Amethyst Cathedrals to Quartz Treasures: Colorado Independent Warehouse Group is a Wholesale Powerhouse

The Colorado Independent Warehouse Group came to be when two Denver metro area companies and old friends, The Rock Warehouse and Vicjon-Peru, moved their wholesale operations to a warehouse center in Lakewood, Colo. Some years later, JK Stone opened a warehouse in this Lakewood business center as well.

The Rock Warehouse has been in business since 1987. Steve Applebaum, formerly a geologist with mining company Phelps Dodge, began the business by doing gem and mineral shows nationwide. He was joined by his wife, Janet, formerly a foreign language secondary teacher. In 1991, they opened a rock shop, Desert Gems, in Denver. Along with this storefront, Steve continued to develop the wholesale business. They sold the shop in 2008 and renamed the wholesale business The Rock Warehouse, which now supplies inventory to most of the retail rock and gem businesses in Colorado and surrounding states. Through their website, they now reach the rock and mineral community throughout the U.S. and internationally. One great perk is the annual buying trips the Applebaums make to Brazil and Uruguay, where they buy nearly all their amethyst, citrine, agate, quartz, and many other gems and minerals.

Vicjon-Peru started in 1987 in Denver when metallurgist engineer Gerardo Bedon air-freighted from Peru to his aunt, Consuelo Piccarella, a 250-kilo barrel of quartz-in-pyrite specimens. Growing up in the business, Consuelo’s children, Victor and JoAnn, started working full-time in 2004 for the family. In 2010, Victor and JoAnn bought the business from their parents. Not long after, the Applebaums invited Vicjon-Peru to join The Rock Warehouse at their current location at 810 Quail Street in Lakewood. In 2008, their warehouse became the venue for the Colorado Independent Warehouse Show and has since been one of the official shows of the Denver Gem & Mineral Showcase each September. They also host a show in April at their Colorado warehouse. 

The Applebaum’s took this warehouse-show model and applied it in Tucson, Ariz., a few years later and, again, invited Vicjon-Peru to join. After a few years of annually changing the warehouse location, the Arizona Independent Warehouse Show found its permanent home at 1500 E. Apache Park Place in 2015. It’s one of the official shows of the Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Showcase in January-February.

For contact information, more photos, website and social media links, products they sell, and more, visit The Rock Warehouse, Vicjon-Peru, and JK Stone company profile pages on the Xpo Press website. 

For detailed information about the Independent Warehouse Shows along with directions to each show visit the profile pages on the Xpo Press website for the Colorado Independent Warehouse Show (Sept.), Colorado Independent Warehouse Show (April), and the Arizona Independent Warehouse Show.

The Colorado Independent Group is open year-round. Its three principal companies welcome wholesale visitors to their location in Lakewood and welcome orders by phone or email.