You Can Now Buy Gold Bars From Vending Machines in South Korea
Thu June 06 2024
At the corner of a bustling street in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam district, there’s a convenience store with the usual offerings: magazines, toilet paper, an overly generous selection of beverages. But next to the cashier counter stands a tall vending machine that sells a much more unexpected product—gold.
The machine at GS Retail Co.’s convenience store sells gold bars from as big as 37.5 grams (1.32 ounces) to as small as less than 1 gram. Prices change daily, reflecting wider market movements, but start at about 88,000 won ($64) for a 0.5-gram bar.
The machines operate in 30 stores in the company’s retail franchise across the country, six times more than the service started with in 2022.
“Currently we are seeing about 30 million won of sales per month,” said a GS spokesperson via text message. “The gold vending machine draws customers’ attention due to increasing demand for safe haven assets and the spreading trend of micro-investing.”
South Korean residents are caught up in the micro-investing trend that’s sweeping the globe. In the United Kingdom, 65% of Gen Z and millennials are open to investing in fractional shares (less than one share of a company), according to a May 16 report from Charles Schwab Corp. Retail investors worldwide have been flocking to everything from meme stocks to cryptocurrencies; for South Koreans, physical gold is just one more option.
Local investors have a “fear of missing out when everything rallies, and that partially contributed to the scene,” says Park Sang-hyun, an economist at HI Investment & Securities in Seoul, noting the recent surge that pushed gold’s market price to an all-time high of more than $2,400 an ounce last month. “Feeling uncertainty about the global economy prompts safe haven demand,” he adds.
The Thrill of Convenience Store Gold
GS is not the only convenience store chain tapping into gold’s allure in South Korea. Rival business CU began selling three types of ultralight gold cards on April 1. It took only two days for the 1-gram cards to sell out, according to BGF Retail Co., the company that runs the chain, with most of the demand coming from customers in their 30s.
According to a BGF spokesperson, 95% of 770 gold products on offer were sold as of May 31. “Sales accelerated as CU’s fixed-price gold products became cheaper than the market price,” BGF said in a press release. The retail chain will introduce higher-weight options, from 2-gram to 10-gram bars, in the future, but did not specify a date.
Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/