Best Jewelry Store near Myrtle Beach, SC

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - A Grand Strand business is celebrating one year since making Myrtle Beach its home.

Lucid Coast Candle Bar’s owner Chase Masters said it all started with a candle-making hobby at home during the pandemic.

“From there we just kind of kept growing,” he said. “We did local events, we eventually started doing the City Market in downtown Charleston for a little bit just to help expand even more and then last January we got lucky.”

That luck is what he said landed him in Myrtle Beach a year ago.

“It’s really nice to see like bringing life back to downtown and being able to be a part of it,” said Masters.

Inside Lucid Coast, you can shop for a variety of 100% natural soy candles, room sprays and soaps.

Masters said it’s all centered around a coastal theme, making them fit right in at the beach. He also says it’s also easy on their pockets.

“We like to think of ourselves as like an affordable option so anybody can come and either make a candle or check out non-toxic products that aren’t going to break the bank as well,” he said.

Some parents also said the business also become a safe space for their kids within the last year.

“Being able to come to an area that we know is safe and that you know people are expressing themselves it’s important for us to teach our children to express themselves,” said Kate Boucher, who lives in Carolina Forest.

Whether it’s a candle-making workshop or a celebration for all ages, Boucher said it’s given her all the reasons to continue coming back following a gathering for her son’s recent 10th birthday.

Up-and-coming businesses like Le Manna Bread Bakery told us it’s inspired them to continue the growth of the heart of Myrtle Beach.

“Many years ago about, 70-75 years, there was a bakery located in the same place so what we would like to do is to continue with the baking tradition in this area,” said Gus Pena, a co-owner of Le Manna Bread.

Pena and his business partner, Frank Rodriquez, said they’re looking to open up in the Arts & Innovation District next month, offering an international variety of options from pastries, breakfast, brunch and more.

Masters said Lucid Coast Candle Bar also had a hand in giving back as after every purchase, a portion is donated to their nonprofit.

Masters is now looking forward to what the remainder of 2024 has to offer.

“Super excited about it, we couldn’t have picked a better place for our business. I’m super excited to see the area grow and find ways we can collaborate with the businesses coming in as well.”

Lucid Coast Candle Bar will host an official anniversary celebration on Feb. 10.

Stay with WMBF News for updates.

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Jack Thompson hitchhiked to Myrtle Beach when he was just 13 years old, and he’s been documenting the history of the area through his camera lens since.

Now at 87, Thompson said he’s taken more than 100,000 photos of the Myrtle Beach area. Three warehouses hold the photos he's taken over the decades.

At the Myrtle Beach Train Depot last week, Thompson and another longtime resident, restaurant owner and author Dino Thompson, told stories of a long-gone but fondly remembered landmark of Myrtle Beach — the Ocean Forest Hotel.

“We miss it because it was the biggest, grandest thing at Myrtle Beach,” Dino Thompson said. “We gave directions by it. It was our Taj Mahal.”

Thompson and Thompson spent an hour telling stories and sharing photos of the Ocean Forest to about 200 attendees – a full house at the historic venue. The event was hosted by Friends of Chapin Memorial Library. Stories included how the building came to be, when the hotel served liquor during prohibition and how parts of the hotel were salvaged before it was demolished.

Jack Thompson said the hotel’s history is vital to Myrtle Beach.

“That building is what started Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach was actually a little fishing village when the Woodside brothers came and bought Myrtle Beach and started building the Ocean Forest,” Jack Thompson said. “In that process, they had 500 workers who came from everywhere.”

And those workers brought their families and girlfriends with them for the job. The hotel took six years to construct, opening in 1930, and those that constructed it became the founding citizens of Myrtle Beach, Jack Thompson said. But on Friday, Sept. 13, 1974, the historic hotel that took six years to construct was razed in six seconds.

Designed by renowned architect Raymond Hood – who also designed the 30 Rockefeller Plaza and Radiator Building in New York and the Tribune Tower in Chicago – the Ocean Forest went by many nicknames: the Sandcastle on the Sea or the Million Dollar Hotel. Locals just called it The Hotel. The 10-story, 202 room, neoclassical hotel had unique features like a working lighthouse on top and saltwater faucet taps.

It was designed well and also built well, Dino Thompson said, adding how the decision to demolish the hotel was made and how pleas from residents fell on deaf ears. He said when he spoke to Bill Hutchins from the demolition company, Hutchins told him that the Ocean Forest was the finest constructed building he’d ever examined for demolition.

Located halfway between Miami and New York, Dino Thompson said many of the famous big bands of the '30s and '40s, including Harry James, Woody Herman and even Billie Holiday, would play at the Ocean Forest between shows.

“For room and board, they would play at the marine patio,” Jack Thompson said. “You could hear that beautiful music from the leading bands of the era drifting through the air and serenading the 200 Myrtle Beach residents there were at the time.”

The event ended with a poem read by the city’s first ever poet laureate Bo Bryan. Appointed in January, it was the poet’s first public address on behalf of the city. The poem was titled “Organized For Beauty.”

