WHOLESALER Costco has stunned customers by stacking its shelves with GOLD.
The bulk-buy specialist known for cheap deals is now flogging the precious metal for up to £24,500 a time.
Shoppers can pick up the bars alongside their weekly groceries when they visit the stores known for their “pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” philosophy.
Gold is normally bought direct from the Royal Mint or from bullion traders, rather than loaded into a supermarket trolley with multipacks of toilet rolls.
Other investors might use funds that track the market price, or buy a share of a bullion bar, which is then kept in storage.
But now it’s in Costo stores experts have warned shoppers could be getting a duff deal as bullion prices have fluctuated wildly this year.
On September 24, Costco’s 100g bar was on sale for £4,939.99, when the market price for that much gold was £4,619.70 – equal to a seven per cent mark-up in store.
DUFF DEAL
It also had a 50g bar of gold that day for £2,442.99 (six per cent higher than market rates) and a 500g bar at £24,549.99 (6.5 per cent).
A 1kg silver bar cost £711.99 at a time when that much of the metal traded at £554.90 – meaning that the mark-up was a hefty 28.3 per cent.
Professor Trevor Williams, an economist at St Mary’s University, London, told The Mail on Sunday: “Gold is an investment product and people should be wary about buying it.
“Some say it holds its value, but that is not true – it can move up and down quite markedly.”
Some market-watchers believe the price of gold will resume its upward climb later this year as governments will need to print more money to prop up their economies.
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at trading firm CMC Markets UK, said: “I think that by the end of 2021 the price of gold could well be more than 30 per cent higher than it is today.”
Watchdogs at the Financial Conduct Authority have previously warned of the danger in investing in unregulated assets such as physical gold, as there is very little protection if something goes wrong.
Costco have been approached for comment.
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