DURHAM — Pandora, an international jewelry company known for its customizable charm bracelets, will open its newest store today at The Streets at Southpoint.
The Durham location will carry the entire line of Pandora jewelry, featuring products ranging from $25 for sterling silver charms to more than $1,600 for 18 karat pave rings in the LovePods collection.
The Southpoint store will offer a Mix & Match special through the end of the month, allowing customers to receive a free sterling silver Mix & Match post set with a $20 retail value with the purchase of $75 or more of the Mix & Match Charms.
“We are excited about the new Southpoint location,” said Trey Bailey, whose family owns Bailey’s Fine Jewelry and decided to launch the Pandora stores in the Triangle.
The Southpoint location is the second Pandora to open in the Triangle. The is at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh.
Fed acknowledges low-rate risks
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve doesn’t expect the recovery will be strong enough to quickly drive down the jobless rate, and acknowledged its efforts to keep the rebound going could feed a new speculative bubble.
Record-low interest rates “could lead to excessive risk-taking in financial markets,” according to documents released Tuesday of the Fed’s closed-door meeting earlier this month. It also could cause consumers, investors and businesses to worry about inflation taking off.
At the Nov. 3-4 meeting, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues kept the target range for its bank lending rate at zero to 0.25 percent.
Swift action on dangers vowed
WASHINGTON — The head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Tuesday promised swift action to get dangerous products off the market, acknowledging that the agency didn’t move quickly enough on a record recall of more than 2 million cribs linked to four deaths.
At issue are some 2.1 million drop-side cribs made by Stork Craft Manufacturing of Canada. Four infants suffocated in the cribs.
CPSC said the recall involves 1.2 million cribs in the United States and almost 1 million in Canada. Sales of the cribs being recalled date back to 1993 and nearly 150,000 of the cribs carry the Fisher-Price logo.
Big book sellers post losses
NEW YORK — Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group Inc., the nation’s two largest brick-and-mortar book sellers, both posted quarterly losses Thursday and forecast a difficult holiday season, saying competition from discount chains and online retailers is stiffening.
Even with online presence, traditional bookstores have had a rough time facing off against online sellers like Amazon.com as they also compete with low-price brick-and-mortar stores including Wal-Mart Stores and Target and cope with consumers cutting discretionary purchases amid tough economic times.
— From staff, wire reports
