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Editor: Principal
I've never eaten pork, and I've seen pigs run. I haven't bought gold, I've heard of the price of gold rising, this is the gold market in 2024.
Gold prices have soared in 2023, with data from the World Gold Council showing an increase of more than 17% (in RMB), and the start of 2024 has not fallen, but has gained momentum. Gold has become one of the hottest topics since the start of 2024, with some waiting, some rushing to get out of their hands, and others having to buy against the trend.
On April 10, the international gold price, which had been soaring for many days, finally had a fine-tuning, and #黄金白银集体缩水 immediately rushed to the hot search on Weibo. In fact, this adjustment is only the daily operation of gold stocks in the European and American stock markets, and the spot gold with the highest decline does not exceed 1%. This has not shaken the rise in the domestic gold price, especially the retail price of jewellery brands.
According to the Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe), on April 12, the price of gold jewelry is still in the soaring stage, except for Chinese gold, the current gold price of all brands has exceeded 730 yuan. Among them, the largest increase rose by 15 yuan overnight, the price of Chow Tai Fook, Lukfook, and Lao Miao was 736 yuan/gram, and the price of Lao Fengxiang was 737 yuan/gram. (Statistics as of April 12)
On social media, young people preparing for marriage looked at the frightened price of gold and said: "The budget that could have bought hardware can only win three gold now." ”
Whether to buy three gold for marriage has become the focus of attention of newlyweds, and it has also triggered a more extensive discussion. Before that, I can't help but answer a question, what exactly are the "three golds" and why are gold jewelry tied to marriage?
Wedding consumption, regret package
After inquiring about a variety of information, we found that the "three golds" are fixed three kinds of gold jewelry - gold rings, gold earrings, gold necklaces, "hardware" is free, on the basis of the three gold, you can add your favorite gold bracelets, bracelets, anklets, and pendants.
If it is said that the binding of diamonds and love is a beautiful fairy tale created by capital, then the binding of gold and weddings is not groundless, but "famous".
In ancient China, the wedding process was divided into six stages, called the "Six Rites", namely Nacai, Asking for Names, Naji, Nazheng, Invitation, and Greeting. Among them, the man sends the dowry to the woman's house.
As a general equivalent, gold naturally belonged to the part of the dowry in ancient weddings, and gold jewelry was often regarded as a blessing from the man's elders for the marriage of the next generation.
Later, the "Six Rites" were simplified and merged into our current wedding customs, for example, the bride price has been retained in some regions to this day, and the three golds are the inheritance and continuation of this link.
A number of married post-90s and post-95s said that they had vaguely heard of the marriage customs of the three golds, but their parents did not regard the three golds as a necessary choice for weddings.
Lan Ling, who had just finished the wedding in the county, said: "We have a lot of local marriage folk customs, and we can save money when we get married, but there are some things that we have to do, and we have completed it according to the wishes of our parents." ”
What we had to do was to plant trees, wash our feet and "cross the line of fire".
In Lan Ling's hometown, when the daughter gets married, the parents will ask the groom to plant a tree called "Green Onion", which is a combination of green onion and evergreen green. Before getting married, you need to wrap the "green onions" together in red paper and plant them in your yard to express your love for a long time, and your children and grandchildren will be blessed and long-lived.
After planting the tree, it is necessary to tie three piles of straw in front of the house and set it on fire, and the newlyweds rush through the lit straw pile, intending to inform their ancestors about the marriage, which Lan Ling calls "crossing the line of fire". This is not the end, after entering the door, the groom also needs to wash his feet with egg water, which means to wash away the hardship and anxiety and welcome a new life.
The seemingly absurd customs contain the infinite blessings of simple wisdom for this marriage, which is difficult to accept at first glance, and the connotation is only felt after the experience. In contrast, the "top consumption" that is equal to love is more likely to make people regret.
When it comes to impulsive spending at the time of marriage, the first thing that comes to mind is the diamond ring – two weeks later, the freshness is completely lost.
"When proposing, a diamond ring is an essential ritual, and the moment you receive it is very happy, but it is very inconvenient to wear it on a daily basis. The diamond ring is easy to scratch things and very easy to fall, and I am afraid to go out, and I am always afraid that more than 20,000 yuan will be lost if I am not careful. After two weeks of wearing, it loses its freshness and has no value for viewing at home. Prune complained angrily.
