The Market Is Shifting Under Your Feet. Here’s What to Do About It.

YOU DON’T NEED ME to explain what $5,000 gold does to your showcases — you’re living it right now. But what does the future hold?

Gold briefly touched $5,311 an ounce recently, up 75 percent from this time a year ago. (Ed update: Obviously, this number has dropped dramatically since we wrote this in early March.) Someone is eating that cost, whether it’s you, your suppliers or your customers. That said, many of you are back to buying aggressively over the counter, which is where smart money is currently meeting opportunity.

On tariffs, the ground keeps shifting. You’ve all read about the Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Trump administration’s IEEPA-based tariffs — but don’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet. The ruling leaves Section 301 tariffs untouched, refunds remain unresolved, and the administration is expected to move quickly to re-impose similar measures through other legal authorities. Meanwhile, the administration is using Section 122 to raise tariffs to 10 percent across the board (rising soon to 15%).

The consumer picture is complicated as well. Last holiday season told a “price up, units down” story: gross sales up 5 percent and average retail sale up 12 percent, according to the Edge Retail Academy. Record dollars, yes — but driven by rising prices, not customer traffic. And given the tariff and gold pressures mentioned above, the whole thing may have been a wash.

The good news: None of this is insurmountable. It just requires creative strategy, tighter inventory management, and the kind of client service that national chains can’t replicate.