(Chow Tai Fook store Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)
After more than a month of soaring, gold prices have finally ushered in a "dive" recently. In addition to the decline in the price of gold in the broader market, major brands have also taken advantage of the holiday to launch powerful preferential activities, which has made many consumers who have been waiting for a long time moved.
According to media reports, the well-known jewelry brand Chow Tai Fook even launched a large derogation campaign, with a maximum discount of 150 yuan per gram, so that the gold price of big brands returned to the beginning of 5. However, the reporter found that such major derogation activities in the name of Chow Tai Fook are not official, and some even hide huge risks.
Gold prices cooled down and "true and false" derogation activities were confusing
Since late April, the international gold price has finally changed its soaring trend. The price of the Shanghai Gold Exchange came to 545 yuan in early trading on May 7, about 30 yuan lower than 20 days ago.
The price of a single gram of gold in many brand gold stores also reached the lowest price in nearly a month during the May Day holiday. In addition, holiday brand gold jewellery has launched derogation activities, which may save 30-60 yuan per gram compared with normal purchases.
The reporter learned from the Lukfook jewelry sales office that around the May Day holiday and Mother's Day, the store activity derogation reached 60 yuan per gram, according to the sales words, the decline in gold prices and strong activities, now may be a better time to buy gold in the near future.
However, Lukfook Jewellery's activities are not the most vigorous. On social platforms, bloggers claiming to be Chow Tai Fook cabinet sisters posted big derogation activities, with discounted prices ranging from 100 yuan to 200 yuan per gram, and claimed that they could place orders in mini programs or pick up in stores, truly "knocking down" the price of gold jewellery for big brands.
These bloggers all use "Chow Tai Fook XX" as their account ID, and the posts post pictures of stores, store staff, products, etc., with words such as "150 derogations for opening new stores", "anniversary derogation activities" and "Mother's Day performance", and they are located in different Chow Tai Fook stores.
(Screenshot of social platform)
However, these seemingly real accounts are all "unofficial origins". The reporter asked about the sales of the two stores in Shanghai, and both sales answered that Chow Tai Fook could not have such a big activity. One of the clerks said that during the previous May Day holiday, Chow Tai Fook had a 30 yuan reduction, which was already a brand activity, and it was generally only 20 yuan on weekdays. If you buy more, you may be able to apply for other discounts from the company.
Not only in Shanghai, but also in Chow Tai Fook's official stores nationwide. When the reporter called Chow Tai Fook's national service hotline, the customer service told the reporter that the current official activities are no more than 20 yuan deductible. When asked about the Chow Tai Fook derogation activities on social platforms, the customer service said that these were unofficial activities and reminded consumers to be cautious when buying.
So, are these activities on social platforms real deals or real "Li ghosts?" ”
Old gold replacement franchisee Shuibei fake?
According to an industry insider who claimed to be a former clerk of Chow Tai Fook online, different derogation activities were achieved through different operations.
Generally, the official derogation activities are between 20-30 yuan, which basically occur during specific holidays, shopping mall anniversaries, or when some shopping malls need to be subsidized, this kind of activity will not exceed 40 derogations at most.
The derogation of 40-80 may be achieved by a third party through the activity of Chow Tai Fook old gold exchange. For example, Chow Tai Fook's "Golden Tuesday" event allows customers to exchange old gold for new gold models according to a certain percentage. These third parties hoard gold when the price of gold is low, and since most branded gold stores cannot directly cash out gold, they choose to use these methods to earn the difference. For this method, the Chow Tai Fook brand has also been focusing on strict investigation in the past two years, and the replacement ratio has been changed again and again.
In addition, there are also some price disorders in franchise stores. According to official data, the number of Chow Tai Fook stores has skyrocketed from 5,459 at the end of 2022 to 7,492 at the end of 2023. According to the industry insider, the location of some franchise stores is not so good, and the boss will reduce his gross profit margin in order to achieve the annual sales task, and there may be a phenomenon that is greater than the official activities, but this is also officially prohibited.
And those bloggers who say that they will deduct 150 yuan or 200 yuan are basically to attract traffic or sell imitation goods.
The reporter randomly added the WeChat of a blogger who claimed to be "derogated by 150" to ask Chow Tai Fook about a popular jewelry, and the blogger then replied that this jewelry could only give a discount of 80 derogations. When the reporter asked what kind of jewelry can be deducted by 150, the blogger said that only one wedding gold collar with higher labor costs can. After placing an order, the derogation discount will be paid by transfer instead of official channels.
(Photo by Chow Tai Fook counter reporter Li Chaoran)
The big risk of "big derogation".
In addition to the official preferential activities, there are great risks in the big derogation activities currently circulating on the Internet.
The first is to buy a fake. Some daigou and third parties buy the same model from Shenzhen Shuibei and other markets in the name of Chow Tai Fook cabinet sister, and then package and sell. What's more, low-priced metals such as alloys are used to counterfeit gold, causing consumers to gain heavy losses.
In addition, the products of the big derogation activities on the Internet are also prone to problems such as incorrect craftsmanship and refurbished jewelry. Chow Tai Fook store sales told reporters that a customer had bought a popular bracelet in the "big derogation activity", and found that the process was very rough after getting his hands, so he came to the store for after-sales, and no one answered the phone call of the store before buying.
The reporter asked whether the sales were buying fakes, and the sales said that "it's not fakes, it's different craftsmanship", and no more explanations were given.
At present, experts believe that with the postponement of the Fed's interest rate cut expectations and the easing of geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East, gold may have a tendency to retreat further. When the price of gold falls, it is inevitable that there will be consumers who want to "start" as soon as possible. However, consumers should first and foremost understand the gold market and gold investment, and buy gold and jewellery from formal channels to avoid buying low-quality and counterfeit goods.
Source: Chao News client