Citizens show off their gold ornaments.
Goldsmith Wu is working on gold jewellery for customers.
Zhuzhou Evening News Rong ** reporter Liu Fang Wentu.
Approaching the Spring Festival, ** business is more tight.
According to the data released by the China ** Association recently, the domestic ** consumer demand has increased significantly. In 2023, the national ** consumption will be 108969 tons, a year-on-year increase of 878%, of which the consumption of ** jewelry increased by 7% year-on-year97%, and bar and coin spending increased by 15% year-on-year70%。
It is worth noting that young people are now more closely related to these two growth lines - the former "gold boom" has reappeared on the streets of Zhuzhou, of which the "post-90s" and "post-00s" young people account for the majority.
Recently, the reporter visited a number of gold mining shops in the main urban area to feel the new wave of gold mining consumption in the Year of the Dragon.
More and more young people are choosing to strike gold.
At 3 p.m. on January 31, the reporter came to a gold store in the central square and saw that in the store of more than 20 square meters, many customers were selecting jewelry, and the gold master was processing gold jewelry for customers.
Design, melting, hammering, sawing, welding, polishing, inlaying, ......Holding a welding torch in his left hand and tweezers in his right hand, a small strip of ** gradually formed a circle under the hammer of the gold master, and the brilliance gradually came out.
It's almost the Chinese New Year, and my mother found an old gold bracelet at home and wanted to make a pair of bracelets and give it to my baby, who is about to turn one year old. A young mother in the store told reporters that she was very satisfied when she saw the old things shining again and engraved "safe and healthy".
Xiao Li, a post-00s girl who works in a company in Zhuzhou, plans to give herself a New Year's gift. "I like gold jewelry, and I don't want to spend more money to buy big brands when I just work, so I simply make a ** style of bracelets that were deformed before. ”
In the literary alley full of literary atmosphere, there is also a gold shop that is popular among young people, and Wu Xin, the owner of the post-85 generation, calls himself "Wu Goldsmith".
In the past two years, business has been booming, in addition to the old customers in the neighborhood, more is brought by the traffic of social platforms. "Wu Jinjiang opened an account on Xiaohongshu and other platforms, posting about gold mining and other **, and soon some people came to visit.
Wu Jinjiang told reporters that in the past, it was older people who came to the gold shop, but in recent years, there have been obviously more young people. Since last year, many young couples who are going to get married have held hands to set a "three gold" and "four gold", some bought gold bars from banks, online and gold stores to play, and some saved old rings and bracelets from the elders in the family to re-play.
They all did their homework and had their own ideas. Wu goldsmith said that young people will find the best on the Internet in advance, hoping to strike gold according to their likeness.
In Wu Goldsmith's shop, the most popular goldsmithing process is the ancient method. Wu Goldsmith introduced that compared with big brands, there are some styles that they can't do, but the small store also has some unique styles, because they are all one-to-one designs, which can be said to create unique jewelry.
Save money and looks, young people want them all.
What is the reason behind the "gold rush"?
Appearance is one of the main reasons. The person in charge of a gold store in Zhuzhou told reporters, "With the rise of the national tide, more and more young people are pursuing retro style and planting grass ancient methods."
According to the person in charge, the ancient method is a category of pure gold jewelry according to the processing technology, mainly including the ancient method of casting, handmade fine gold, and handmade gold, including filigree, inlay, engraving, burning blue and other skills.
Judging from the customers contacted by Wu Goldsmith, the ancient ** plain ring bracelet is the most popular style. He explains: "Because of the simplicity of the style and the matte matte surface, customers think that it is good-looking, chic and textured, and this type of jewelry is especially popular with young people." ”
Zhu Jingning, born in the 90s, is one of the supporters of ancient jewelry, and likes plain styles and frosted feelings. A few years ago, I once wore a heart-shaped pendant necklace, "After a long time, I want to change the ** style again." Zhu Jingning plans to re-make the bracelet before the Spring Festival.
In addition to the "long" appearance of the ancient method ** in Zhu Jingning's aesthetic point, affordability is also one of the reasons why she chose to strike gold. She believes that compared with the **brand physical store and the gold shop**, due to the brand premium and other reasons, the **brand** price and processing fee are often higher.
Wu Goldsmith's shop has been open for more than 20 years, and he feels that most of his customers are looking for a good deal. The cost of striking gold is mainly to buy gold bars. On **, buying gold bars directly is more than 100 yuan cheaper per gram than brand gold stores. Or take the old gold jewelry and make a new one, that is, there is zero cost, and then pay some gold processing fees and losses.
In terms of processing fees, it is indeed a lot more cost-effective to strike gold. Generally speaking, the processing fee of brand gold stores generally reaches 50 yuan according to the style and process, while the gold shop is basically about 20 yuan grams.
Most young people play with gold bars, which can save the high labor costs of big brands, and even save a necklace. "But we're slow, and it usually takes two hours to process a piece of jewelry. Wu goldsmith said that their processing fee is basically about 20 yuan per gram, depending on the complexity of the style.
Suggestion: The gold mining process should not be sloppy.
How hot is gold strike?
The reporter searched on Xiaohongshu, and the number of notes related to "gold strike" reached 130,000. In addition to the high-frequency words of the gold-striking production process and style, "ancient method" is the only high-frequency word related to processing technology on the top 10 list. People not only like to wear the ancient bracelet every day, but also like to use it as the preferred style of "three gold marriages".
On Douyin, an amateur blogger usually has an average of about 50 likes, but with a gold bracelet with a gold bar, he got 6150,000 likes, 2780,000 shares and 680,000 collections.
Many people said "it's really fragrant" in the comment area, shared it with their other half or good friends, and said, "There is still this kind of operation, let's do the same in the future".
There are more and more people who want to join the money-saving army of "buying gold and hitting gold". But there are not a few people who suggest lightning and gold. Because of the different processing levels of different masters, some unscrupulous merchants may also be doped with silver, iron, and copper in the process of exchanging and processing gold bars, "deductible"** Zhu Jingning reminded.
Some experienced netizens also summarized the gold shop gold process, starting from confirming the style and charging method, every step should not be sloppy. In the four steps of weighing, melting, confirming the finished product and settlement, consumers need to repeatedly confirm the number of grams and the purity, and finally ask the store to issue a test report on the content.
Some netizens also summarized three ways to achieve "zero-loss processing". First, the estimated wear gram weight is added to the first raw material in advance to ensure the original gram weight of the finished product. The second is not to add gold in advance, but to melt the worn gold material into gold beans for customers to take away. Third, do not add gold in advance, and deduct the processing costs of the worn gold according to the international gold price of the day.
Related] On 31 January, the latest China** Market Review and Trend Analysis Report for the full year and fourth quarter of 2023 released by the World ** Association showed that global jewellery demand in 2023 was basically flat year-on-year. In 2023, total domestic jewellery demand reached 630t, up 10% y-o-y, making China the most important growth driver.
The report released by the China ** Association a few days ago also shows that in 2023, the ** industry will maintain a high degree of prosperity, and the ** consumption will grow significantly. Driven by a series of policies to boost consumption, the national consumer market will continue to recover in 2023, and gold, silver and jewellery will become the fastest-growing category among all commodity retail categories in 2023. **Jewelry processing and retail enterprises continue to innovate in the design of gold jewelry products, and small gram weight, **style jewelry is favored by consumers, promoting the promotion of jewelry consumption.
Editor: Qingqi.
Second trial: Dai Ping, Tang Jianhua.
Third trial: Ye Xinfu.