Myself, Haroon Sait, was born in India in a beautiful state called Kerala in the southern tip of India. I graduated as a software engineer in 1989. I married my sweetheart, Thafseera, in September 1992.
After working in the Indian capital New Delhi and then in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, I landed in San Francisco, California in September of 1999 as a Software Consultant. Soon I was assigned a project in Raleigh, NC followed by one in Charlotte, NC where we have lived since then with our five boys.
Work as a consultant involved lots of traveling. Flying every week seemed glamorous for some time. Soon I had enough of that. My green card arrived quickly. This tempted me to cut loose from corporate life and step into business. The motivation was freedom from 9-5. Thafseera stood by me during the transition, the ups and downs to make that happen. We have been running this family business since 2002.
Initially we started our business at a flea market (swap meet). This was the time when Amazon and eBay were in their infancy. We hopped on to them and we are still part of them. We added Etsy and Walmart later in our journey. In 2013 we moved to a bigger warehouse and office building where we still operate from.
We sold both gold and silver jewelry in the marketplaces. Natural gemstones and Gemstone jewelry always had a special place in our heart. Our Jewelry was mostly made with gemstones and thus we named our business Gem Avenue.
Our love of gemstones got an upgrade when we fell in love with mineral specimens and crystals from where the gemstones are cut and polished. The path to the world of crystals and mineral specimens were opened wide after we met some wonderful people in India, Pakistan and Indonesia. We enjoy a fruitful partnership which helps us secure rare mineral specimens for collectors and enthusiasts.
When mineral specimens started coming in huge quantities, we added a wholesale division in our warehouse and added trade shows where we met wonderful retail partners who carry our merchandise.
Both Thafseera and I enjoy meeting new people. We thank God for all his blessings and strongly believe in friendship, respect, kindness, honesty and transparency. Everyone who has visited our store has great things to say about the store and the welcome they experienced. Our google reviews speak tons on that.
If you ever have a chance to visit our store in Charlotte, NC please come tell us hello.
