Best Jewelry Store in Ladson, SC

Marco's Pizza, the nation's fastest-growing pizza brand*, will be continuing expansion with a new Moncks Corner location set to open at 2826 Hwy. 52 as part of the new Publix shopping center in November 2022. The brand is looking to continue expansion in the Charleston market.

Marco's Pizza currently has 11 locations open in the area and can be found at:

- 650 College Park Rd. in Ladson, SC- 9500 Dorchester Rd. in Summerville, SC- 1585 Central Ave. in Summerville, SC- 1001 Bacons Bridge Rd. in Summerville...

To Read Full Story Login Below.

This Week in Retail: Wrapping Up July; Digesting the Latest GDP Data

Wrapping up July, grocers are promoting fan-favorite grilling items like steaks, pork chops, and shrimp in an effort to encourage at-home cooking during the dog days of summer—a seasonally sluggish period for meat sales.

Seafood features make up nearly 33% of total protein ad volume this week, marking the fifth consecutive week that it has seized the top spot. Beef comes in second with 23%, closely followed by pork with 22%. Chicken claims 17.5% and eggs make up 1.3% of ad space, down from nearly 5% the week...

Full Story »Jul 28 8:57 AM, UB Newswires

Retail

Grocery

ANALYSIS

Grilling

Tilapia

Shrimp

Chicken Breasts

Beef

Pork

Burgers

Consumers Rely on Chicken Even as Inflation Affects Prices

While consumers average rating for their current financial situation is in the middle between “poor” and “excellent,” 87 percent are buying more or the same amount of fresh chicken now compared to six months ago, according to research presented today at the 2022 Chicken Marketing Summit.

The National Chicken Council (NCC) and WATT Global Media presented the results of a study that focused on current and anticipated U.S. consumer behavior, specifically, consumption of fresh chicken. The results suggest opportunities for chicken to maintain market share. IRI provided supporting data from its...

Full Story »Jul 28 8:04 AM, General News

Inflation

Chicken Prices

Food Prices

Chicken

NCC

Grocery Bill Inflation Might Have Peaked

Provided current trends hold, shoppers should get some relief from relentless price increases at the grocery store.

This week, Europe's largest food and personal-care companies reported big price rises for the three months through June. Evian water maker Danone and its rival Nestlé are charging roughly 7% and 8% more for their goods respectively than they were this time last year. Unilever's brands, including Ben & Jerry's and Magnum ice cream, cost 11% more on average.

All three businesses have worked American shoppers particularly hard. Nestlé raised prices in North America by 9.8% in its first half, compared with 4.9% for European consumers.

Full Story »Jul 28 8:59 AM, General News

Grocery Prices

Food Inflation

Inflation

Technomic Reveals Global Opportunities for Breakfast

Technomic just released the Breakfast Global Menu Category Report, providing robust coverage, including consumer food and beverage preferences; segment patronage; key global, regional and local restaurant brands; and menu trends and insights on new product development strategies.

“The breakfast category remained largely resilient throughout the global pandemic, and now presents an opportunistic daypart for many restaurant operators and supplier partners,” explains Aaron Jourden, director of global research and insights at Technomic. “Consumers are back to using restaurants and foodservice outlets as normality returns to everyday life, but their attitudes, preferences and even venue..."

Full Story »Jul 28 8:00 AM, General News

Breakfast

Breakfast Global Menu Category Report

Technomic

Marriott International Names OpenTable as a Preferred Restaurant Technology Provider

OpenTable, part of Booking Holdings, signed a global agreement to become a preferred restaurant technology provider to Marriott International. Currently, OpenTable serves more than 1,400 restaurants operated by Marriott hotels in properties across 56 countries throughout the world.

The agreement will make it easier for restaurants located in a Marriott International branded property worldwide to take advantage of OpenTable technology and onboard their teams. Marriott International's portfolio of more than 8,000 hotels includes an extensive roster of full-service restaurants, which collectively have earned more than 40 Michelin stars...

