While I’ve been on business in the New England area, I managed to rangle some time to visit a Pandora store. I wanted some momentos from my trip in the area (I’ve been to this part of the country quite a few times in the past couple of years for business) so I went exploring. This store I found is located in downtown Newport, RI which is a popular tourist spot in the summer. It’s right by the water and has that great historic New England feel to the town.
Unfortunately, like most stores this one also sent all of their retired stock back to Pandora. I find that the most disappointing thing about the stores nowadays! I’ve literally called around to every store within a 100 mile radius and they’ve all returned their discontinued charms 
. When I first started buying Pandora, a lot of stores still had the retired charms for sale, but then towards the first of this year, Pandora instituted a new policy where the stores would not receive new charms until they returned the older stock. While I understand that the point of retiring charms is to clear out the ones that don’t sell well or are unpopular, at the same time they should be allowed to sell out the remaining charms instead of having them melted down. That’s my two cents.
I did manage to get a few things; I really want to get all the animals, so I figured that a bunch of animals that I haven’t gotten are aquatic related so I’ve decided to do a turquoise nautical themed bracelet! It’s perfect for this area because of the location. I picked up the new turquoise looking glass Murano, the hope, faith, and love charm, and the treasure chest. The treasure chest is so cute, there’s a little heart on the back. I can’t wait to get home and start putting the bracelet together 
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Sounds like a great idea and it will be a beautiful bracelet. I agree that Pandora should let the stores sell their old stock if they want to for the same price, not charge more becasue it is retired.
By the way, how many bracelets do you have? What colors/themes?
Haha, too many Inky! I’ve completed a lime-green, teal, two-tone, multi-strand single clip, 5-station clip, black leather, and kelly green color cord bracelets. I’m working on: crystal/silver, black/oxi, olive-green/orange, purple/yellow alumni, red asian/family, blue fairy tale, brown African safari, pink “me”, turquoise nautical bracelets. Is that enough?! Lol.
Stay away from the concept store at Providence Place, they r horrid! Natick Mall has better service. I loved my time in Rhode Island for work.