Candy Bar Or Gold Bar? Two Companies Offer Solid Gold Via Vending Machines.

Historically, during financial downturns, the price of precious metals rises. Paranoia about the safety of financial institutions and the future of the world economy has people investing in precious metals like gold, platinum and silver, driving prices up. At the moment, gold is actually off the charts having reached its highest prices in history.



Capitalizing on this trend is not one, but two, different companies that manufacture vending machines that dispense solid 24k gold krugerrands and/or coins.



In Las Vegas, Gold Rush kiosks by Korean company Hon, popped up this year and just recently Gold To Go installed their first Gold ATM vending machine in the Arab Emirates Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

While both brands make machines that take cash or credit cards, have touch screen menu navigation and the price of gold is kept updated at global market value via computer, there are differences. Most notably, the fact that the Gold Rush kiosks offer a shipping or gift option. You can enter an address into the touch screen when ordering, customize your card with special celebratory messages and the gold bar card will arrive at your chosen destination within 1 to 2 days of your purchase. They also offer a different number of gold denominations - Gold To Go offers 10 products, Gold Rush offers 6.

Gold To Go Vending Machines


Aesthetically, Gold-To-Go has the edge with an actual gold-plated vending machine. Specially branded coins and bars are available too, like the one shown below for the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi where they installed a "Gold To Go" brand gold vending machine for guests.



According to Gold To Go, "the business philosophy of selling precious metals via gold vending machines, is to give potential customers a sense of being able to acquire precious metals of highest quality (24 carat) at reasonable prices. Additionally the customer receives a money-back-guarantee. The bargain is largely independent of opening hours and without participation of sales personnel in a pleasant and reputable environment."






German company Ex Oriente Lux AG designed the machines.


GOLD RUSH vending machines


The Hon Corp., a Korean jewelry group and manufacturer with branches in New York and Hong Kong, unveiled its first Gold Rush vending machine in June 2009 in Seoul. Hon now has 20 machines in stores throughout Korea. The gold-bar cards are the size of credit cards and they offer 6 sizes, ranging from 0.5 gram to 10 grams.




A customer can get a card right out of the machine or have it sent to a specific address. "We wanted to change the role of gold, not only [as an] investment but as a gift," says David Lee, general manager of Hon. The company next hopes to install its machines in U.S. casinos, supermarkets, and other stores, he says.




Over beers two years ago, Virginia entrepreneurs Tim Oldfield and Price Shapiro devised a plan to make cashing in old jewelry quicker and more convenient than mailing it to a cash-for-gold broker or going to a pawnshop. They opened their first Goldrush kiosk in 2008 in a Virginia Beach (Va.) shopping center. The company now has 300 kiosks in the U.S. and 200 in Australia, with plans to expand to Asia and Europe, says Maurice Levine, Goldrush's global director.

Both companies plan to expand their machine locations into airports, convention centers, casinos, shopping malls and hotels in the near future.

Gold To Go
Gold Rush

The Latest On Holiday Shopping & Spending

Amazon.com, EBay Shares Fall as Online Shopping Slows
By Joseph Galante

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc., EBay Inc. and other retailers fell in U.S. trading as cash-strapped consumers limited their Internet holiday purchases of leather coats and high-definition televisions while waiting for better bargains.

Internet sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 11 increased 19 percent to $20.5 billion, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore Inc. said late yesterday. Online purchases in November and December may advance 20 percent, a record low for the industry, and slower than the 26 percent pace of a year earlier.

U.S. retailers may see the worst sales growth this holiday season since 2002 as shoppers grapple with $3-a-gallon gasoline and consumer prices that rose the most in more than two years in November. Target Corp., Kohl's Corp. and J.C. Penney Co. have responded with discounts of 50 percent or more to lure customers.

``It could be challenging for our ecommerce companies to outperform expectations'' this quarter, Robert Peck, an analyst at Bear Stearns Cos. in New York, said in a note today.

U.S. retailers' shares have dropped during the holiday season, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Retailing Index falling 11 percent since the start of November, compared with a 5.3 percent decline on the S&P 500.



Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, decreased $3.32, or 3.6 percent, to $89.08 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. EBay, the largest global auctioneer, dropped $1.39, or 4.1 percent, to $32.70, and Circuit City Stores Inc. fell 59 cents, or 8 percent, to $6.82.

Internet Sales

Internet sales, which make up more than 3 percent of total retail sales, may be the fastest-growing retail channel this holiday season. Online sales may increase to $29.5 billion in November and December from $24.6 billion a year ago, ComScore predicted.

``In a rapidly growing market like ecommerce, very high growth rates become more difficult to sustain as the market gets bigger,'' ComScore spokesman Andrew Lipsman said in an e- mail. ``It doesn't mean the growth rate this year is necessarily a sign of weakness.''

The slowdown contrasts with government data that showed U.S. retail sales in November rose at twice the rate anticipated by economists.

Retail sales increased 1.2 percent in November, the Commerce Department said in Washington yesterday. That followed a 0.2 percent gain in October, the U.S. agency said.



