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PANDORA

Grand Arcade is at the heart of shopping in Wigan town centre and home to over 35 retailers with a mix of high street fashion, health and beauty, cafes and independents. This week we’ve been speaking to Tasha the manager of PANDORA who have been open in the centre since 2014.

Describe your business: PANDORA operates in more than 100 countries with more than 6,800 points of sales and employing 27,000 employees. PANDORA is mostly known for its story telling charm bracelets, but also offering earrings, necklaces and carriers such as keyrings and bag loups. We pride ourselves on creating a journey through our jewellery, each piece tells a sentimental story.

Tell us about the history of your business: PANDORA was founded in 1982 by Danish jeweller Per Enevoldsen and his wife Winnie. Originally having one store in Copenhagen, Per started to sell to wholesalers in Denmark before travelling to Thailand in search of jewellery importing. In 2000, PANDORA’s first charm bracelet was created.

How many members of staff do you employ? Currently, we employ 11 staff members and will be recruiting for seasonal sales advisors to start with us in September.

What’s the best thing about working for PANDORA? There are many perks to working for PANDORA. The most important one for us is the “non-corporate” feel to the business. We are encouraged to be ourselves through our style and jewellery. Another positive to PANDORA is its togetherness as a brand. We provide constant training and are focussed on talent agenda this year which develops our staffs confidence and knowledge. PANDORA also gives staff some amazing benefits.

Who are your customers and why do they continue to shop with you? Being a local PANDORA store, our customers are often return shoppers. They chose to shop with us because we genuinely care about their story and their journey with PANDORA. We take time to really get to know the customer and their reason for purchasing. We never put pressure on the customers to purchase something that isn’t going to benefit them, we carefully pick out pieces of jewellery to resonate with them and what story they want to tell on their bracelet. We believe every moment matters.

What’s your best seller? It has to be our bracelets. Each one is personalised to the customer and keeps the customer coming back. Rings are also a very popular seller for us.

What’s the best thing about being a retailer in Grand Arcade? The Grand Arcade staff are all extremely friendly and helpful. We have a great relationship with all of the staff in the centre. The location of the store is great us being in a busy centre, the advertising on Grand Arcade’s social media and advertising boards also helps our business massively.

Why should people shop local? People should shop local to keep their home town alive, Wigan has a lot to offer. Too many retailers are closing due to online shopping. You need to see a product and be assisted to eel that personal touch in a sale, you’ll never that full sales experience online.