In addition to diamond rings, the most criticized and most popular in the regret list are wedding photos. Many "passers-by" said that the biggest use of wedding photos is to choose one to put at the entrance of the wedding venue, so that relatives and friends know that they have not gone to the wrong place.
Ximei took three sets of wedding photos in Beijing, spending a total of more than 10,000 yuan, making two photo albums and several tables, except for showing them to her parents when she was just married, and then she never opened them, and now she has long forgotten where to put them.
"Wedding photos must be the top 1 on my regret list, if you need to take a few photos, you can contact the photographer yourself, there is no need to travel to take pictures or go to the store to shoot, there is no cost performance at all. Prunes advised.
Diamond rings and wedding photos are known as the two giants of regret, usually diamond merchants make profits of 40%-60%, and branded diamond rings will be higher. Wedding photography has always been known as a profiteering industry, and the actual cost of a 10,000 yuan set of wedding photos is about 1,000 yuan.
Weddings are regarded as once-in-a-lifetime grand ceremonies, and merchants strongly bind this sense of ritual to consumption, as if it is "shameful" to consider cost-effectiveness at such a moment. The young man who came to his senses found that he had been "kidnapped" by the merchant for dispensable bulk consumption, and his intestines were so green that he regretted it.
The wind of reverse consumption has finally blown to the marriage market
Once, Jimmy Choo, which cost tens of thousands of yuan, became the shining wedding shoes in many girls' dreams, but for young people who pursue comfort and rarely wear high heels, they are more willing to choose 100 yuan flat, anyway, they are only worn once at the wedding, and they can be used on almost no occasions.
Pinduoduo put on a pair of white high-heeled slippers worth 27 yuan, which became a lawn wedding artifact to save Lan Ling from fire and water. Lan Ling chose an outdoor wedding, a small island in September, the air was humid, but the lawn was sparser than expected.
On the day of the wedding, it rained, the grass was muddy, and the guests couldn't help but walk on tiptoe, and Lan Ling, as the bride, walked between the guests with the skirt of the wedding dress in one hand. She smiled and said, "This is the cheapest and best item I bought in the process of preparing for my wedding." ”
Ximei also bought a big red leather bag with a price of about 50 yuan as a wedding bag in Taobao store, she said: "This kind of thing that is only used once in a lifetime can go through the motions." ”
In the past, "only once in a lifetime" before the wedding and "come and come" during the trip would make people fall into the consumption trap willingly and powerlessly, and now young people are full of vigilance about "only once in a lifetime". It is precisely because of this "one-time" use value that it is not worth pouring effort and spending too much money.
The same is true for the post-95 Hanyu who is in the process of preparing for marriage, in the face of the high gold price, she does not plan to buy three gold, and is ready to save it and wait for the gold price to fall before considering buying gold bars.
"You don't spend blindly in order to get married, you need to know what you want, not look at what others have. I've always disliked gold jewelry, and even if I don't wear it at all, shouldn't I wear it as the first purpose of buying jewelry?"
When it comes to diamond rings, she calmly tells me, "The hotel will prepare a fake." ”
Moissanite ring Source: Xiaohongshu user @ Gewen
In her, I understand that the diamond ring is no longer an important source of ritual, but only a part of the completion of the ritual, the ritual is the goal, and the diamond ring has become the means.
On the morning of the wedding, the family sent her cousin to the county's two-dollar store to buy a pair of huge "diamond rings" for 25 yuan, and also gave two conspicuous boxes. After the ceremony, the fake diamond rings were also kept as part of the memories and are now sitting on the bookshelf at home.
"I never wear a ring, a diamond ring means nothing to me. When I was a child, when I watched TV and said in the advertisement that diamonds are eternal, and one will last forever, I was full of doubts about this sentence, why can't stones be circulated? Why are glass beads not a symbol of marriage, why must they be diamonds?"
And then it's like a few questions that you'll understand when you're older. Growing up, I still don't understand. She continued.
