December 7th and 23rd
Walmart, the world’s largest retail group, describes many of its diamond jewelry items as “cultured” rather than lab-grown.
This is an interesting choice of words, considering that the Diamond Terminology Guidelines, developed jointly by eight industry organizations, clearly state: “Do not use the following term: ‘cultured diamond.’“Cultured diamonds” and “cultured” refer only to products of organic/biological origin.
But the fact is, regardless of word choice, multinational retail companies make more money than Amazon or Apple.ExxonMobil already makes a lot of money from its lab-grown plants, and it plans to make even more money.
Jewelry is a sideline for Walmart, accounting for just 0.6% of its total revenue.
However, according to National Jeweler’s “The State of the Majors,” the company still sold $3.38 billion in watches and jewelry last year, and in North America, Signet ($7.29 billion) sold $3.38 billion in watches and jewelry last year. ) is the second largest in terms of sales.
Walmart stacks its diamonds high, farmed and otherwise, and sells them cheap. The supply of lab-grown plants is endless, prices are plummeting, profit margins are big, and customers are happy to get more flush for their cash.
Last year, Walmart’s lab-grown sales increased 600 percent, said Michelle Gill, Walmart’s vice president of jewelry and accessories.
And the company plans to build on this with a new range of in-store items and an expanded online range.
“This is a great way to introduce a much higher quality diamond at a much lower retail price compared to mined diamonds,” Gill told WWD last week.
“We are seeing a decline in diamond mining across the industry, responding to both industry trends and trends we see within our customer base.
“This is very exciting for our customers who previously had to give up quality, clarity and carat size to get genuine mined diamonds. Now we can offer genuine mined diamonds ranging from 1 carat to 1.5 carats. Grown Diamonds are now available.”
She highlighted her 1.5 carat Solitaire Lab Grown Diamond Ring set in 10 carat gold, which sells for just $698 at Walmart stores.
The equivalent of a natural diamond would sell for about $5,800, she said, but did not provide details on the 4Cs.
This is lab-grown at one-eighth of the mining price, significantly more than the recently highlighted 3-ct G/VS1 lab-grown example at Walmart selling for $2,975 is. This compares to his $8,190 for a natural diamond with the same specs at Blue Nile.
Lab-grown stuff may retail for a fraction of the price of mined stuff, but the profit margins are even higher.
Walmart knows its customers and they know they like a good deal. You can also tell which side of your bread is buttered.
Have a great weekend!