1975
A young Ralph Vandenberg was fresh out of high school and attending the UofA for business with a view to law. His mom, Jean, owned and operated 3 Candlelight Card Shops, while his dad, Ralph Senior, sold Old Dutch Potato Chips and helped in the card shop. Jean had made the decision to offer costume jewellery in her shops this year.
1975
A young Ralph Vandenberg was fresh out of high school and attending the UofA for business with a view to law. His mom, Jean, owned and operated 3 Candlelight Card Shops, while his dad, Ralph Senior, sold Old Dutch Potato Chips and helped in the card shop. Jean had made the decision to offer costume jewellery in her shops this year.
1976
Seeing how well the costume jewellery was selling, the Capilano mall manager offered Jean a vacant 500 sq ft shop in the mall that another jeweller had vacated. He offered it rent free for 6 months to see if they could make a go of it. Always up for new opportunities, the family teamed up, and Vandenbergs Jewellers opened in the fall of 1976. Jean ran the card shops and the two Ralphs ran the jewellery store while Ralph Jr attended UofA and Ralph Senior worked between all four stores.
1977
Clients kept asking for gold, gemstones, and watches, so Ralph learned all about “genuine gemstones” at his first jewellery show in Red Deer, where he also heard about the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in Santa Monica, California.
1978
With Ralph Senior running the jewellery store, Ralph Jr quit university and traded the harsh Alberta winter for a California beach. He graduated from GIA as a Graduate Gemologist in June and headed home. Realizing he had no experience running a jewellery store, he made a deal with Dan Meyer from Jason’s Goldsmiths. Ralph would run Dan’s lab, and Dan would teach Ralph how to run a jewellery store.
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