So, like, the gold prices went up by almost 40 per cent this year, but people were still all about buying that bling, you know? Chennai housewife RR Priya had a bit of a struggle when she tried to pay for some silver utensils at a fancy jewellery shop in T Nagar. It took her, like, two hours to get it sorted. But hey, that didn’t stop everyone from getting their hands on some gold on the lucky day of Akshaya Tritiya. Varghese Alukkas, the big boss at Jos Alukkas, said that lots of stores opened super early at 6:30 am to catch that good luck time. And Rajesh Rokde, who runs the All India Gem and Jewellery Council, said that a whopping ₹20,000 crore was spent on gold this Akshaya Tritiya.
According to Rokde, the recent wacky price changes, going up to ₹99,500 on April 22 and then dropping to ₹95,000, actually made people more gung-ho about buying gold. S Abdul Nazar, the State General Secretary of the All Kerala Gold and Silver Merchants Association, chimed in and said that even though prices went up, people in Kerala still dropped over ₹1,500 crore on gold. He thinks more folks are realizing that gold isn’t just for looking pretty, but also for making that cash money.
Amarendran Vummidi, the boss at Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers India Pvt Ltd, said that even though prices shot up like crazy, folks still wanted in on that gold action. They probably saw how much the gold they bought last time went up by 40 per cent and thought, “Hey, might as well go for it again.” John Alukkas from Jos Alukkas India Pvt Ltd also agreed, saying that even though people were a bit more chill with their purchases this time around, they still had that deep love for gold as an investment.
Now, when it came to what people were buying, it was all about the lightweight stuff this time. People were snapping up everything from coins to 24-carat bars to diamond and platinum jewels. But the real winner was the lightweight bling. Jewellers were even selling pieces as light as 100 mg. That’s, like, barely there! Zepto said they were selling 2,235 gold coins every hour on Akshaya Tritiya. Talk about a gold rush!
MP Ahammed from Malabar Group saw a 30 per cent boost in sales compared to last year. Rodke mentioned two types of buyers: those dropping between ₹50,000 to ₹5,00,000 and those splurging ₹10-15 lakh. Varghese Alukkas said the crowd was steady in the morning and picked up again in the evening. Not really sure why this matters, but he also mentioned that the festival fell on a workday and end of the month, which usually puts a damper on spending.
By around 8 pm, jewellers were hoping to match last year’s sales. Varghese Alukkas even said that even though they sold less this time, they were still expecting to make a pretty penny from those high gold prices. So, despite the ups and downs, it looks like this Akshaya Tritiya was still a win for the bling business.