"Can't escape the law of true incense", "Young people don't know the golden incense", "I also joined the ranks of Chinese mothers"... Flipping through the grass planting platform "Little Red Book", many young people joked about themselves and posted their own "small treasury". Yes, this year's young people have fallen in love with the gold that only the elderly like. Gold sales increased by more than 13% during the Spring Festival this year, and young people have made a big contribution.
This seems to be an exception to the current craze of "anti-consumerism" among young people. In their view, buying gold, which can both enjoy and appreciate, is a win-win situation between fish and bear paws. Are this generation of young people poorer or more rational?
This year's young people are starting to get on top of gold
"Rich people buy gold on the pound to buy, we beat workers to buy gold bars can only buy grams, but every year to buy 20 grams, 10 years is 200 grams, 20 years down to almost a pound." I'm not asking everyone to spend money, I'm asking you to save money, you're investing. If the price of gold falls, you keep it, don't sell it when it goes up, and don't sell it as long as you don't lack money. On January 20, in the live broadcast room of a head anchor, the anchor and the second broadcaster passionately explained the investment gold bars of a certain brand.
Since last year, gold jewelry and gold bars and nuggets have become regular customers in the live broadcast sales list, and some head anchors have even opened a "gold special". A large number of young people flocked to the live broadcast room to grab gold, and some explosive products with higher cost performance and novel styles were easily "seconds".
The young people who despised the big gold chain fell in love with gold, and offline, Chow Tai Fook Cabinet Sister Xiao Zhao and franchisee Ms. Chen also felt this wonderful trend.
"Now the people who buy gold jewelry are young people." Chow Tai Fook Cabinet Sister Xiao Zhao mentioned to the orange persimmon interactive reporter that she attributed all this to the improvement of the craftsmanship and design of gold jewelry, "no longer as indigenous as before." ”
Ms. Chen (pseudonym), who has joined a number of gold jewelry brands in Hangzhou and opened nearly 20 stores, mentioned a word with orange persimmon interactive reporters: saving gold. "Especially small grams, such as bracelet beads, golden beans, small pendants, the amount is not large, but there is a relatively high frequency of consumption." Ms. Chen said.
This small piece of gold jewelry resembles Pandora, which was once popular among young girls, except that the latter's fashion jewelry, which is dominated by silver jewelry, has little realisation value. "Young people prefer light luxury gold jewelry, such as 5G hard gold, light weight, novel style, and ancient gold." The relevant person in charge of China's gold Hangzhou area mentioned.
Orange persimmon interactive reporter observed that in addition to the consumption of gold jewelry, similar to the difficulty of spending money through the operation of physical passbooks, it was also popular to force savings by "saving gold beans". The price of small golden beans is one gram per piece, and the price will be slightly higher than the base gold price. "Buy one or two a month, and you can become a little rich woman in a year." With this in mind, some young people have embarked on their own gold rush journey.
According to the China Gold Association, in the first three quarters of 2021, mainland gold consumption reached 813.59 tons, an increase of 48.44% compared with last year. Among them, the consumption of gold jewelry increased by 54.21% year-on-year. According to the China Gold Association, the demand for gold consumption during the Spring Festival was strong, up 13% year-on-year.
Affected by the epidemic, the sales data of some gold jewelry counters in Hangzhou during the Spring Festival has declined to a certain extent compared with last year. However, just looking at last year's data, it still achieved a relatively large growth. A Hong Kong-funded brand Hangzhou counter revealed to orange persimmon interactive reporters that last year's positive growth was positive, with an increase of more than 20% in the fourth quarter. The person in charge of China Gold Hangzhou also mentioned that the popularity of gold consumption will increase in 2021, and the annual performance will increase by about 18%.
The "regret pill" of impulse consumption
A visible fact is that in recent years, gold jewelry brands have greatly improved in manufacturing, design and marketing, making some traditional brands gradually pull into the distance between them and young consumer groups.
