TESCO SUPERMARKETS ARE going for gold with a new cash-for-gold service in selected stores.

The groceries giant has teamed up with a British pawnbroker company, Ramsdens. It allows customers to either post their unwanted gold to Tesco in special insured delivery envelopes, or bring it in to participating stores, says The Grocer magazine.

Tesco Ireland says the scheme is only operational on a pilot basis in a number of UK stores and that there are no plans as yet to bring it here.

Richard Walsh of Goldparty.ie says that there has been a huge increase in Irish companies getting involved in the cash-for-gold trade in the last year. He told TheJournal.ie that while the level of consumer business remained at the same level, there had been a huge hike in the number of shops setting up in that trade.

When we started in June 2009, there were just ourselves and one other company operating in this business in the Galway area; now there are eight options for people to take their gold to in the city alone. This also goes for a lot of towns throughout the countryside.

Walsh says that if Tesco did decide to launch their Gold Exchange scheme in Ireland, they might be looking at a very small market. However, they might have brand recognition on their side. Trust, says Walsh, is an important factor in who Irish consumers go to with their ‘scrap’ gold:

We find that our best salespeople are the ones who might already have a business in a town, say a gift shop, where people can bring their gold. They are trusted and known in the locality and that is what seems to reassure customers that they are being treated fairly.