Full Story »Jul 28 8:00 AM, General News

OpenTable

Marriott

Dollar General to Build Three New Distribution Centers

Dollar General is expanding its supply chain infrastructure.

Dollar General Corp. is supporting its fresh product and private fleet expansion with new supply chain infrastructure.

The discount retailer plans to build three new distribution centers in North Little Rock, Ark.; Aurora, Colo.; and Salem, Ore. Collectively, Dollar General expects the three approximately one-million-square-foot facilities to create up to 1,100 total jobs and represent an approximately $480 million combined investment.

At full capacity, the Aurora and Salem facilities are each expected to create approximately 400 new...

Full Story »Jul 28 8:00 AM, General News

Distribution Centers

Expansion

Supply Chain Infrastructure

Dollar General Corp

7-Eleven Celebrates National Chicken Wing Day with 10 for $10 Deal on Classic Wings

There's a lot to celebrate in July—notably 7-Eleven's 95th birthday on July 11!—and that includes July 29, aka National Chicken Wing Day. This year, 7-Eleven, Inc. invites 7Rewards® and Speedy Rewards® members to get saucy with 10 classic wings for just $10 at participating 7-Eleven®, Speedway®, and Stripes® stores*.

No matter the customer's wing flavor preference—roasted, spicy, or buffalo—America's largest convenience retailer offers them hot and ready to eat...

Full Story »Jul 28 8:00 AM, General News

Convenience Store

National Chicken Wing Day

7-Eleven

Quiznos Invites Guests to Indulge in the Flavors of Summer with Innovative New Menu Item

Quiznos is introducing the Hickory Smoked Burnt Ends sandwich to its menu today, combining the favorite seasonal flavor of BBQ with premium burnt end cuts – a classic barbecue craving in the U.S. that continues to grow in popularity internationally.

The Hickory Smoked Burnt Ends sandwich is made with carefully selected prime rib cuts smoked with hickory wood chips that offer a tender, juicy and flavorful bite with crispy bark. The burnt ends are complemented by pickles, red onions, melted cheddar cheese, and topped with Blue...

Full Story »Jul 28 8:00 AM, General News

New Menu Item

Limited Time Only

Quiznos

The pandemic-fueled boom in retail sales, particularly from online shopping, has given rise to a new type of entrepreneur — the person willing to flip all of the merchandise consumers decided they didn’t really want for a profit.

Liquidation sales are among the fastest-growing segments of the retail industry as a record $761 billion worth of goods were returned in 2021, according to a study by the National Retail Federation. While some of that merchandise makes its way back to major retailers’ shelves, an increasing number is being sold, either by the pallet or in discount bins, by liquidators who see gold in someone else’s castoffs.

Tim Morris remembers he first heard about such sales shortly after COVID-19 hit. A co-owner of a Ladson towing business for roughly 20 years, Morris said he decided to sell liquidation merchandise on the side after visiting one of the North Carolina warehouses where returned goods from retailers like Target and Dollar General are sold at auction or for a set price per bundle.

“One day, just out of the blue, we decided to go to North Carolina and check out the (warehouse) and I wound up buying a semi-truck load of merchandise,” Morris said, explaining how KT Bins & more was born.

At first, Morris would simply unbundle all the goods and sell them in a small store next to the towing company’s office. But after a while, he saw the market for reselling entire pallets purchased directly from the liquidation warehouse. Such pallets might contain multiple boxes of the same product — a recent offering included nearly a dozen fire pits, for example — or a bunch of related goods, like lawn mowers and a sprinkle of other yard and garden tools.

“We started selling a few pallets and then we said, ‘You know, let’s get into the pallet business. There’s no one else close by doing it.’ ”

On sunny days, Morris lines his palleted merchandise at the front of his business along U.S. Highway 78 to attract passersby. While KT Bins & More is only open three days a week, it attracts a steady stream of new and return customers.

