I’ve been an apprentice bench jeweller now for pushing 7 months, my job consists simply of getting repairs done on time, thats all the work dropped off at the shop, and work from two other shops. By the time i’ve got the jobs for the other two jewellers done, i have friday to get all the work ready for the next day, which is impossible with the amount of customers throughout the week wanting to see Pandora Jewellery.
I was just writing the bit below when i realised that people who are fortunate enough not to know what this stuff is, i shall tell you what i tell people on a daily basis.
“Well you start with the bracelet which is £55 and then you put the beads (charms, links, spacers, stoppers – different words for the same bloody thing) on seperately, they start at around £20 and go up from there”

The Pandora Customer can vary in age, size and in one case (i shit you not) gender, but they all act in a very similar way.
- They have EVERY Pandora catalogue, even if they have no intention of ever purchasing earrings, or learning how to tie little knots in leather string.
- Despite this, they will always come into the shop without the foggiest idea of what to choose, when they’ve got the catalogue know the choice.
- The same applies to the fact they ask about the prices.
- Because they don’t know what they want, i’m forced to stand over a box full of beads for what can reach half an hour, for the sake of a £20 sale.
- They always pretend they can’t remember the brand name, “Can i have a look at the err.. Those little charm things” “The Pandora?” “That’s the ones!”, they say with a full bracelet.
- They get moody when they wait for their turn to see the beads, as if they’re not going to take as long looking at them.
- They’ll ask questions like “Have you got a bead for someone who just retired from 23 years service in [insert obscure job title here]“
- They’ll look genuinly suprised/disappointed when you say you haven’t.
The list goes on but i try and repress all memory of it when i get home.
The company itself only targets it’s product at small/medium jewellers, no large chains like H.Samuels, and like the customers are addicted to buying the beads to fill up the bracelet, only to buy another bracelet to fill up, Pandora gets jewellers hooked, the way i see the shop sometimes it looks like one of Pandoras concept shops, all the customers are just there for that purpose. It’s like they are turning normal shops into Pandora shops and they don’t even have to pay any rent, the business will be pure profit, a single silver bead costing the customer £20 is worth about 20p in scrap silver, it’s all the same metal at the end of the day.
What i can’t predict is what happens when the craze runs out of steam, which it inevitably will, the Pandora business will be sorted with it’s profits and will be able to just keep going at a steady pace once it dies down. The problem will be with the small/medium jewellery businesses, now Pandora is getting it’s own shops popping up, it’s creating competition with itself but it’s the little business that’ll lose. For example in Preston, why buy your charms in the pokey little jewellers on the corner when you can go to the brand new concept shop around the corner? The concept shops also get a couple of extras that the small/medium jewellers don’t get stocked or even told about.
I’m not a business advisor and i don’t know a hell of a lot to be honest, me writing about business is about as reliable as The Sun trying to write about politics and ‘our boys’. Heroin is probably a strong term but it’s the most difficult drug to get off.
I don’t have a conclusion, but i don’t want to call it a rant either.
Boobies.