Perhaps, diamonds are a man-made belief in the world, and the concept was created without any intention to answer the question, but only needs to be instilled in the ears of consumers over and over again, and over time no one will doubt it.
However, when "self-pleasing consumption" is no longer dominated by the popular symbols created by social media, paying attention to the quality-price ratio and cost-effectiveness has also become another way to "please yourself", and the wind of reverse consumption that is practical, environmentally friendly, and avoiding IQ tax has also blown to the marriage market.
The diamond myth is gone, will gold be far away?
More people began to loosen the bond between diamonds and love after the advent of lab-grown diamonds.
Although lab-grown diamonds have brought down the price of diamonds, seemingly allowing more consumers who are interested in diamonds but are discouraged by the price to own diamonds, diamonds have also suffered an unprecedented value crisis.
Jewelry companies' diamond business revenue fell collectively, according to Chow Tai Fook Group's just-released fourth-quarter financial report on April 12, Chow Tai Fook closed a net of 89 jewelry retail outlets in Chinese mainland.
Some industry insiders believe that "lab-grown diamonds have not only impacted the market for natural diamonds, but also brought disaster to the entire diamond industry." ”
Diamonds have long been regarded as an important symbol of love and marriage, due to their scarcity and man-made beliefs. When a large number of high-quality lab-grown diamonds flood the market, scarcity and legend are collapsing at the same time.
According to Dahe Daily, since 2018, the sales of lab-grown diamonds have increased year by year, and the market share is now close to 50%. China's production capacity accounts for about 50% of the world's lab-grown diamond production capacity, and Henan accounts for 80% of it, so it can be said that Henan has brought down the global diamond price.
If the collapse of diamonds and love stems from the disappearance of the scarcity of lab-grown diamonds, then the weak correlation between gold jewelry and marriage may come from the soaring price of gold. No matter how important the three gold is, no one is willing to buy at a high point and take the risk of losing money immediately after buying.
At this time, people who choose gold jewelry in order to maintain their value have also discovered the secret of gold jewelry brands - excessive premiums and labor costs, which greatly reduce the value preservation attribute of buying gold jewelry. As a result, more and more young people are choosing to buy gold bars when they get married.
Jewellery brands have also made many efforts to embrace young people, and the traditional concepts of 18-carat gold and 24-carat gold have been educating consumers for several years, and now there are many unfamiliar words in the gold industry: 5G gold, 3D hard gold, ancient gold, enamel gold, etc., all of which represent a new process of gold.
The pursuit of new craftsmanship is mainly to cater to the aesthetic needs of young people, so that the brand can be "younger" and attract a wider range of consumers.
It is worth noting that such products are often sold in the form of "fixed price", and gold has changed from a gram price to a "fixed price", which is behind the shift of "pricing power", and the power is delegated from the international gold price to gold jewelry brands, and the corresponding profit margins of the brand side will be greater.
Craftsmanship and fixed prices, when the profit ceiling is raised, is also gradually distancing itself from the simple psychology of consumers when buying gold.
In addition, under the trend of cost-effective consumption, the emergence of the "gold strike" and "water shell model" has also had an impact on the retail pattern of existing gold jewellery brands. This is especially true in areas outside the Fifth Ring Road, where demand for gold consumption is strong.
Chow Tai Fook's fourth-quarter financial report showed that same-store sales in mainland China fell by 2.7% year-on-year. Gold jewelry, which should have benefited from the strong consumption of the Spring Festival, has declined under the influence of gold prices.
In addition to pure gold jewelry, the decline in other categories of jewelry was more obvious, especially jewelry inlay, platinum and karat gold jewelry. Sales in Mainland China decreased by 19.5% and in Hong Kong and Macau by 27.2%.
On the Black Cat complaint platform, many consumers have filed complaints against Lao Fengxiang and China Gold, concealing gram weight, quality defects, and inducing consumption have occurred repeatedly, bringing a bad consumer experience.
Looking back, more and more people find that emotional loyalty and marital happiness are never bound to any object.
(At the request of the interviewee, Lan Ling, prune, and Hanyu are pseudonyms in the article.) Unless otherwise noted, the pictures are from the Chow Tai Fook Wedding Collection. ）