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Business

  • Sales remain strong at area jewelry stores, pawn shops

    Santa brought a mixed bag of gifts for area jewelry and pawn shops this holiday season.

    Through December, several store owners reported a shift in the spending habits of customers.

    Sales of electronics at pawn shops were better than expected, while silver replaced gold as the precious metal of choice for customers at several jewelry stores.

    But due to the recession, several pawn shops have seen an influx in people selling goods to them, getting cash to stay afloat.

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  • Springs Memorial singles out three employees for top honors

    Springs Memorial Hospital is recognizing three of its employees with honors for the work they’ve done at the hospital in Lancaster.

    Debra Izzard has been named the 2009 Springs Memorial Hospital Employee of the Year.

    Izzard is a member of the Environmental Services Department and has been employed with the hospital since 2002.

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  • Pinnacle promoting houses at Edgewater lots

    Living on the river doesn’t have to be expensive.

    Just ask Molinda Goforth, Realtor for Pinnacle Homes, which is selling lots in the Edgewater development along the Catawba River in western Lancaster County.

    Pinnacle Homes is set to construct about 200 custom homes in Edgewater, by builders Ben Russell and Crystal Hollingsworth. Goforth lives in the community herself in Pinnacle Homes’ model home.

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  • Donatos opens in IL

    Indian Land’s newest pizzeria is already attracting a steady stream of customers.

    Donatos Pizza, located at 9931 Charlotte Highway, opened its doors Oct. 27 for a grand opening bash and has been serving up piping hot pizzas ever since.

    Donatos, as a franchise partner, Siler Chapman said business at the newly opened pizza parlor has been impressive.  

    “It’s going fantastic,” Chapman said. “It’s all been really, really good.”

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  • Auto dealers in good standing

    Despite a slumping economy and a significant dip in vehicle sales nationwide, local automotive dealers say they are in good standing and are excited about what the next year may bring.

    Annette Gause, owner of H&H Chevrolet in Kershaw, said over the last year, she’s had to cut expenses at the dealership to offset the 20 percent decline in sales.

    However, sales are picking up and Gause believes the worst of the economic recession has passed. The dealership has not downsized at all and is at no risk to close, she said.

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  • Technology helps pharmacy with efficiency

    It moves and packages pills in a way you may have never seen before.

    A job that takes a person several minutes has now been reduced to 30 seconds – thanks to a device known as an automatic dispensing system, or ADS.

    For about a year now, Mobley Drugs Inc. has been using an ADS made by the Raleigh, N.C.-based company Rx Medic. The computer-run machine can store more than 200 different medications and dispense them instantly to fill a prescription.

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  • Mahaffey now locally owned again

    The scent of freshly baked cookies greets you as you walk through the doors of Mahaffey Funeral Home & Cremation Center.

    Those tasty treats are some of the small things Joe Wilson has introduced to make his business friendlier.

    Wilson is the new owner of Mahaffey Funeral Home, which is Lancaster County’s oldest continually operating funeral establishment. With his purchase in May, the business is now locally owned for the first time since the early 1990s.

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  • High-rise landscaping

    A local company has played a role in helping reshape the residential landscape in Uptown Charlotte.

    Majestic Landscaping & Palms, based in Lancaster, was hired earlier this year to deliver and plant windmill palm trees on the rooftop terrace of The Garrison at Graham, a new six-floor loft-style housing development that offers its residents close views of the Charlotte skyline.

    Dennis Donahue, owner of Majestic Landscaping, said his business was contacted in July and did the job on Sept. 25, all in one day.

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  • Two pediatricians join new Lancaster practice

    A new pediatrics practice in Lancaster marks the return of a Heath Springs native turned doctor.

    Lancaster Pediatrics opened in July with Dr. Katie Fine. She was joined by Dr. Darniya Powe Belton last month.

    Belton, 31, was born in Lancaster County and is a summa cum laude graduate of Johnson C. Smith University.

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  • Bistro aims to be different

    Robert Starnes got his start as a chef at a car dealership of all places.

    Starnes, one of the three guys in Lancaster’s 3 Guys Bistro and Catering, said he created gourmet meals for customers at a Kia dealership in Gastonia, running a full-service restaurant there.

    “It was hysterical – people loved it,” Starnes said.

    He eventually contracted with Kia of Monroe and Greer and Toyota of Greer.

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