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Bangalore’s youth have taken a shine to gold coins and bars over traditional gold jewellery when it comes to long-term investments.
A floor manager at Reliance Jewels, near Cubbon Park, said: “We still have a huge profit margin for traditional ornaments, but the new trend is investing in gold and silver bars, and not gold ornaments.”
The tradition of spending a huge amount of money on heavy gold jewellery for weddings is losing popularity.
As a senior officer in the well-known jewellery chain Joyalukkas said, “The customers we get today have different preferences. A large percentage of them, notably the brides-to-be, don’t like heavy gold jewellery. The idea of investing in gold and silver bars, along with diamonds, is gaining momentum.”
Prakruti, a customer at the store, said: “I don’t believe in buying heavy gold jewellery for my wedding. What’s the use? I’d wear it once. The next time you get a chance to wear it on a major occasions, it would be out of fashion for sure.” The sale of diamonds, platinum, antique jewellery, semiprecious and precious stones is also increasing.
“Twenty per cent of our customers prefer other varieties. Gold jewellery is no longer a dominant player. Some are tired of the yellow metal, and if they can’t afford platinum, they go for white gold,” said the floor manager.
A major reason for this changing trend can be attributed to the fact that jewellery making involves labour costs of about 25 per cent of the price. Coins and bars on the other hand, have a maximum of one per cent labour cost and so are relatively cheaper.
According to a gold sales executive, unlike in the old days, today even the working class earning between Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000, is ready to invest in gold. They come and buy coins and sell it backafter the price increases. Coins give good returns. They’re cheaper and easier to buy. Even banks sell gold and silver coins.
However, there is a certain section of traditionalists who would still go for gold jewellery as investment.
Krishnamurthy, a businessman from Kerala said: “Gold is always safe. No matter how bad or good our economy is the value of gold ornaments will always rise, never fall. We Malayalis generally invest a lot in gold jewellery, particularly during marriages.”
(Preya studied at the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media, Bangalore This article was written before the price of gold crashed in April. But jewellery stores continue to attract potential customers..)
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