Shopper Visits

Sales fell 2.7 percent in the seven days through Dec. 8, following a 4.4 percent decline a week earlier, Chicago-based research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp. said this week. About 12 percent fewer shoppers visited stores last week, compared with the same period a year ago, ShopperTrak said.

Consumers are completing their holiday shopping later than usual, and they're trimming purchases to pay more for food and fuel. The National Retail Federation in Washington forecast a 4 percent increase in holiday sales this year.

While the Monday after Thanksgiving is promoted as Cyber Monday because of a pattern of higher online shopping, days closer to Christmas had purchases totaling more.

Last year, Cyber Monday was the 12th-heaviest online shopping day, while Dec. 13 had the biggest sales, according to data from ComScore.



Profit Margins

Stores may further reduce prices, hurting profit margins, to lure customers seeking bargains. Target, the second-largest U.S. discount chain, and J.C. Penney, the nation's third- biggest department-store company, missed analysts' sales estimates for November. CompUSA, the 23-year-old computer retailer, said Dec. 7 it will shut down after the holidays.

Office Depot Inc., the world's second-largest office- supplies chain, forecast ``continued erosion'' of sales and earnings in the current quarter because of declining demand from corporate customers.

Purchases at Office Depot and Staples Inc., its larger rival, have slowed as small businesses and consumers buy fewer copiers and furniture during the worst housing slump since 1991.

U.S. consumer prices increased 0.8 percent in November, up from 0.3 percent the previous month, on higher food and energy costs, the Labor Department said today in Washington.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joseph Galante in New York at jgalante3@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: December 14, 2007 16:16 EST

Trendwatching tips & Insights

the article below is reprinted from trendwatching and is part of a long series

How about: “A statistically significant change in performance of measured data which is unlikely to be due to a random variation in the process.” That won't get the creative juices going. So consider the following definition, which we (trendwatching.com) came up with years ago and which still holds pretty well:

A manifestation of something that has unlocked or newly serviced an existing (and hardly ever changing) consumer need,* desire, want, or value.

At the core of this statement is the assumption that human beings, and thus consumers, don’t change that much. Their deep needs remain the same, yet can be unlocked or newly serviced. The ‘unlockers’ can be anything from changes in societal norms and values, to a breakthrough in technology, to a rise in prosperity.

Example? One of the core human needs is to be in control, or at least to have the illusion of being in control. No wonder then, that the online world is so addictive. After all, it firmly puts the individual in the driver’s seat.

Just give it a try: apply the above definition to your daily spottings and observations of how consumers behave, and how that behaviour is forever changing, and you will find that many seemingly unconnected business success stories will start to make sense. Successful innovations often satisfy existing, dormant needs in new and attractive ways.

* P.S. Need to brush up on your knowledge of human needs? Re-reading Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs never hurts.

It’s hard to find two people who share the same language when it comes to trend watching. Here are a few common misperceptions. Not complete by far, so add your own:

Predicting next year’s colours. Trend watching is about more than spotting the next colour, fabric or hot designer. Sure, black may be back, and miniskirts may re-conquer the catwalks in 2009, but the consumer arena is infinitely more complicated than that. In other words, fashion in all its variety, excitement, and pioneering business models is just another part of the world of consumer trends. In no way does it define consumer trends.

Gazing into a crystal ball. Trend watching isn't about ‘hard-core’ futurism, either. Better leave gazing into a crystal ball, predicting what's going to happen 15 to 20 years from now, to futurists and scenario planning departments. Trend watching is about observing and understanding what’s already happening, the major and the minor, the mainstream and the fringe. In our case in the consumer and business arena.

Declaring the pizza cone an emerging consumer trend. We still get asked a million times about how to distinguish between trends and fads. A pizza cone is a fun product, but it won’t dramatically change the consumer arena. At most, it’s yet another manifestation that consumers want convenience no matter what. The latter is the trend. The product isn’t.

Applying all trends to all people. Don’t fall for this one. One massive mistake both trend spotters and brands make all the time, is to assume or pretend that a certain consumer trend will affect or be embraced by ALL consumers. No. Remember, in life and in trends: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The above HSBC ad illustrates it well. Whatever catches your fancy while spotting and tracking trends, please remember that not everything applies to everyone, and that virtually every trend has its anti-trend.

Furthermore, the new doesn’t always kill the old. E-commerce may be booming, but real world retail is far from dead. Has the latter changed? Sure. But take one look at excited shoppers and TRYSUMERS spending hours in Apple’s flagship store in New York and it becomes clear that both online and offline retail have many years of innovation and opportunity ahead of them. In trends, always try to figure out what the ‘AND’ is, not just the ‘OR’, and your trend (and opportunity) spotting skills will improve immensely.

Those who watch trends have to possess some rare kind of intuition. Not true. This isn't brain surgery, nor is it rocket science. Observing the world around you, with an open mind, is something many professionals have unlearned, but not something they aren’t born with. If you want to spot trends, you can.