At the Diamond Gallery, there’s a variety of beautiful jewelry to see, but it also has a beautiful story behind it.
Wedding ring designed by the Diamond Gallery (photo taken by Mr. Maaz)
I interviewed Suzana Akand, daughter of inspiring dad and businessman Shahid Akand, who is opening another jewelry store in Knoxville, TN called the Diamond Gallery. In late 2012, Mr. Akand opened his first, of many, jewelry stores in Morristown. The day of the opening was Saturday, November 11, 2025. The Diamond Gallery specializes in customization, which means you can customize the jewelry you want to feel like you. The diamond gallery is also pro-Palestine.
Aylene: To start off, why don’t you tell me a little bit about your family’s jewelry store and how it started?
Suzana: It started when my dad had become good friends with his boss, and was promoted to co-owner, and he has worked as so for the last 13 years.
Aylene: What types of jewelry does the store specialize in? Anything specific?
Suzana: Our family would probably be specialized in either custom jewelry or pandora.
Aylene: How long has your family owned the business?
Suzana: We’ve owned it for about 13 years.
Aylene: Do you know why your parents decided to specifically open a jewelry store and not some other kind?
Suzana: When my parents had moved here from Bangladesh, they started learning how to sell jewelry, and so they fell in love with it.
Aylene: Do you think small businesses are important to the community?
Suzana: Absolutely, small businesses have always been important and honorable in my eyes.
Aylene: Are there any values your family holds like kindness, honesty, or fairness that you think influence the way the store is run? Do you think these values shape the customer’s experience?
Suzana: Our family has always tried to not only make customers happy, but give them what they want with best deals we can give them, or if they have have a custom order that is needed as soon as possible we try our best to delivery it quickly
Aylene: How often do you visit the store? Do you help out around there?
Suzana: Truly, I don’t visit much, especially because there isn’t much time, and I don’t help as much as I’d like, as I don’t have any training and I have to deal with school.
Aylene: From what you’ve seen, what is the hardest part about running the store? Difficulties or drawbacks?
Suzana: The hardest part would probably be maintaining bills, as stores have rent, light bills, and more
Aylene: What do you think makes your family’s store different from others?
Suzana: We take care of customers as best as we can, as we truly try our best to care.
Aylene: That’s great, thank you for your time
Suzana: No problem, thanks for letting me share
As you can see, the Diamond Gallery is a special place with a special backstory. There are a lot of pros to this business, such as the fact that it’s muslim-owned, pro-Palestine, kind to customers, and more. The Diamond Gallery is also the only store that sells Pandora (other than the Pandora store itself). The owner(s) of the Diamond Gallery are kind, respectful, and amazing people mashallah