“We have a pretty good crowd,” Morris said, adding that inflation has more people looking for bargains.

The liquidation market has more than doubled since 2008 to $664 billion a year, according to a CNBC report citing a study by Colorado State University. The National Retail Federation said nearly 17 percent of all merchandise consumers purchased in 2021 was returned, up from 10.6 percent the previous year. Returns are even greater for online sales — nearly 21 percent in 2021.

The boom is being driven by a record amount of imported retail goods moving through the Port of Charleston and other major seaports during the past couple of years. When online sales skyrocketed during the pandemic shutdowns, spurred in part by a series of stimulus payouts, retailers began ordering extra products to meet demand. They also started placing orders far earlier than ever before for seasonal goods, like back-to-school and holiday merchandise.

Supply chain snarls kept much of that merchandise tied up at ports or distribution centers, rather than on store shelves, and when retailers finally got the goods, they found demand had shifted. These days, inflation and an economic slowdown have left retailers with a glut of products, and some shoppers are sending back the merchandise they once couldn’t live without.

Processing a return can cost retailers up to two-thirds of a product’s original price, CNBC reported. So retailers are more often deciding to forgo putting merchandise ranging from clothing and kitchen items to electronics and power tools back on a shelf. Instead, they’re selling it to warehouses like the one Liquidity Services operates in North Wilkesboro, N.C.

Recently, the warehouse on Armory Road offered a pallet containing 223 pounds of returned toys and games from Target, which fetched $505. Another bundle of eight pallets containing name-brand tools and hardware with a retail price of nearly $15,000 sold for $2,900, better than an 80 percent discount.

Much of that merchandise will wind up on eBay, Poshmark or other online outlets for secondhand goods, at flea markets or at stores like KT Bins & More, where pallets arrive by tractor-trailer — at least one, often more — every week. Morris said he goes through all the merchandise he buys to make sure it’s in good working condition.

He’s not the only entrepreneur looking to cash in on returned goods.

Elise Milbrandt owns the Amazing Bins store in Ladson, which has wooden bins packed with more than 150,000 new items each week. Milbrandt buys tractor-trailer loads of liquidated merchandise, such as a recent haul of $500,000 worth of shoes, that’s sold at lower prices the longer they sit in a bin. New stock is loaded on Saturday, when goods sell for $7 per item. By Tuesday, whatever is left goes for $2 per item. The rest of the week is spent purchasing more goods and restocking for the next Saturday’s debut.

“What you can expect to find in our store is over 30 large bins filled with everything from car parts to Cartier and Gucci to groceries and everything in between,” Milbrandt says on the store’s website. Recent items have included bath bombs, memory-foam mattresses, area rugs and Keurig coffee makers.

Milbrandt said she and her husband, Mike, got the idea to open Amazing Bins in 2020 after visiting similar stores in the Upstate. Among the most valuable items customers have found in the store’s bins include a pair of 18-karat gold rings — verified by a jeweler — and a leather purse sporting Gucci’s trademark double-G logo. While Milbrandt said she’s not qualified to authenticate such items, it’s the thrill of finding a hidden treasure that lures many people to the store.

“The lady who bought it said, ‘Gucci, Foochee, I don’t care — it’s a beautiful black bag and it’s leather and I’m thrilled’,” Milbrandt said. “For $7 you get a real leather purse that brings you joy, I say that’s a win.”

There are similar setups across South Carolina, such as Palmetto Pallets in Florence, Bargain Bins in Williston and Barnwell, Dig A Deal in Abbeville and Bin Time stores in Mauldin and Anderson, where customers regularly line up hours ahead of opening time to be the first to sort through the week’s new merchandise.

“Typically, we have a few hundred people waiting outside” on days when new stock is introduced, Michael Prendamano, owner of The Bin Store in North Augusta, told that city’s WJBF television station.

