Just as Frankfurt Airport is a major hub for air traffic in Europe, Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station) is the center of the European railway network. With over 1,200 arrivals and departures every day, it is one of the busiest railway stations in the world.
Spread over over four levels, Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof is like a mini-city in itself, with one whole level reserved for shopping. In a place like Germany where shopping hours are strictly regulated by the government (see my blog post Commercialization Is The Key To National Prosperity for my gripe about this), Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof is one of the few places (apart from the airport and 24 hour gas stations) where shops can stay open on Sundays as well as until late on Saturdays and weekdays. As a result, during my days in Frankfurt, I’ve had many occasions to visit the grocery stores, bookstores, pharmacies and restaurants situated in FFM Hbf (short name for Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof) – but never its gold store, which opened only a few days ago.
Yes, you heard it right.
Last week, a vending machine selling 1 gram 24 carat gold opened up right on the main shopping zone of FFM Hbf. Insert your EURO currency note or swipe your credit / debit card, and out comes gold in a nice gift box along with a certificate of authenticity. Although its owner, the German online precious metals discounter Gold-Super-Markt.de, calls it a bar, I guess, at 1 gram, it’d be more like a coin. In keeping with the volatility in the bullion market, the vending machine updates the price every ten minutes. I’m sure it’d be a novel shopping experience to buy gold from an automatic vending machine. How I wish I were around in Frankfurt now to try out this world-first!
For those of you who believe that buying gold is very high touch and can’t do it like coffee, soft drink, potato chips, chocolates and a plethora of other things that you can buy from vending machines in Germany, I suggest a visit to one of the Indian banks that aggressively advertise for gold, especially during festival seasons. During a trip to the branch of a leading private sector bank, I inquired about the price of gold that they were selling. I was shocked to receive a quote on a torn and tattered scrap of paper. Bank branches are supposed to be “high touch” channels as against telephone, Internet and ATM. However, this bank exhibited lower touch in selling gold than vendors selling vegetables in a crowded market. Compared to such bank branches, buying gold from a vending machine is not so low touch after all!