In an Argentina in recession, the sacrifice of family jewels

(Buenos Aires) In an Argentina in recession, with anemic activity, a business is flourishing: the sale of the grandfather’s watch or the great-grandmother’s wedding ring. A liquidation of family jewels increasingly necessary to make ends meet.

“When debts strangle you, affect is put aside,” assures Mariana, in a pawnshop in the shopping district of Once, who does not want to mention the amount received in exchange for her watch, a gift from her grandfather. -father to his father for his graduation.

Mariana – who does not wish to give her name – confides to AFP that at 63 her retirement as an employee of the judicial administration is no longer enough to cover her expenses, in a context of inflation at 72% since the start of the year and 276% over twelve months.

The money from the watch, she explains, will be used to pay “current expenses and several arrears from mutual health insurance”.

At midday, at an intersection in Once, the contrast is striking: a shoe store is empty, while the waiting rooms of jewelry buyout shops are full. “We buy gold,” say their signs, in large golden letters.

Three times more transactions

At “El Tasador”, one of the best known, around ten customers wait in a vaguely Art Deco lounge.

If the evaluation is conclusive, they will leave “en el acto” (immediately) with the value of their jewelry in cash, promises the store, which in 50 years of activity prides itself on guaranteeing “privacy and security” to its customers, more and more numerous.

Currently, El Tasador carries out around 300 transactions per day, triple last year.

“Very recently, there have been a lot of people, I think because of what the country is going through. People who held pieces that perhaps they had not planned to sell, but who decide to do so, because they can no longer make ends meet,” Natalia, one of the four experts from the store, who does not give her name “for security reasons”.

“We increased capacity and schedules, because people were crowding in and we couldn’t keep up,” she adds.

Fueling this trend are TV shows or videos on YouTube, with evocative names – “El valor de tus sueños” (the value of your dreams) – halfway between reality TV and promotional clips.

But more than anything, it is the melting of purchasing power, strangled by chronic inflation and a brutal devaluation of the peso in December, which has pushed some Argentines in recent months to empty their savings hidden “under the mattress”, according to popular expression. And now, to liquidate their jewelry.

A bitter “golden age”

“The situation is complicated, life in Argentina is super expensive,” moans Daniel, an unemployed 56-year-old accountant, who scours the more modest shops to sell a small silver key ring. He is appalled that he is offered barely more than a metro ticket ($0.88).

The peak of resales, “it’s the end of the month, invoice time,” notes Carlos, manager of a jewelry store, also on condition of anonymity.

“The classic is the wedding ring, but they also bring Victorian jewelry, from the Belle Époque, coming from grandparents or great-great-grandparents, unique pieces,” notes Natalia.

Despite poverty which officially affects 42% of the population, it is not uncommon in Argentina for modest households to own gold jewelry.

“In the 70s, more people had access to gold, anyone could wear a ring, men could wear gold cufflinks or tie clips, girls were given a gold watch for their 15 years,” recalls the evaluator.

For a long time, we no longer wear this jewelry in the street, for security reasons. On the other hand, they sell.

“Gold has always sold,” Natalia muses. What has changed is the “why”. Before it was to finance a project, a renovation, a car, a party… Today, it’s because “I can’t make it through the months”, “the bills have increased” or “I find myself unemployed” “.