Locals and visitors alike can now avoid the trip to St. Thomas on their quest for quality duty free jewels and electronics, thanks to the recent opening of Royal Caribbean in Mongoose Junction.
Royal Caribbean, which has three stores on St. Thomas, opened more than two weeks ago after approximately six months of renovations to the former Blue Palm Jewelers location. Vivek Daswani, who owns Royal Caribbean with his father, uncle and cousins, first saw the need for a store on St. John during a visit from an old friend.
“I had a friend from high school who came to visit me, and he spent his 10 days here on St. John,” said Daswani. “This lifelong friend, knowing that I own jewelry stores on St. Thomas, still bought his jewelry on St. John. It just opened my mind to the fact that if my own friends love and cherish St. John so much, what reason would people who don’t know us and our company have to come to St. Thomas.”
Jewelry, Watches, Electronics
“We have to be where the action is, and there is action on St. John,” Daswani added.
Although the first few weeks at the St. John Royal Caribbean store have been only sporadically busy, Daswani expects business to pick up as the height of tourism season approaches.
The store currently carries jewelry by Judith Ripka and Laura Gibson featuring yellow, blue and white diamonds and emeralds, rubies, sapphires and more; and a large selection of watches, including pieces by Breguet, Movado, Chanel and Gucci; and cameras and other electronic products. Jewelry cleaning and evaluation services will be available at the St. John Royal Caribbean location as well.
“We’ll have several more brands in the future, which I’m not at liberty to reveal at this moment, and we’ll do events that will involve select brands,” said Daswani.
The new jewelry and electronics store offers more than just duty free shopping for tourists, Daswani explained.
“It’s a comfortable environment, and it gives people who don’t normally get the opportunity to get to St. Thomas to pick up jewelry, watches, cameras and electronics,” he said. “If there is something we don’t have at the St. John location, it will be there for you within 24 hours, assuming it’s in stock at one of our St. Thomas locations.”
Now Hiring
Royal Caribbean was a part of the St. John community for several years before opening their Mongoose Junction store, according to Daswani.
“We enjoy and look forward to being a part of the St. John community, which we have been through all these years in terms of contributions and donations,” he said. “We thank everyone for their encouragement and support in getting this location open.”
The Royal Caribbean St. John location is hiring. Anyone interested in applying for a job should stop by the store and fill out an application. The new store is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Saturdays and Mondays 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, call 714-5380.
