Lots of products are sold via Vending Machines but I wouldn’t have thought that Gold Bars would have been one of them. In surely another sign of the times and within the growing trend of mainstream awareness of the value of Precious Metals it looks like these Gold Bar Vending Machines are getting popular – particularly in Korea.
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The Koreans are smart people. They’ve been early on the Crypto technology and seem to be early adopters of a lot of things so it makes sense that these vending machines are getting traction there. A company called GS Retail has reported seeing about 30 million won worth of sales per month out of these vending machines, which are now in 30 stores nationwide.
The vending machines are stocked with gold bars ranging from less than 1 gram to 37.5 grams so they have an affordable price point and appear to be genuinely offering an alternative to cash. If the idea amongst the population catches on then why not swap a couple of grams of gold for goods and services rather than paper money? It’s all about adoption and whether gold could be accepted as payment….
We have a lot of stackers in SGS who love the small denomination Gold Bars (and Silver too). Would you be buying Gold from a vending machine down at your local corner store? Is this idea taking hold in other countries, outside Korea? Has anyone checked out one of these machines first hand?