“The Ocean Forest, a masterpiece of humankind, surviving in flight upon the arrow of time. The million dollar hotel, an icon of the Gilded Age. Disappeared, glorified, immortalized by dynamite. You might envision downtown Myrtle Beach as air and spirit to the Ocean Forest,” the poem reads. “A blank canvas for decades now upon which somehow, somewhere to conjure a new masterpiece to surprise the world the likes of even the Sydney Opera House, an Eiffel Tower even. A dynamite dream too large for us, you might say. But then remember we are not as small as we used to be. Perhaps our time is now to renounce the redneck riviera, organize the downtown bricks for beauty and bury dirty myrtle now and forevermore.”

PIA’s Myrtle Beach, SC campus is located about 5 minutes from the shore, and the area is a hotspot for concerts, shopping and entertainment.

Recipient of the ACCSC 2020 School of Distinction, PIA’s Myrtle Beach Campus is located at the International Technology and Aerospace Park, near South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach International Airport. PIA’s airport location provides an ideal atmosphere for aviation training as well as aircraft accessibility to the school’s facilities.

The 26,000 sq ft facility houses classrooms, a learning resource system with a mobile computer lab and publications library, and shop areas for aircraft propulsion systems, electricity, sheet metal, hydraulics, instruments & controls, composite materials, non-destructive testing, and painting.

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Myrtle Beach Aviation Maintenance 22-23 Cost of Attendance

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Here at PIA, we believe that a high-quality education should be delivered with transparency, including understanding how your investment measures with your earning potential. A stable financial plan should have no surprises, and that’s exactly what you can expect when you meet with the PIA Financial Aid Office.

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People social distance as they wait to get into the Trader Joe's store to avoid the spread of COVID-19 in Bloomfield Hills Michigan on March 30, 2020. - Trader Joe's only lets 20 customers in the store at a time to shop. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

HORRY COUNTY, SC (WPDE) — Trader Joe’s recently announced it would be opening a second store in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.

This will be the fourth location that they have opened in South Carolina.

Yet, the fastest-growing city in America is still without the neighborhood grocery store that comes with a whole bunch of its own unique name-brand products.

ABC15 reached out to Trader Joe’s to find out how they go about choosing locations, and if they’re planning on opening any stores in Myrtle Beach.

They said they’re currently looking at hundreds of neighborhoods across the country, and luckily, Myrtle Beach is one of them!

In a statement to WPDE, Trader Joe's Public Relations Manager Nakia Rohde stated:

Thank you for reaching out. We are actively looking at hundreds of neighborhoods across the country, including Myrtle Beach, as we hope to open more new neighborhood stores each year. At this time, we do not have a location to confirm in Myrtle Beach, however, we are grateful that there is interest.

On their podcast, "Inside Trader Joe's - Episode 52: How to Make a Trader Joe's (Part One)," they talk extensively about what goes into opening a new store.

One of the main things they look for while picking a new location is customer demand. If Trader Joe's deems a location has the demand, the next step is to send out one of their brokers to search for sites.

The broker will then submit several locations to corporate for review. Each site is then put through a thorough checks and balances system that includes all sorts of things like truck accessibility to the population.

It has to check every box. Then, they have an internal review where they dive into even more details.

Only 10% of the locations make it through the entire process to be chosen as a new store. From there, Trader Joe’s can open a store in as fast as 30 days or as long as two years depending on the circumstances.

An organization in the Grand Strand said they would love to have a Trader Joe's in the area and have the customer demand part covered.

Senior Adventures in Learning and Travel or SALT, offers enrichment classes and all types of trips, and they said one of their regular trips to Trader Joe's is always in extremely high demand.

“We head to Trader Joe’s. We head to Wilmington. We have participants that love Trader Joe’s, love Trader Joe’s products. I mean they have a list. We give them an hour. It’s very, very fun,” said Kelli Barker, the Co-Owner of SALT.

Barker added that the Trader Joe’s trips fill up fast! They only allow 10 people in the 15-person van so they can still have plenty of room for coolers and all of their favorite products.

They also usually stop for an educational tour, and lunch on the way, adding to the adventure.

Despite the almost two-hour drive, SALT members said they love to go to Trader Joe's because it’s not just any neighborhood grocery store.

The people that work there are happy to be there, and they are more than happy to help you,” said Sheila Rudesill, a SALT Member, "And there’s a lot of different things that other grocery stores don’t offer.

While the SALT members enjoy all the fun they have on their road trip, they wish they didn’t have to make the commute. They want a store somewhere in Horry County.

If not for their unique list of products, then for the value the Trader Joe’s name brand brings to an area.

“They add value to any neighborhood that they go into. They are one of the few grocery stores that if they go into a neighborhood, they increase the value of the houses there, and that tells you right there that Trader Joe’s is a phenomenal, phenomenal company,” said Rudesill.

If you’ve never been to Trader Joe’s and need some suggestions of things to try, a few of SALT's members have recommendations for you.

The Spinach artichoke dip or the chocolate lava cakes,” said SALT member Sue Keller.

Mandarin orange chicken and vegetable fried rice,” said Rudesill.

The salted caramel chocolates,” said SALT member Linda Doolittle

Trader Joe's actually has an online form that anyone can fill out to request a new store location. So, if you would love to have a store come to Myrtle Beach, let them know here.