Costco members can now add up to two 1-ounce gold bars to their shopping cart when they check out online.
The store is experiencing a gold rush of sorts with demand for the precious metal, causing the members-only retailer to sell out of the gold bars quickly.
“When we load them on the site, they’re typically gone within a few hours,” Costco CFO Richard Galanti said in the company’s Q4 2023 earnings call.
The gold bars are exclusively available to Costco members and were for sale online at the price of $1,879.99 on October 5.
The wave of interest in gold bars and other precious metals has been on the rise in recent months and years, with the global economic slowdown, inflation, and multiple banking collapses leading investors to find ways to diversify their portfolios, according to Jonathan Rose, CEO of the precious metal broker Genesis Gold Group.
“People are looking for a safe haven … to protect their wealth. And gold kind of ticks all those boxes,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
In terms of safeguarding the gold, Rose recommended storing it in a safety deposit box.
“If someone’s going out to buy gold, that means they think that there’s some type of instability at the structural level of the market and/or the government itself,” said David Wagner III, head of markets and equities at Aptus Capital Advisors, per the AP.
While gold is considered a safe investment and a hedge against inflation, Wagner said, “There are more efficient ways to protect against the loss of capital.”
Wagner pointed to proper derivative-based investments as a safer avenue to hedge against inflation. He also noted gold’s susceptibility to market fluctuations, such as the period from 2008 to 2013, when gold experienced a 34% decline, a 281% price increase, and then a sharp 38% retraction.
Still, in a 2023 report by Aptus Capital Advisors, the firm called gold “the ultimate infinite duration, non-interest bearing real asset” and an asset that “performs well during the unexpected.”
