations to charities for the developmentally disabled, autism research, cancer and diabetes, and local high schools and colleges. They also sponsor local peewee and grade school sports teams and often make jewelry donations supporting local hospital galas and other events.  

“They’re very charitable and giving and just wonderful people, in and outside of the work environment. That’s why it’s such a pleasure to work here, because that atmosphere carries over,” Weyand says.  

She continues, “That is a huge part of who [Jeff] is. He wants to make sure his successes are not just kept within his four walls. He’s very interested in sharing that with the community, the people who he works with and his family.  

“He definitely will give everyone else credit for anything before he ever takes credit for himself, but he does deserve all of the credit.”