Franchisee Ms. Chen explained that the current mature 5G gold process, hydrogen-free process, can make the gold jewelry color better, more wear-resistant; the designer is younger, the taste continues to cater to the Z generation, and the Forbidden City, Dunhuang cooperation with the national tide jewelry with traditional cultural symbols is a successful case; marketing, pay more attention to the sharing of talents, the creation of grass notes. In the process of investigation and interview, a number of cabinet sisters recommended the current popular Little Red Book explosion to reporters.
Previously, at the Vipshop New Year Festival, the gold jewelry that mainly suppressed the national tide such as the year and the zodiac was favored by a large number of post-90s and post-95s, and a "gold full gold transfer beads were born in the year of the small tiger tooth", which won the first place in the sales of similar goods.
In addition to the refinement of gold craftsmanship, another reason can not be ignored. Search for the keyword "gold" on the grass planting platform "Little Red Book", and many popular posts will mention the hedging properties of gold. "Gold can be changed when you are tired of it", which is the back hand left by young people for impulse consumption.
Careful budgeting is also reflected in the constant focus on the price of gold. During the visit of the orange persimmon interactive reporter, a cabinet sister said, "Many consumers know the gold price and channels very well. For example, in a collaborative collection between our brand and an international designer, some clients come straight up and ask for the lowest discount, and if we can't give this discount, they turn their heads and leave. ”
The account manager of a state-owned bank in Hangzhou told Orange Persimmon Interactive reporter that he had met young customers, purchased gold bars through bank channels, and then let the gold shop master pay. Because compared to gold jewelry brands, investment bars sold by banks are much cheaper. Taking February 8 as an example, the gold price of Chow Tai Fook was 482 yuan / g, while the investment price of CCB was 386.4 yuan / g.
Investment anxiety among young people
Gold's inherent value-preserving properties have also alleviated some of the investment anxieties of young people.
At the beginning of 2020, affected by the epidemic and other factors, investors poured into safe-haven assets, and the international gold price rose all the way, breaking through $2,000 / ounce at the highest, setting a record high. In the same period, the gold price of domestic gold retail stores rushed to a high of 590 yuan / g, and the recovery price of gold stores also reached 430 yuan / g.
Some people holding investment gold and jewelry gold began to seek cash. At that time, a reader Ms. Zhang asked the reporter to find a gold shop, recycled the 30 grams of gold bracelet purchased when she got married in 2017, and wore it for free for 3 years, not to mention, and earned 10%. On the Little Red Book of the grass planting community, there are not many notes like Ms. Zhang who bought consumer goods into investment products.
In the view of a wealth manager of the Hangzhou branch of the CCB, this young man has become refined and stable. After experiencing two "rapid cooling" in the equity market in early 2021 and early 2022, the "stability mentality" of some investors has become more and more obvious. A group of young people who once lacked risk awareness and were blindly radical "knew it was wrong".
"The previous bull market for two consecutive years has made the fund a 'national wealth management' product, and it has also increased investors' expectations for the performance of the fund." Now this excessively high expectation has been reversed. From an investment perspective alone, young people are more likely to choose to buy paper gold through bank apps than physical gold. The above-mentioned wealth manager said.
Gold's hedging properties have been confirmed in the last round of higher gold prices, but in the past two years, will it still be a good choice to invest in physical gold, especially gold jewelry?
Some netizens shared their recent experience of buying gold, and originally bought a bracelet at a price of 473 yuan / gram, plus the cost of labor spent a total of more than 26,000. Due to the deformation of the bracelet, go to the counter to change the money, the gold price on the day is 493 yuan / gram, but the exchange can only be calculated according to 436 yuan / gram, which makes her feel lost. She concluded: "If you want gold to preserve its value, it is recommended not to buy jewelry, but to buy gold bars directly." ”
The above-mentioned wealth manager suggested that individual investors should distinguish between gold jewelry consumption and gold investment. "It should be reminded that gold investment also has certain risks. In addition, compared with physical gold, paper gold (account gold) and gold-backed ETFs may be more suitable for more investors, with low transaction costs and low thresholds, which can be bought and sold through bank accounts and securities accounts. ”