During a conference call with Costco, a membership supermarket chain in the United States this week, the company's management told analysts that American consumers are eager to snap up gold bars as a prominent consumption trend during the end of year holiday shopping season.
Costco CFO Richard Galanti revealed that in the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year ending on November 26, Costco sold over $100 million worth of gold bars.
It should be noted that Costco's gold sales are limited to online supermarkets. The best-selling product mentioned above is a 1-ounce "Lady Fortuna" gold bar produced by the Swiss PAMP foundry, with a nominal purity of up to "ten thousand gold" (with a gold content not less than 999.9‰).
(Source: Costco) Galanti had mentioned as early as September this year that this gold bar is really popular, usually sold out within a few hours of being listed. In order to avoid hoarding, Costco has specially stipulated that each member can only purchase 2 gold bars, so the possibility of accumulating larger positions by rushing to purchase Costco's gold bars is also not very high.
Due to Costco's refusal to recycle these gold bars and refusal to allow refunds, as well as the fact that the unit price of these gold bar products is hundreds of dollars higher than the price of spot gold, the recent rush to buy reflects more of the purchasing enthusiasm of American consumers as gold prices continue to rise.
Affected by geopolitical events, Comex gold futures have rapidly risen since October this year and briefly hit a historic high in early December before falling back. In the past two days, they have been boosted by the Federal Reserve's unexpected hints of interest rate cuts next year, and are currently fluctuating around $2050 per ounce.
Similar to gold, Costco also launched the signature card of American baseball god Babe Ruth this year, priced at up to $20000 (already sold out). As an alternative investment product in the United States, star cards are often sold at high prices in auctions.
As Costco continues to expand its membership product portfolio, another thing has also surfaced: membership fees are going up again.
During the conference call, Galanti was also asked about the issue of membership fees, and he made it clear that "this is not a question of whether to increase, but when to raise the price.". Galanti stated that the last membership fee increase was in June 2017, far exceeding the average 5-and-a-half-year price increase cycle in the past. He also emphasized that compared to the rising costs, supermarkets will provide more value to members.