万花筒 2009-10-22&10-24 去银行买金条

Well, gold may be the investment that everyone is interested in these days, but it still has a certain exclusive aura. So it's not surprising that if I want to go and buy some just walking off the street. I have to go to London's top people's store-- Harrods.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Charles Hodson from CNN.

Chris Hall, Harrods Bank.

So you’re the head of Gold Bullion 1. How does this work? When here are the coins, can I just walk in and with a pile of cash or even with the credit card and say, I like a few of those and walk out with them?

Yes, that's the idea. The idea is that we have a simple service for customers. They are able to come in and purchase gold over the counter. Provided that they meet our ID requirements, they can come in and purchase in the usual way, walk straight out.

Can I, Can I get my hands on some of these gold?

Certainly if you like.

Ok.

Here is a set of gloves there for you.

So how much is that particular?  Is it an ingot or is that just a bar?

That's what we call a bar and that is 12.5 kilograms which is proximately 400 ounces.

That's quite some weight, isn't it?

That is. Just be careful on that. It's quite big for its size.

All right. OK Let’s see if I can lift that. That is heavy, isn't it?

It is indeed.

Really. You are not certain it's about half the size of half a brick, but weighs, I don't know, three or four times, twice of a brick.

Yes, gym membership would be needed.

Yeah. Supposing I decided 2 it was just too heavy for me or alternatively I didn't think the price was gonna go up anymore. Can I sell it back to you?

Yes, that's a service we offer as well. And something we offer to our customers only. So if they would like to sell that gold, they can come back to us. We will make an honorably good-treat offer to them. And the reason we do that is to make sure that they have at least one easy channel through which they can sell.

How does the price compared with what, you know, a professional investor 3 will buy gold at?

Well, for physical gold, it's a very competitive price that you would resell your physical gold at within London. If you were selling a derivative 4 or some other forms of gold investment, it would be very different.

So what sort of investors 5 you’re looking at here? It's kind of the average Joe or who?

We're looking for regular investors. We are looking for people a lot like Harrods customers or Harrods Bank account holders 6 who are interested in gold and they need a place where they can come and buy in a prudent 7 manner. And they know that they're getting the best possible product and from a company that you would respect.

Did this come with advices as such,i mean, you know…?

Unfortunately, we cannot provide advice on this. It was evident that there's a demand for gold amongst retail 8 investors now. And for as long as a demand is there, we will continue to service and we’ve taken a business decision on this. It is breaking some new ground. But historically that’s what Harrods has always done. And our motto is everything for everybody everywhere.

Thank you very much indeed. I'm gonna give you this gloves back.

Thank you very much.

And meanwhile, do your do chocolate gold bars cause i think there is might be a little bit more of my price range for today?

Ground floor, food halls.

Ok. Thanks very much indeed, Chris.

That's a pleasure.

Well, I just worked out that the gold bar was worth nearly half a million dollars, certainly weigh it on. The good thing by the way that the Harrods has a safety box scheme. So you don't just have to slip that into your handbag if you want to put it somewhere safe.

But seriously, I'm not sure I would want to bet nearly half a million dollars of my money on the idea that with the gold price where they are, they're gonna go much further north from here.

Charles Hodson, CNN, London.