In the Emirates Palace, a top class hotel in Abu Dhabi, traditional vending machines face a new competitor, one that dispenses not bars of chocolate, but bars of gold.
Dubbed ‘Gold-to-Go’ the machine gives out either gold coins or bars of gold in either 10, five or one gram weights, along with an ounce bar for the true gold enthusiast. The Abu Dhabi machine follows on from the two found in Germany, where the Gold-to-Go company is based.
The aim of the machine is to reduce the mystery of gold and attract more people into investing into the metal. The CEO of Ex Oriente Lux AG, the company that owns Gold-to-Go, Thomas Geissler said “We are going to make gold public with these machines. The prices are so easy to control that we're going to de-mystify gold and make it easier for anyone to buy it”.
The price of the gold is updated every ten minutes, so that the machine can have an accurate figure of gold’s real-time value. Similarly to a confectionery machine there are a number of different gold-based products on offer, people can choose from the usual gold bars to more exotic items, such as South African Krugerrands, Canadian maple leaf coins and in Abu Dhabi a medallion that comes engraved with the Emirates Palace logo.
With demand for the machines high, currently 50 machines are being built per month, Gold-to-Go has plans to expand with machines soon expected in Italy, Russia, Malaysia and Turkey.