Summerville resident Chad Brown said he visits KT Bins & More often to see what new merchandise might be available for the home he’s trying to furnish.

“There’s always good stuff here,” he said. “Last weekend, we bought a Rigid shop-vac, some fans and a little tabletop heater.”

Like many consumers, Brown also buys some items to resell. He recently bought a $150 pallet with a pair of propane fire pits, keeping one and selling the other to recoup some of his money.

“Any pallet here, if there’s something you need or something way on the bottom that you think looks nice, buy it because you’re going to make out,” he said.

LADSON, S.C. (WCIV) — Officials with Trident Medical Center are officially breaking ground on a new, standalone behavioral hospital!

It will be the first the first freestanding behavioral hospital to open in the Lowcountry in over 30 years.

The nearly 58,790-square-foot facility in Ladson will include a single-story hospital and interior courtyard with space for recreation and therapy. The facility will have “state of the art” inpatient and outpatient services for Lowcountry residents.

The main difference this building will provide in comparison to general hospital care is more of a focus and extended resources for geriatric and adolescent care. The behavioral hospital will continue adult care as well.

The medical director for behavioral health at Trident, Jeffrey Culver, says he starts every day in the emergency room.

Currently, there are only 250 beds for mental health patients in the Lowcountry, and without a dedicated space for them — in most cases — a lot of them must go to the emergency room.

But with the construction of this new facility, Culver hopes it will help provide a safe space for real change and will get more people the help they need.

“I fully expect when this facility opens, that the dialogue both locally and nationally will continue to help chip away at that stigma. I think we're still a long way from where we need to be, where we can talk about mental health and mental illness the same way we talk about things like heart disease and cancer, but we're getting there. And I think being able to open up a brand-new facility and have people see that what we're doing is part of medicine,” Culver said.

ABC News 4's Sean Mahoney spoke with longtime mental health advocate Kelly Troyer, who works with the National Alliance of Mental Illness - Greater Charleston area.

She says the Lowcountry has come a long way in providing mental health services, but that there is still more work to be done and she hopes this will help kickstart that change.

Troyer also says the need for mental health services has drastically increased over the course of the pandemic.

The City of Charleston reported a 78.1 percent increase in the number of suicides from 2020 to 2021.

Troyer also has a personal connection to mental illness, as her son, Alex, was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. She says finding resources in the Lowcountry was nearly impossible in the beginning, as she had to go out of state for care.

However, she says the construction of this new facility is a step in the right direction.

“As far as access to service, no, there's not enough in our state, especially in the rural areas. Then also, even here in the Lowcountry, we have great resources and we have people. But look at the Latino community and the African-American community, there's more [of a ] stigma around mental health conditions, so they don't reach out as much to the access that's here,” Troyer said. “So this groundbreaking of this hospital is very good news for us in our community. And we want to celebrate that.”

The hospital is expected to start out with 60 inpatient beds with the ability to expand and also will provide outpatient resources.

Construction started on the $30.4 million facility started in December, but officials with Trident waited until Thursday to hold the ceremony because of the weather.

Work is expected to wrap up in spring of 2023.

The groundbreaking ceremony and celebration is taking place at 11 a.m., at the construction site, which is about two miles from Trident Medical Center and right off highway 17 in Ladson, at 3445 Ingleside Boulevard.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – TELUS International, a customer experience innovator that designs, builds and delivers digital solutions for global brands, today announced plans to establish operations in Charleston County. The $3.4 million initial investment will create approximately 1,200 new jobs by 2022.

TELUS International provides multilingual digital customer experience and digital IT solutions to clients all over the world. The company has over 56,000 team members, operates in more than 25 countries and partners with brands across high-growth industry verticals, including: technology and games; communications and media; eCommerce and fintech; healthcare and travel; and hospitality. In the United States, TELUS International also has operations in Folsom, California and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Located at 3450 Ingleside Boulevard in North Charleston, TELUS International’s new facility will increase the company’s operating capacity to meet growing customer demand.

