The month of December brings many things. Winter weather, hot chocolate, cold hands, family time, and maybe even lots of gold jewelry.
During the holiday season, it is important to show people that they matter. The best gifts are the ones that touch the recipient the most. They say money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy gold. Give American shoppers money, and they will buy it. This philosophy works with anything, including gold. Give them lots of money, and they will buy lots of jewelry.
The statistics prove it.
A consumer’s income almost always correlates with how much they spend on gold. The more money that they make, the more likely they will buy more gold or jewelry in general.
The graph below shows that 28% of American households with incomes $70,000 or more account for 68% of the gold purchases annually.
Upper-class Americans love gold. The typical household headed by a professional spent $998 on jewelry, nearly double the national household average. White-collar workers tend to have higher incomes.
Generally speaking, Americans who have been college educated spend more money on gold. College-educated consumers tend to spend over half the national average on gold jewelry. High-school-educated spend the least while post-college educated are the highest spenders.
Where is gold bought?
The ten U.S. metros with the highest discretionary income include the following, according to the Conference Board study. These cities also are the top ten metros for diamond jewelry sales, according to information from the Diamond Information Center.
- Washington DC
- San Francisco
- New York
- Los Angeles
- Boston
- Dallas
- Seattle
- Miami
- Chicago
- Orlando
Finally, does it matter if the consumer is male or female? Married or single? Studies show that single women are more likely to buy jewelry for themselves and account for about one-third of all diamond jewelry sales.