TELUS International is currently welcoming team members into the new facility. Individuals interested in joining TELUS International should visit the company’s careers webpage.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development has approved job development credits related to the project.

QUOTES

“We are thrilled to be expanding into North Charleston and tapping into the region’s attractive talent pool to support our company’s continued growth, as well as becoming more actively involved in the months and years ahead in community giving and volunteer initiatives to contribute to the health and well-being of the region’s citizens." -TELUS International Chief Operating Officer Chuck Koskovich

“We’re excited to welcome TELUS International to South Carolina and celebrate their decision to do business in our state. By creating approximately 1,200 new jobs in Charleston County, this company is making a commitment to the entire community that will make a real difference in the lives of South Carolinians, and we couldn’t be more excited.” -Gov. Henry McMaster

“Today, we congratulate TELUS International on the announcement of their first South Carolina operations. This $3.4 million initial investment and the creation of more than 1,200 new jobs represent a tremendous win for Charleston County and South Carolina.” -Secretary of Commerce Harry M. Lightsey III

“We continue to prove ourselves as a destination to call on for business growth. This is a significant win for Charleston County, and we are thrilled with the addition of 1,200 jobs for our citizens.” -Charleston County Council Chair Teddie Pryor

"Our three-county region is a globally competitive destination for business, talent and entrepreneurs. TELUS International selected Charleston for its competitive advantages and business-friendly environment. This international company will be an important part of our market's growing global economy and IT community, and we look forward to its continued success." -Charleston Regional Development Alliance Board Chair Mike Fuller

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - Dorchester County Fire Station 21 on Ladson Road is now closed while construction begins on a major remodel.

The $3.3 million project will see the station completely demolished and reoriented so the building faces the road.

Fire Chief Tres Atkinson says the new station is part of the county’s strategy for redeveloping the Oakbrook area. He says the new station will have four bays, office space, living quarters and at least six bunkrooms.

“This is a big deal for this area. I think not so much for the call volume but just the way this area is growing and the way it looks,” Atkinson said. “We really need to make it fit the ticket for the remodel of the Oakbrook area. We really need to make this more aesthetically pleasing, and I think it’s a win for both sides - for the fire service and for the community as well.”

It will also feature a weight room and a dedicated area for turnout gear. This is a decontamination area to purge gear of harmful chemicals picked up during fire calls. Many of those chemicals are carcinogenic, meaning they can cause to cancer.

The project is currently $300,000 over the original budget with construction expected to be completed sometime next year, although a more specific timeline is not yet available. In the meantime, the fire trucks and ambulances have been moved to other areas.

That has some people living in the area concerned.

“The new station will be great in the long run, but I am just concerned that they were not planning their coverage in the meantime,” said Fred K. “There are numerous apartment buildings being constructed within a half mile from here. How are we going to have the same coverage while this construction is going on?”

Atkinson says they moved the fire engines to Station 22, about four miles away. They transferred EMS services to a Summerville fire station one mile away.

“We worked with our automatic aid partners in Summerville and North Charleston,” Atkinson said. “North Charleston has two stations right close by. . . There really won’t be a big impact to the response times.”

Fred’s concern isn’t about distance so much as it is about traffic.

“I’ve seen EMS have to drive over the concrete medians they put down on Dorchester Road. It’s not too easy for them to get down this way in heavy traffic,” Fred said. “The areas they have to go through are some of the most congested traffic in Dorchester County up here on Ladson Road and Dorchester Road. There’s so much more traffic here than there used to be even from just a few years ago. "

Atkinson says they’ve done the math and can guarantee there will not be a noticeable change in response times.

“We’ll be on scene very quickly,” Atkinson said. “It’ll be a big truck, a big red truck and it might say North Charleston or Summerville or Dorchester County on it but we’ll be there in a timely manner.”

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.